Alum Spotlight: Monica Palmeira

Monica signing her VISTA oath at PSO!

Monica Palmeira was the first VISTA at the Marian Cheek Jackson Center in Chapel Hill, 2012-2013. During her year of service, she helped the young non-profit improve its organizational systems and strengthen a partnership with Heavenly Groceries, a food ministry serving the Northside community. Through her work there, Monica learned she is “passionate about housing and neighborhoods.” When her term ended in 2013, Monica headed west to Sacramento, California. An internship with Housing California led Monica to her current position at the California Coalition for Rural Housing, one of the oldest affordable housing coalitions in the country. We spoke with Monica recently to learn more about her work and the lessons she took from her VISTA experience.

Before we talk about what you’re doing now, I wanted to ask if you have been back to the Jackson Center lately. Have you?

Monica (first row, far right) with the 
Heavenly Groceries team.

Actually, I visited last fall for a friend’s wedding. And I went by Heavenly Groceries to say hey to Ms. Gladys and they had just gotten new t-shirts so that was really cool. Pretty much every time I go back I’m given some kind of responsibility at the food ministry - I’m required to go pick up food or do something. Whenever I see Ms. Gladys she immediately puts me to work… it’s the best way to be welcomed.

That’s great. So tell us about the work you are doing now.

I am currently working as a Policy and Programs Specialist at the California Coalition for Rural Housing. Our job is to advocate on behalf of our members, which are primarily non-profit affordable housing developers. We try to get policies on the local and state level to incentivize and facilitate the building of affordable housing throughout rural California. So it’s a really cool perspective on this issue, but it’s really a departure from the neighborhood-based work I was doing at the Jackson Center, so the two experiences really complement each other. I’m getting a ton of experience and exposure to issues, but I’m finding myself missing a lot of aspects of my work at the Jackson Center-- like having a strong connection to one place.

What’s your role at the coalition?

At a small non-profit like ours [6 staff], it’s so hard to define roles, but I basically work across all our programs. I host a lot of convening and coalition-building events and conversations, particularly for the policy aspect of things. I plan our annual conference for example. This job has also allowed me to travel throughout a lot of California, particularly in the San Joaquin Valley.

One of the big things I’ve been really involved with: in California we have a pioneering Cap and Trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The money that comes out of the options proceeds is going into this greenhouse gas reduction fund, which can fund other things, including affordable housing. So it’s a really new way of thinking about housing in terms of how can housing be a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: where do you locate housing so that people drive less? How do you co-locate housing and transit so that people are less dependent on cars? What are the impediments to walking and biking? I get to convene people to strategize how we can do this and design programs especially that address these issues in rural areas. 

How did you wind up working with that organization? 

When I moved out here I knew I wanted to work in housing and -- similar to the way the VISTA program can work, I got an internship experience that let me get my foot in the door. And through that I met the people I work with now.

It’s funny ‘cause my VISTA experience has been a cool thing to talk about. My boss actually moved out to California from Connecticut as an AmeriCorps person, and several of the executive directors of organizations or housing developers we work with-- a lot of them came to California through the VISTA program. So it’s been a fun connection to say we’re all VISTAs and we have a kind of VISTA pride. 

So it’s a program that’s been around for a long time and I think that it has a legacy of plugging a lot of people into nonprofit work.

Yes, VISTA is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

Oh yes, and some of the people I was referring to may have been part of some of those first classes! There are VISTAs from a long time ago, and they’re still here and working for some of the organizations they served with.

Wow! Well, what do you like about living in California and what do you miss about North Carolina?

Monica and fellow Chapel Hill VISTA
Sarah-Abdul Rauf at a 2013 Habitat build.

Oh my gosh, I think about this all the time. What I love about California is that it’s incredibly diverse. People are from everywhere, and there are lots of Spanish-speakers, which for me is a really cool thing. My family is Portuguese and growing up [in Kinston, NC], I didn’t know any other kids whose parents were immigrants. But here that’s very normal and in some ways it’s very comfortable to be here.

I get to travel a good bit, mostly south of Sacramento in between the mountain ranges in what’s called the San Joaquin Valley. That region reminds me more of home, especially eastern North Carolina where I grew up. When I go to San Francisco I feel like I’m in a completely different world, but in the San Joaquin Valley I feel like I can navigate the world a little easier. 

