Mitch Port - From One Community to Another

Greetings! My name is Mitch Port, a first-year AmeriCorps VISTA member serving with Washtenaw Literacy in Ypsilanti, MI. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin- Madison with a degree in Psychology and started working as a recruiter soon after graduation. I was looking to make an impact in the community around me. While I enjoyed recruiting, I had a desire to gain a better understanding of nonprofits and wanted to be closer to my family, which is what led me to start as a VISTA with Washtenaw Literacy. 

Moving to Michigan at the same time that I started my service year has given me a unique perspective of my new community. As I began to learn more about illiteracy through my work, I could only imagine how someone with low-literacy skills would navigate a situation similar to mine. Moving is stressful for everyone, but I imagine that everything from navigating a new city to changing your address to finding employment would be more difficult and more stressful for individuals with low-literacy skills. After completing the moving-related tasks, it further instilled the importance of the work that Washtenaw Literacy is doing. 

Even though I have been serving with Washtenaw Literacy in a virtual capacity, that has not stopped me from hitting the ground running. Thus far, I have been working on producing a podcast releasing in the coming weeks, which will focus on barriers to learning. For the first season of the podcast, I've been providing feedback on episodes, writing content for breaks in the episodes, and preparing to upload the season onto a hosting platform. For season two of the podcast, I look forward to taking a more hands-on role by conducting interviews and editing episodes myself. Additionally, I've been planning and executing social media content to increase Washtenaw Literacy’s reach. In December, we completed our Twelve Days of Virtual Learning posts. These highlighted our virtual literacy programming and challenges that adult literacy learners have faced in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

When Washtenaw Literacy went virtual in March of 2020, they began implementing Slack, a digital workspace platform, for tutors to use as a resource and interact with staff and fellow tutors. I took over leading the evaluation of the Tutor Slack after the start of my VISTA service. This has involved running focus groups and distributing surveys; feedback that we collect will help us make changes to the Slack workspace so it is a better tool in the future.  

While I am no longer a recruiter, it is nice having some responsibilities that relate to volunteer recruitment. In addition to social media, I am also the point of contact for volunteers after completing volunteer orientation and registering existing tutors for Virtual Tutor Training. 

I am so grateful for the learning and growth experiences that I have had over the last few months and look forward to what the next few have to offer.