Volunteers in Service to America, or VISTA, is a nation-wide volunteer program focused on improving living conditions for people living in poverty. Texas Lutheran University and the Center for Servant Leadership proudly hosted our own VISTA program, the Partnership for a Better Seguin, from 2009-2012. Five VISTA positions built bridges between TLU and Seguin’s low-income communities, creating a stronger sense of partnership between the university and the city.

VISTA members served for one year with local organizations or government agencies. In return, they received a modest living stipend (approximately $9,000/year), health benefits, childcare assistance, and an award for future or past education expenses valued at over $5,000.

Updates on the Partnership for a Better Seguin
March 2012
October 2011
January 2011
September 2010

If you are interested in VISTA and would like to know more, visit the official site for a more in-depth description. 

Blumberg Park is a gem in the community: a beautiful public space in a prime location. With three covered pavilions, three benches, a basketball court, a community garden, a Playscape and a swing set, the park truly caters to all ages. Having a well-equipped park tucked in the middle of the neighborhood only increases its value as an asset to the entire community: it is a public space offering accoutrements for gatherings and barbecues. Overall, it’s a place to relax with the entire family.

The goals of the VISTA Blumberg Park Project were to increase the use of the park by children, families, community members, and community organizations; build and strengthen intra-community relationships; and to create a space where families felt a sense of ownership. To carry this out, the VISTA Partnership for a Better Seguin worked with residents who live near the park and nonprofit organizations in Seguin to foster greater ownership and involvement in day-to-day activities at the park.

Work at Blumberg Park continues. If you would like to get involved, please contact us at volunteer@tlu.edu or call 830.372.8160.

While writing a grant proposal you may need to write a statement of need. Need refers to whether or not the community has a problem or lack of resources in a specific area. To illustrate need, applicants must sometimes research and document the problem in the geographic area that your program targets. Make your case with recent data.

Based on a group by the same name created by Gustavus Adolphus College and the city of St. Peters, Minnesota, the Partnership Council is an integrated body of diverse TLU and Seguin community members who are recruited on the basis of the "uniqueness" that each member's own community connections bring to the council as a whole. In Malcolm Gladwell's typology from The Tipping Point, each member of the Partnership council is a connector, someone who "link[s] us up with the world… people with a special gift for bringing the world together." Concerned with maximizing and enhancing the quality and potential behind local collaborations, council members deliberate in a spirit of reciprocal consultation to help creative and motivated people find each other in the community!