Latest news with #DanLee
Gulf Weekly
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Weekly
Steak-tacular evenings at Ritz
Visit The Ritz-Carlton Bahrain and indulge in the ultimate carnivore's fantasy at Plums, with Tomahawk Tuesdays featuring a perfectly grilled Angus tomahawk steak paired with a premium bottle of grape. This luxurious dining affair promises to elevate your evening with exquisite flavours and an elegant ambience, creating an unforgettable culinary experience. Held every Tuesday from 7pm to 11pm, the feast is priced at BD69. l Embrace the festive spirit at Cantina Kahlo's Saturday Brunch Fiesta, where bold Mexican flavours come alive in authentic dishes while a lively mariachi band sets the perfect soundtrack for the weekend. It's available every Saturday, from 1pm to 4pm and is priced at BD25 with soft beverages and BD35 with selected beverages. l Experience a truly unique indulgence with Croissant A La Grande at The Ritz Gourmet Lounge, featuring Bahrain's only 1kg croissant paired with two hot beverages and a selection of delectable spreads. Perfect for sharing among six to eight people, this extraordinary pastry creation requires 24-hour advance ordering. Available daily from 8am to 10pm at BD35. l Discover the essence of Italy with a modern twist at Primavera, where gourmet pizzas, handcrafted pastas, fresh seafood, and rich risottos showcase the finest seasonal, local ingredients. Complete your culinary journey with the signature Tiramisu Trolley for a memorable sweet finale. Open Wednesday through Monday, lunch is served from 12.30pm to 3pm and dinner from 7pm to 11pm, with à la carte pricing. l Embark on a culinary adventure at Thai Lounge with exclusive signature creations by MasterChef champion Chef Dan Lee. Each meticulously crafted dish represents the perfect harmony of bold, vibrant flavours and refined technique, showcasing the chef's award-winning expertise and passion for authentic Southeast Asian cuisine. Available daily from 1pm to 10pm.
Gulf Weekly
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Weekly
Art of fine dining at Ritz
A timeless Middle Eastern dessert meets contemporary flair at The Ritz-Carlton, Bahrain, where the Chocolate Kunafeh is taking centre stage. This indulgent creation reimagines the traditional kunafeh with a luxurious layer of rich chocolate, balancing the beloved crunch and syrupy sweetness with bold, modern elegance. Available daily from 10am to 10pm at the Ritz Gourmet Shop and La Gourmandise, guests can choose between two delectable forms: the Chocolate Kunafeh Bar at BD6, perfect for a solo treat, or the more decadent cake version at BD8.500, ideal for sharing, although you may not want to! Whether you're a dessert aficionado or simply curious about this creative take on a classic, this kunafeh is not to be missed. l For football fans and sports lovers, La Plage turns into the ultimate viewing lounge during match nights. Catch all the action live on multiple screens while enjoying great food and a vibrant atmosphere. The menu is à la carte. l Spice up your Fridays with a Mexican Brunch Fiesta at Cantina Kahlo. Feast on bold, authentic flavours and groove to the sounds of a live mariachi band, bringing festive energy to the table, every Friday, from 1pm to 4pm. Priced at BD35 with soft beverages and BD45 with select beverages. l Explore the refined tastes of modern India at Nirvana, where tradition meets culinary artistry. Featuring an à la carte menu filled with elegant, flavour-forward creations, this is fine dining with a cultural soul. Served Tuesday to Sunday, noon to 3pm and 7pm to 11pm. l Discover the exquisite flavours of Southeast Asia with Thai Lounge's exclusive menu, expertly curated by MasterChef Champion Chef Dan Lee. Each dish is a perfect fusion of bold, vibrant flavours and refined technique, reflecting the chef's award-winning mastery and his deep passion for authentic Southeast Asian cuisine. For more information and reservations, call 17586425 or 17586499.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Q1 2025 Superior Industries International Inc Earnings Call
Dan Lee; Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Superior Industries International Inc Majdi Abulaban; President, Chief Executive Officer, Director; Superior Industries International Inc Operator Thank you for standing by. My name is [RG]. and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Superior Industries' first quarter 2025 earnings call. We are joined this morning by Majdi Abulaban, President and CEO; Dan Lee, Senior Vice President and CEO. (Operator Instructions) I'll now hand the call over to Dan Lee. Please go ahead. Dan Lee Good morning and welcome to our first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. During our call this morning, we will be referring to our earnings presentation, which is available on the investor relations section of Superior's website. I am joined on the call by Majdi Abulaban, our President and Chief Executive Officer. Before I turn the call over to Majdi, I remind everyone that any forward-looking statements contained in this presentation or commented on today are subject to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Please refer to slide 2 of this presentation for the full Safe Harbor statement and to the company's SEC filing included in the