I definitely miss the simplicity of life in North Carolina. I miss the warmth of people and how people congregate in like Church traditions. Here there are so many different traditions and a mix of people, which is great, but you miss the sense of unity in some way. North Carolina is very much on the table to move back to, but I love both places as they each have unique opportunities and experiences to offer.

What advice do you have for current VISTAs contemplating their next steps?

Yeah - VISTA is tough because it’s only 1 year, and that deadline can be very daunting. But try to see that deadline as a launching pad or trampoline - try to make the most of that year and think of it as a springboard more than impending doom.

I definitely had a lot of anxiety when I moved out here not knowing anyone. So I just started going to panel discussions and volunteering for non-profits and learning to network which helped me when I interviewed for an internship. So just put yourself out there as much as possible and use this year as an opportunity to push yourself out. 

What’s next for you?

I am looking to doing graduate school in a year or two and getting a master's in city and regional planning. I have a few schools that I am looking at out here but UNC is also a top choice--- and I could even work in Northside again!

Especially having a different perspective now, it would be interesting to go back to school. This job certainly helped but my VISTA experience most certainly helped with that. Studies are enhanced by real life experiences and nothing beats that experience, by doing the work you are able to see where the gaps are and where you want to focus your energy on. I give VISTA credit for helping me realize what I enjoy and what I am passionate about that I can focus on and make the most of any educational opportunities in the future.

This spotlight is part of the latest issue of the VISTA Alumni Network Newsletter

Hump Month Blog #1: Little did I know this house would become my home

January is Hump Month for our 2014-15 VISTAs - they are half-way through the 12-month service commitment! Every Wednesday this month, NC Campus Compact will be publishing a reflective piece written by a VISTA. In these posts, our members look back on their first 6 month and ahead to the rest of the year.

Please note: Any opinions expressed on the VISTA VIEW blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views, opinions, or policies of North Carolina Campus Compact, the AmeriCorps VISTA program or the Corporation for National and Community Service.

By George Barrett

AmeriCorps VISTA at the Marian Cheek Jackson Center, Chapel Hill

My name is George Barrett and I am a North Carolina Campus Compact VISTA at the Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History in Chapel Hill, NC. I am originally from Charlotte, and I attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I graduated in May 2014 with a degree in Anthropology and Minor in Music. I was drawn to the Campus Compact through my volunteer work at the Jackson Center my last semester of undergrad. I have grown to not only love this beloved community but truly feel a part of it. I hope to leap and grow even further in my remaining months at the Jackson Center. 

The following is a staff reflection piece George wrote for the Jackson Center website: 

George showing off one of his projects during a
NC Campus Compact site visit

From the moment I walked into the Jackson Center on a January afternoon, I knew this place was important and would somehow be a new and important member of my life. As a UNC senior, I was part of Anthropology 93 course, a social justice course that requires students to take part in a 30 hour service learning project. I needed a location and had come up empty up to that point. Then my professor dropped the name “The Jackson Center.” After visiting the website I decided to make a bold move. Without prior notice, I dropped into the charming brick house at 512 W. Rosemary St. Little did I know (or maybe I did) that this house would become my new home.

After volunteering under the direction of [NC Campus Compact AmeriCorps VISTA] Jacob Lerner for the entire semester, I applied and was lovingly offered the position of Coordinator of Advocacy and Organizing. Without a moment of hesitation I accepted the position, because sometimes there is an intangible and almost spiritual knowledge that tells the rational mind “this is right!” I joined the team in July and got rolling.

People often ask “What does the Jackson Center do?”, and are quickly reciprocated with a five minute soliloquy of the plethora of programs that intertwine to serve the Northside neighborhood. But if I have learned anything in my few months, it is that COMMUNITY is a dynamic and complex web that cannot not be packaged in a neat and calculated elevator speech. In this time I have been awarded the opportunity to coordinate the production of our Northside News, mobilize volunteers, facilitate advocacy groups around Housing Choice Vouchers and anti-bias policing, participate in neighborhood home repairs, outreach to 45 new student residents, and get to meet some of the most empowered individuals. Every day is different. Every day is active. Every day is community.

George at the Jackson Center

The Jackson Center is a unique space that has challenged me in the best way possible. It forces me to be better and forces me to listen! As our executive director Della Pollock always says, “Listen, listen again, and then listen again”. The members of this community have given me an education that is unparalleled in my four years at UNC. My involvement in the Northside community, from volunteer to staff member, have felt like a homecoming weekend that never gets to Monday.  I have been able to laugh, cry, and feel some type of way in this brief period of time… and I could not be happier.

