The statutory purpose of AmeriCorps VISTA is to strengthen and support efforts to eliminate and alleviate poverty and poverty-related problems in the United States.

Organizations supported with VISTA resources address poverty in many ways: some with projects that work with social determinants of health and wellbeing (such as helping improve education or access to health care), some with an approach targeted directly at increasing a household's income and assets (housing, financial savings, and asset development), and some that address larger regional systemic barriers to community development.

All VISTA service activities must be designed to support one or more specific anti-poverty projects at a site, and applications must clearly define the initiatives being created or enhanced by the organization. The anti-poverty initiative described in the application narrative must carry through to the performance measures and to the VISTA Assignment Descriptions created by approved sponsors as part of the recruitment process.

Prospective and current AmeriCorps VISTA project sponsors must engage people of the communities affected by the project in planning, developing, implementing, and evaluating the project. Each project must be responsive and relevant to the lives of community residents, and must tap into the inherent assets, strengths, and resources within the community.

AmeriCorps VISTA members serve as short-term resources to build the long-term sustainability of anti-poverty efforts. VISTA projects make a lasting difference through the commitment, energy, and initiative that members bring to the community.

The sponsoring agency supervises the project, supports the VISTA members, and assesses progress toward the project's goals, with participation from the project's beneficiaries in all phases of development and implementation, and the continued involvement of community members who provide needed resources such as volunteers, materials, funding, and expertise.

Projects must be developed with a goal of phasing out their need for VISTAs and continuing without VISTA resources.

VISTAs create systems that remain long after their term of service ends. VISTA projects expand the scale, impact, and resource-leveraging ability of specific anti-poverty initiatives. Members strengthen sponsors' efforts by expanding community partnerships, securing long-term resources, and addressing specific local needs, with all activities focused on creating pathways out of poverty for low-income communities.

VISTA members must focus on building the capacity of specific anti-poverty programs and interventions, not on general capacity building for the sponsor or its sites. While VISTAs focus on capacity-building activities, they may on occasion perform limited direct service activities when necessary to complete their overall assignment; these incidental activities should be written into the VISTA Assignment Description (VAD) if known at the beginning of service.

VISTAs are not staff members or employees of the sponsoring organizations to which they are assigned. They may not engage in activities that would displace or supplant paid staff, contractors, or existing volunteers, including activities related to the application and management of other CNCS grants and programs.