company's current annual report on Form 10-K and the current quarters Form 10-Q for a more complete discussion of forward-looking statements and risk factors. We will also be discussing various non-GAAP measures today. Non-GAAP measures exclude the impact of certain items and therefore are not calculated in accordance with US GAAP. Reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable US GAAP measure can be found in the appendix of this presentation. I now will turn the call over to Masi to provide a business and portfolio update. Majdi Abulaban Thanks. And hello, everyone and welcome to our first quarter 2025 earnings call. Let's begin with an overview of the first quarter on slide 4. We delivered a good start to 2025 despite a challenging macroeconomic environment. Our value-added sales outperformed the market driven by our leading product portfolio, while our teams continue to focus on execution and cost reduction delivered results. Further, during the war, we saw evidence of how our competitively advantaged local-for-local footprint is paying dividends. As the broader industry responds to tariff pressure, especially from China and Morocco, we are seeing an intensified urgency from OEMs to localize production in the region. As they seek more cost effective manufacturing partners in both North America and Europe. More than ever, our local-for-local manufacturing footprint in Mexico and Poland is creating tremendous opportunities. We have seen an unprecedented level of sporting activity in recent months. In fact, year-to-date we have quoted on more than 53 million lifetime wheels. I will speak more about this in a bit. While tailwinds are accelerating localization momentum in North America and Europe in favor of superior, we experienced a setback in April as we were notified by certain customers in North America who undertook a major global sourcing activity of their intent to resource existing contracts with minimal wind down notice. This unfortunately represented 33% of our expected revenue in 2025. As such, we immediately shifted focus to working to secure short-term liquidity to mitigate risk to our customers and suppliers and secure the commitment from our term loan lenders, providing access of up to $70 million of additional term loans under our existing credit agreement. This is obviously subject to satisfaction of certain conditions. We are also working towards obtaining covenant relief from our lenders and are having advanced discussions regarding a broader recapitalization transaction with our lenders and preferred shareholders. This is to significantly deliver the balance sheet by eliminating the preferred equity instrument and reducing our outstanding debt. This will be done through a debt for equity exchange, leaving superior with a strong capital structure. If implemented as contemplated, this recapitalization transaction is expected to provide superior with the financial strength to execute out those strategies and position us as a premier real solutions provider with a competitively advantaged localized footprint and market leading portfolio products. We have made progress in support of our short-term liquidity position, given support from our lenders, and we are executing self-help liquidity measures, including working capital and capital expenditure reductions. We will also continue working with our lenders and preferred shareholder toward the transaction designed to deliver a deleveraged company with financial strength to capitalize on the tremendous opportunities there. Turning to slide 5, I spoke briefly regarding our potential transaction. You may recall last year in August 2024, we successfully refinanced our debt, which was a key milestone for superior and a testament to our company's potential to deliver long-term growth. The result was a stronger financial profile, a $170 million reduction in total debt and the extension of our debt maturities to the end of 2028. Now, as you can see on this slide, a contemplated transaction is designed to significantly reduce our debt burden while positioning our company with additional financial flexibility for future opportunities. Turning to slide 6. As we mentioned in our last earnings call, third of dynamics in Europe and in North America are presenting unprecedented opportunity for us. Recall that, unlike most automotive commodities, the real commodity is highly dependent on imports from China and Asia for the US and Morocco and China for Europe. More notably, incremental tariffs on Chinese wheel imports into the US are now more than 100%, and on Morocco, wheel imports into Europe are almost 50%. This is an extremely favorable tailwind for Superior. We believe that we are the low cost leader in the industry with a restructured local manufacturing footprints in Poland and in Mexico, ready to support existing customers and new customers. Slide 7 highlights our [good] points and how recent tariff actions are accelerating volume localization initiatives in our favor. Here you see the remarkable level of customer RQs in the last four months in Europe and in North America, an all-time record. You today, we are quoting on more than 53 million lifetime wheels in both regions, twice the level compared to last year at the same time. More encouragingly, many of these calls are for startup production in 