This volume relates the origins of Volunteers in Service To America (VISTA), its problems and achievements. Originating in President Kennedy's proposal for a national service corps (1963), VISTA reached concrete form with the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. While white middle class youth constitute the bulk of the volunteers, the organization has made efforts to recruit persons from minority group or poverty backgrounds and older skilled persons. The training (six weeks), conducted by private contractors at six regional centers, now emphasizes living with the poor and on the job training at the service sites. The one year of service is spent in community development (CD) with rural or urban agencies, American Indian groups, migrant labor groups, and the Jobs Corps centers. During its existence, VISTA has come to have characteristics which sharply distinguish it from the Peace Corps on which it was initially modeled, notably, its heavy CD orientation. Significant VISTA developments during the author's tenure as Director (1966-1968) included the expansion of part-time volunteer support on the local level under the aegis of the VISTA Citizens Corps, and the institution of CD oriented graduate programs in Social Work and Poverty Law through the VISTA Fellow program. (dm)