 The Marian Cheek Jackson Center does not serve a community; it is a community. When things are still (which is very rare) and my mind takes a moment to stop fixating on task oriented concerns, I can exist in a clarity of pure fulfillment. Because we are making history!

For two VISTA sites in Chapel Hill, building capacity is about building relationships

Last week, NC Campus Compact visited two of our "community-based" VISTA host sites in Chapel Hill, NC: the Marion Cheek Jackson Center and the Community Empowerment Fund. Both sites are intimately connected with the university, but both engage students in new and exciting ways as they tackle tough community issues.

VISTAs Jacob and Sarah work at community agencies in Chapel Hill.

The Jackson Center grew out of oral history projects started in 2005 by UNC Communications Professor Della Pollack in the historically African-American Northside neighborhood. Today, the Center is an independent 501c3 "public history and community development center" that works to preserve affordable housing and family-owned housing in the neighborhood, empower residents and youth, and build community among traditional residents and resident students.

Working closely with the historic St. Joseph C.M.E. church next door, Jackson Center staff and volunteers support a variety of projects and partnerships that improve the quality of life in the neighborhood, including the Heavenly Groceries food pantry, which serves residents in need 5 days a week, and A Brush with Kindness, a partnership with Habitat for Humanity that provides exterior improvements to local homes. The Center also distributes a monthly neighborhood newsletter, organizes community events, and continues to collect and share local history through projects like Fusion Youth Radio.

Jacob in the festive office of the Jackson Center

Jackson Center VISTA Jacob Lerner is working to develop administrative systems, including a contact management database, that support all this work. He works with other Jackson Center staff to streamline the oversight of 9 UNC Bonner interns, and he continues to support the operations of the food pantry. But he is also laying the groundwork for new programs, including a partnership with the university's Good Neighbor Initiative (a project of the Office of Greek Life) which supports students living off-campus. The Jackson Center will help develop an orientation for off campus students to the neighborhood's history, help train a team of "off-campus RAs," and create opportunities for students and long-time residents to meet and convene. He is also helping to develop an "early alert" system which helps the Center stay informed of local and individual issues that impact housing. At the heart of Jacob's work is his efforts to develop relationships with and between neighbors and students. This has been the part of his VISTA work he likes best so far: facilitating introductions between students and community residents and seeing community and university volunteers work together to address hunger and improve housing. Read Jacob's recent update on his work in the Northside News here.

Just down Franklin Street at the center of downtown, the Community Empowerment Fund (CEF) provides savings opportunities, small loans, workforce development, and relational support to unemployed and underemployed individuals. CEF began on campus as a project of UNC's Campus Y. Today, the student-run organization is a 501c3 non-profit that recruits, trains, and coordinates about 150 undergrad and graduate student volunteer "advocates" who work every week as "case managers" for the organization's 400 or so member clients.

VISTA Sarah and Supervisor Maggie West.

Sarah Cohn worked with the organization as a volunteer when she was a student at UNC; now that she is a VISTA, she is working to improve the structure and coordination of volunteers, as well as the volunteer intake process. Sarah has helped refine the team structure and develop more robust orientation and continuing education for advocates and team leaders. The volunteers meet weekly for training, reflection, and collaborative problem-solving, sharing information that can help address specific issues their member clients are facing. In the months ahead, Sarah will also help CEF analyze its member intake process and the system for matching members and volunteers. Like Jacob at the Jackson Center, the systems, processes, and trainings Sarah develops are all in the service of creating strong and beneficial relationships between members and advocates. Read Sarah's profile on the CEF blog!

One of the benefits of pairing student volunteers with members is that they learn to navigate complex social service networks and financial issues together. Though the students have some training, they are learning alongside members about how to access services, seek job-training, and develop financial stability. In this sense, advocates and members are very much partners, rather than "provider" and "client."

CEF co-founder and director Maggie West told us she wishes social service organizations in the area had the money and staff to meet the need with professional case management, but local agencies are in fact cutting back rather than expanding. In such an environment, the student advocates can make a difference for people who otherwise wouldn't get the kind of individualized attention and regular check-ins CEF provides.

Building capacity to build relationships that strengthen communities. That's VISTA impact!

VISTAs organize, serve on MLK Day

Over the MLK Day weekend, many NC Campus Compact VISTAs will coordinate service events for their campus and community host sites. Others will serve on projects with fellow AmeriCorps members.

At Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, VISTA Takira Dale is supporting the MLK Read-In Day on January 19th to promote literacy and service to young children. Participating children will receive a book on the theme of civil-rights, and volunteer reading buddies will read and complete community service activities with the kids. Takira is working in partnership with other national service members from HandsOn Northwest NC and student volunteers from WFU and partner campuses Winston-Salem State University and Salem College. Read about the event in the Winston Salem Chronicle.

At Lenoir-Rhyne University VISTA Ariel Mitchell expects over 50 volunteers to serve in honor of MLK Day at 5 community sites, including two local soup kitchens and her community partner, Centro Latino.


In Durham, VISTA Jeri Beckens is managing a canned food drive to help local food banks, part of Duke University's larger MLK Day of Service event. Led by former Campus Compact VISTA (and current Duke Durham Neighborhood Partnership staff member) Neil Hoefs, Duke's MLK Million Meals Event sets a goal to engage 1,000 volunteers to package thousands of meals through Stop Hunger Now.

In Wilmington, Feast Down East VISTA member Erin O'Donnell will team up with a local Food Corps volunteer to organize community and campus volunteers to build the LINC garden. LINC is a local non-profit that helps ex-offenders and at-risk youth become productive community members.

At Elizabeth City State University VISTAs Tiara Pugh and Marion Hudson are using an NC Campus Compact MLK Day grant to organize a event with two other local campuses, Mid-Atlantic University and College of the Albermarle to carry out an MLK Day of Service at various community sites.

In Chapel Hill, two Campus Compact VISTA's, the Jackson Center's Monica Palmiera and UNC Chapel Hill's Saarah Abdul-Rauf, are working with the Blue Ribbon Mentor Advocate Program to host a discussion dinner in honor of MLK Day so participants can talk about how to improve education for children.

A number of other Campus Compact VISTA members will coordinate service events in their communities this weekend, including Queens VISTA Christina D'Aulerio, UNC Greensboro VISTA Anya Piotrowski, Durham Tech VISTA Sally Parlier, Wake Tech VISTA Jennifer Evans, Virginia Tech VISTA Wyatt Taylor, UNC Asheville VISTA Sara Brown, and ECU VISTA Elizabeth Corney.

VISTA Profile: Monica Palmeira

Monica Palmeira, from Kinston, North Carolina, is a first-time VISTA serving at the Marian Cheek Jackson Center, a public history and community development center in Chapel Hill. This year, NC Campus Compact is placing VISTAs at community host sites as well as college campuses to better develop sustainable connections with community partners fighting poverty.

Monica (center) during a visit to Parrish Farms

SP: What previous volunteer or work experience led you to becoming a VISTA?
MP: I have actually been involved with the Jackson Center and this work since 2009. I have volunteered with the food program the Center supports, Heavenly Groceries, throughout college and served as a Food Justice Fellow this past year since graduating from UNC. Beyond that, I've spent some time in Honduras working with an organization tackling issues around food sovereignty and worked with the APPLES program at UNC.
What really attracted me to apply for VISTA was the commitment to supporting people working on issues of poverty beyond the capacity of a volunteer. If we're really going to work on these problems, we need to have people dedicating their full time and energy to the fight. I love the idea of being part of a group of people with a similar vision and I'm excited to learn from all VISTA has to offer.

SP: What is the primary focus of your project? What community partner(s) or populations will your project serve?
MP: I will be working as Community Services Manager at the Marian Cheek Jackson Center. The Center works in traditionally African-American neighborhoods in Chapel Hill with preservation and community development. They are a public history center, conducting oral history interviews with residents of these communities and then modeling community development initiatives from the examples of leadership and service those interviews convey. They aim to listen with responsibility, recording the stories of everyday history makers and responding accordingly to help preserve the future of these diverse communities.
I will be working primarily with the Food and Housing Justice initiatives of the Jackson Center, helping with the capacity and sustainability of a key food pantry in the Northside neighborhood as well as with different housing strategies aiming to ensure these neighborhoods and Chapel Hill as a whole are affordable for diverse families. 

SP: What are you most looking forward to during your term of service?
MP: Though I've been involved with this work here in Chapel Hill for a while, this year I will be dedicating my full attention to the Jackson Center and be stepping into some major new territory with housing policy, town politics, and university-community relations. I'm looking forward to being a part of an organization that has so much respect from community residents as well as key town and university players. Probably most importantly, I'm so excited to be working with such talented and inspiring people that believe wholeheartedly in the importance of dreams and community.