2025 and 2026, which is unusual in the automotive space. Compared to last year, we have six times the opportunities we saw last year in this category. We are encouraged by these localization dynamics, as they will go a long way to support our efforts to mitigate the recent volume losses. I will conclude with slide 8, which highlights our current position, given the update I shared with you today. While recent contract losses are regrettable, we are focused on recovering these losses through the many short-term opportunities we are pursuing. Further, we will not give up and will continue to pursue recovery of these customers, given the recent terror of dynamics that are sure to impact them as well. Superior is well positioned to compete in the wheel space with a leading portfolio of products and a competitively advantaged local footprint. We have been talking about localization tailwinds for many years. They are here now. Superior's journey has been one of perseverance over hardship and unprecedented recent challenges. I am grateful for the hard work and effort of our superior team, year in and year out they have prevailed over unprecedented challenges. And I am confident we will continue to do so. I will now turn the call over to Dan to review our financial results in more detail. Dan Lee Thank you, Majdi. Beginning on July 10, first quarter 2025 financial summary. Net sales for the first quarter was $322 million compared to $316 million in the prior year period. First quarter adjusted EBITDA was 25 million. The associated margin expressed as a percentage of value added sales was 15%. I will provide color on this in the upcoming pages. Net loss was $30 million in the first quarter, which is a $20 million improvement versus the same period last year. The first quarter of 2025, year-over-year sales bridge is on slide 11. Value-added sales were down approximately $3 million compared to the prior year quarter, primarily driven by lower unit sales and the negative impact of FX, partially offset by favorable pricing. On slide 12, in the first quarter of 2025, year-over-year adjusted EBITDA bridge, adjusted EBITDA for the quarter decreased to $25 million compared to $31 million in the prior year period. The adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 15% compared to 18% in the prior year period. The decrease was mostly due to unfavorable cost absorption due to lower production volumes, the impact of metal timing, and lower unit sales, partially offset by favorable FXs. An overview of the company's first quarter 2025 unlevered free cash flow is on slide 13. Cash provided by operating activity was $24 million for the first quarter compared to $4 million in the prior year period. The increase in cash provided by operating activities was driven by lower working capital. Capital expenditures in the first quarter were $6 million compared to $7 million in the prior year period, reflecting our continued efforts to reduce the capital intensity of the business. There were $1 million of cash payments for non-debt financing activities in the first quarter compared to $4 million in the prior year period due to picking of dividend payments. Unlevered free cash flow in the quarter was $33 million compared to $8 million in the prior year period. The increase in unlevered cash flow was primarily driven by lower working capital. An overview of the company's capital structure as of March 31, 2025 can be found on slide 14. Total cash in the balance sheet as of March 31, 2025 was $54 million and we did not have anything drawn on the $60 million revolving credit facility. Net debt at quarter end was $462 million, down $18 million compared to December 31, 2024, and represents two consecutive quarters of reducing net debt since refinancing. Superior's debt maturity as of March 31, 2025 is on slide 15. As you may recall, we successfully completed our debt refinancing in 2024, attracting $520 million of new capital and extending our term loan maturities to 2028. As mentioned by Majdi, subsequent to the end of the quarter, certain larger North American OEM customers notified Superior that they would be shifting their real purchases to other suppliers with immediate effect and minimal wind down. This sudden loss of bonds results in a short-term liquidity constraint and reductions to the company's earning generation. The combination of these items has put in doubt the company's ability to meet the near-term covenant thresholds in the term loan and revolving credit facility. As mentioned in our earnings release this morning, we have received a commitment letter from our term loan lenders providing us access up to $70 million of additional term loans under the existing credit agreement. This is subject to certain conditions required by our lenders. We are also discussing with our lenders about getting some flexibility in our financial covenants. In addition, we are actively engaged in advanced dialogue with our lenders and preferred shareholders on a broader recapitalization transaction designed to delever the balance sheet. The results of the successful recapitalization transaction and the access to the incremental funds from the commitment letter would be near-term financial stability and a meaningful improvement to the long-term capital structure. Given the uncertainty stemming from our