Cynthia Montes (left) and Areli Araujoean
The role of a VITA Clinic coordinator is essential to the success of the overall VITA program. Though the role is multifaceted in nature, some of the day-to-day tasks include: oversight of the recruitment, education and training of volunteers; publicity; operations; data collection and quality control over CSUN’s VITA sites.
First starting off as student assistants, Areli Araujo and Cynthia Montes have worked through every level of the VITA program as tax preparers, lead supervisors, operations managers and now, VITA Clinic coordinators.
As coordinators, the goal of their job is largely to ensure that clients are receiving the most professional and comprehensive free tax preparation services possible.
“VITA is home to me,” said Araujo. “It’s a service that helps thousands of people. Understanding taxes is not an easy task and it can be frustrating for a lot of taxpayers, and I want VITA to help alleviate that pressure for taxpayers.” Managing seven in-person locations, five operations supervisors, 16 lead supervisors and two student assistants, the most important qualities of a coordinator are efficiency and adaptability.
Last year, as COVID-19 made it impossible for in-person appointments, digital zoom meetings and the “drop off method” (a service where clients drop off their tax documents to a physical site without contact with other people) helped fill that need for tax preparers.
Now, with in-person appointments available, one way the overall program has adapted is by offering all three methods of tax preparation to taxpayers. “We’ve transitioned to hybrid tax preparation,” said Montes. “By learning from last year, we’ve implemented systems that can help those less tech-savvy clients who need in-person, and those still at risk catching COVID with online and drop-off method tax preparation.”
With this added efficiency, both Araujo and Montes hope the program can offer help to more than 6,500 taxpayers.
“The program is full of success stories,” said Montes. “One that sticks out to me, is helping a client that was recommended by one of our volunteers. Her husband had stage 4 cancer and had no way to help the family financially, so his wife made it a plan to open up her own tamale business. We helped her get a ITIN so she could open a bank account and file her taxes. Once she learned how much she would be receiving back, she was so happy she cried. It’s stories like these that make working for VITA such a heart-warming experience.”