VHA is happy to introduce our April VISTA Spotlight, Sean Morrissey, who serves as the Community Development VISTA at Housing Alexandria in Alexandria, VA.
About Sean:
Sean is from Pocatello, Idaho, where he grew up in a large family as the second of eight kids. As an older child, he tried to set an example for his younger siblings by striving academically, and ultimately, was offered a scholarship to a top liberal arts school out east. He recently graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts with degrees in Environmental Studies and Mathematics. Sean is passionate about making cities more sustainable and better places for people to live, and is looking to pursue a career in urban planning and public policy. These passions and interests have been developed through living and visiting several different cities around the world and interacting with people in each of these places. Sean enjoys running and exercise, any sport with a ball in it, music, food, traveling, meeting new people, and trying to live life to the fullest.
Current Project:
This Spring, Sean is leading Housing Alexandria’s Spring2ACTion campaign. Spring2ACTion is an annual community fundraising event run by ACT for Alexandria in which nonprofit organizations in Alexandria raise funds for their organizations through community outreach and online donations. It is Housing Alexandria’s second largest fundraising event every year, and its funds go to support Housing Alexandria’s resident services programs year-round. For Spring2ACTion, Sean is directing team fundraising efforts, conducting business outreach to start new business partnerships, organizing a happy hour event for Housing Alexandria’s partners and vendors, organizing tabling at local farmers markets and community events, and implementing a community art contest among Housing Alexandria residents. This campaign will help Housing Alexandria build its capacity to continue to serve its residents.
Sean is also implementing a resident storytelling campaign called Housing Alexandria Stories where he holds interview conversations, in both English and Spanish, with residents about their background and their stories. These conversations are then summarized into blog posts and published on Housing Alexandria’s website to be read by the community. The purpose of this campaign is to celebrate Housing Alexandria’s residents and their stories, create more recognition and appreciation in the community, and to increase Housing Alexandria’s fundraising capacity for its resident services. Sean hopes that the initiative will be successful enough that he will be able to expand the initiative to include local government officials and housing leaders before his VISTA term is over. To connect with Sean regarding his work, please email him at smorrissey@housingalexandria.org.