subsequent events, ongoing discussions with our lenders and preferred shareholder, and challenging macro environment with sudden global tariff changes, we are suspending our full year '25 guidance. Once the environment stabilizes and we have more clarity with our discussions as previously mentioned, we will provide a comprehensive update including all your projection. In conclusion, I want to thank the Superior team for their hard work in our challenging operating environment. This has been a challenging quarter for the entire industry. And we appreciate everyone's commitment as we pursue solutions for our near-term headwinds and overall capital structure. As we continue discussions with our lenders and preferred shareholders, we will not be taking any questions during this call. Majdi Abulaban Thank you again for joining our call today and many thanks for the superior team for your hard work and efforts. This concludes our call. Operator Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect. Thank you for standing by. My name is RG, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Superior Industries's first quarter 2025 earnings call. We are joined this morning by Maggie Abulaban, President and CEO Dan Lee, senior Vice President and CEO. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Thank you. I'll now hand the call over to Dan Lee. Please go ahead. Dan Lee Good morning and welcome to our first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. During our call this morning, we will be referring to our earnings presentation, which is available on the investor relations section of Superior's website. I am joined on the call by Monte Boban, our President and Chief Executive Officer. Before I turn the call over to Mai, I remind everyone that any forward-looking statements contained in this presentation or commented on today are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1,995. Please refer to slide 2 of this presentation for the full safe harbor statement and to the company's SEC filing included in the company's current annual report on Form 10K and the current quarters Form 102. For a more complete discussion of forward-looking statements and risk factors. We will also be discussing various non-gap measures today. Non-gap measures exclude the impact of certain items and therefore are not calculated in accordance with US GAAP. Reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable US GAAP measure can be found in the appendix of this presentation. I now will turn the call over to Masi to provide a business and portfolio update. My feet. Majdi Abulaban Thanks and hello everyone and welcome to our first quarter 2025 earnings call. Let's begin with an overview of the first quarter on slide 4. We deliver a good start to 2025 despite a challenging macroeconomic environment. Our value-added sales are performed the market driven by our leading product portfolio, while our teams continue to focus on execution and cost reduction delivered results. Further, during the quarter we saw evidence of how our competitively advantaged local for local footprints is paying dividends. As the broader industry responds to tariff pressure, especially from China and Morocco, we are seeing an intensified urgency from OEMs to localize production in the region. As they seek more cost effective manufacturing partners in both North America and Europe. More than ever, our local for local manufacturing footprint in Mexico and Poland is creating tremendous opportunities. We have seen an unprecedented level of sporting activity in recent months. In fact, year-to-date we have quoted on more than 53 million lifetime wheels. I will speak more about this in a bit. While tariff tailwinds are accelerating localization momentum in North America and Europe in favor of superior, we experienced a setback in April as we were notified by certain customers in North America who undertook a major global sourcing activity of their intent to resource existing contracts with minimal wind down notice. This unfortunately represented 33% of our expected revenue in 2025. As such, we immediately shifted focus to working to secure short-term liquidity to mitigate risk to our customers and suppliers, and secure the commitment from our term loan lenders providing access of up to $70 million of additional term loans under our existing credit agreement. This is obviously subject to satisfaction of certain conditions. We are also working towards obtaining covenant relief from our lenders and are having advanced discussions regarding a broader recapitalization transaction with our lenders and preferred shareholders. This is to significantly deliver the balance sheet by eliminating the preferred equity instrument and reducing our outstanding debt. This will be done through a debt for equity exchange, leaving superior with a strong capital structure. If implemented as contemplated, this recapitalization transaction is expected to provide superior with the financial strength to execute out those strategies and position us as a premier real solutions provider with a competitively advantaged localized footprint and market leading portfolio of products. We have made progress in support of our short term liquidity position, given support from our lenders, and we are executing self-help liquidity measures, including