"The Red Cross Ready! Tennessee Rural Initiative" is an AmeriCorps*VISTA project that places AmeriCorps*VISTA members at American Red Cross chapters to work in rural and impoverished counties and areas with service area shortfalls within Tennessee. VISTAs on the project are expected to enter rural communities, build partnerships and contacts within that community, identify facilities that could serve as post-impact disaster shelters, and to build a corps of disaster relief volunteers.

The largest test of the methods of the Rural Initiative occurred during the Tennessee Floods of May 2010. The flood was a 1000-year flood that affected Western and Central Tennessee. Most of the VISTAs on the project had been building disaster relief capacity in the affected areas. Shelters obtained by VISTAS were activated during the disaster. Partnerships developed by VISTAs increased the delivery of services by community partners, and in one case allowed for the placement of an AmeriCorps*NCCC team mere hours into the disaster. Disaster volunteers recruited by VISTAs responded to the disaster both within their own rural counties and in disaster-affected metropolitan areas. Those volunteers were among the newest volunteers but they conducted themselves with an expertise and dedication that belied their relative inexperience. During the immediate response phase of the emergency VISTAs themselves operated in a direct service capacity for the disaster relief operation. They managed shelters. They coordinated volunteers. They excelled at partner services. They helped people who had lost everything. They were heroes. 

After the disaster, Rural Initiative VISTAs talked to each other in a series of hotwashes, conference calls, trainings, and workgroups to learn from their experiences, increase the effectiveness of their capacity building efforts, and refocus their approaches to maximize the impact of their volunteers and partners during a disaster. In the year since the floods, this communication has spurred developments in disaster outreach, using social media, and general project management. However, the greatest development to come from these discussions is the utilization "Volunteer Leaders" within their service areas. Identifying and recruiting "Volunteer leaders" was initially part of sustainability measures in the project. It was one of the last things VISTAs did. While working during the disaster the VISTAs learned how indispensible a volunteer leader was. Whether they're called "Volunteer leader", "County coordinator", "Volunteer ambassador", or "County lead", VISTAs found that having a local volunteer from the area leading capacity building efforts concurrently with a VISTA builds community empowerment and engagement, creates opportunities that may not have been available before, and vastly improves the effectiveness of the VISTA while ensuring eventual sustainability. In the words of a VISTA, "The *first* thing you need to do is find a dude and teach them to be a VISTA."

The set of practices developed by the VISTAs have been tested in repeatedly since the May flood. Fires, floods, storms, tornados; VISTAs, their volunteers, and partners have responded. The impact of the AmeriCorps*VISTAs who served with the Red Cross Ready! Tennessee Rural Initiative is immeasurable.