VISTA Program Evaluation

The Corporation for National and Community Service, Office of Inspector General (CNCS-OIG) conducted an evaluation of the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) program to assess its effectiveness. CNCS-OIG’s evaluation focused on member activity, project sustainability, and member attrition.CNCS-OIG found:•Documentation maintained during the execution of a project does not contain sufficient details to validate member activities are consistent with program purposes or are the same as the planned activities. •Project activities did not build capacity or enable projects to be fully sustained following VISTA support in 12 out of 27 organizations reviewed; •The VISTA program had an attrition rate of 16.8 percent in the time period evaluated (FY 2014 – 2015), with the primary causes of turnover identified as other employment/financial hardship (80 percent), dissatisfaction with the program (15 percent), and medical issues (5 percent).Based upon these findings, CNCS-OIG made 11 recommendations to help CNCS VISTA:•Enhance the existing monitoring program to provide greater insight into member activity and program effectiveness;•Develop a standard for capturing the capacity building and measuring sustainability during and after the VISTA project is completed;•Strengthen the VISTA member experience to improve member retention; and•Develop and implement a strategy for improving member retention.CNCS has taken some corrective actions since we issued the draft report. CNCS-OIG will review CNCS’s status of audit resolutions after CNCS issues its final management decision on the findings and recommendations.