working capital and capital expenditure reductions. We will also continue working with our lenders and preferred shareholder towards the transaction designed to deliver a deleveraged company with financial strength to capitalize on the tremendous opportunities there. Turning to slide 5, I spoke briefly regarding our potential transaction. You may recall last year in August 2024, we successfully refinanced our debt, which was a key milestone for superior and a testament to our company's potential to deliver long term growth. The result was a stronger financial profile, $1170 million dollar reduction in total debt. And the extension of our debt maturities to the end of 2028. Now, as you can see on this slide, the contemplated transaction is designed to significantly reduce our debt burden while positioning our company with additional financial flexibility for future opportunities. Turning to slide 6. As we mentioned in our last earnings call, third of dynamics in Europe and in North America are presenting unprecedented opportunity for us. Recall that, unlike most automotive commodities, the real commodity is highly dependent on imports from China and Asia for the US and Morocco and China for Europe. More notably, incremental tariffs on Chinese wheel imports into the US are now more than 100%, and on Morocco, wheel imports into Europe are almost 50%. This is an extremely favorable tailwind for Superior. We believe that we are the low cost leader in the industry with a restructured local manufacturing footprints in Poland and in Mexico ready to support existing customers and new customers. Slide 7 highlights our points and how recent tariff actions are accelerating volum localization initiatives in our favor. Here you see the remarkable level of customer RQs in the last 4 months in Europe and in North America. An all-time record. Today we are quoting on more than 53 million lifetime meals in both regions. Twice the level compared to last year at the same time. More encouragingly, many of these schools are for startup production in 2025 and 2026, which is unusual in the automotive space. Compared to last year, we have 6 times the opportunities we saw last year in this category. We are encouraged by these local audition dynamics, as they will go a long way to support our efforts to mitigate the recent volume losses. I will conclude with slide 8, which highlights our current position given the update I shared with you today. While recent contract losses are regrettable, we are focused on recovering these losses through the many short-term opportunities we are pursuing. Further, we will not give up and will continue to pursue recovery of these customers given the recent terror of dynamics that are sure to impact them as well. Superior is well positioned to compete in the wheel space. With a leading portfolio of products and a competitively advantaged local footprint. We have been talking about localization twinds for many years. They are here now. Superior's journey has been one of perseverance over hardship and unprecedented recent challenges. I am grateful for the hard work and effort of our superior team. Year in and year out they have prevailed over unprecedented challenges. And I am confident we will continue to do so. I will now turn the call over to Dan to review our financial results in more detail. Dan Lee Thank you much. Beginning on slide 10, 1st quarter 2025 financial summary. Net sales for the first quarter was $322 million compared to $316 million in the prior year period. First quarter adjusted Eva job was $25 million. The associated margin expressed as a percentage of value added sales was 15%. I will provide color on this in the upcoming stages. Net loss was $13 million in the first quarter, which is a 20 million. Improvement versus the same period last year. The first quarter of 2025, year over year sales bridge is on slide 11. Value added sales were down approximately $3 million compared to the prior year quarter, primarily driven by lower unit sales. And the negative impact of FX partially offset by favorable pricing. On slide 12 in the first quarter of 2025, year over year adjusted EAW, adjusted Eva for the quarter decreased to 25 million compared to 31 million in the prior year period. The adjusted Eva down margin for the quarter was 15% compared to 18% in the prior year period. The decrease was mostly due to unfavorable cost absorption due to lower production volumes, the impact of metal timing, and lower unit sales partially offset by favorable effects. An overview of the company's first quarter, 2025 unlevered free cash flow is on slide 13. Cash provided by operating activity was $24 million for the first quarter compared to $4 million in the prior year period. The increase in cash provided by operating activities was driven by lower working capital. Capital expenditures in the first quarter were $6 million compared to $7 million in the prior year period, reflecting our continued efforts to reduce the capital intensity of the business. There were 1 million of cash payments for non-debt financing activities in the first quarter compared to 4 million in the prior year period due to picking of dividend payments. Unlevered free cash flow in the quarter was 33 million compared to 8 million in the prior year period. The increase in unlevered free cash flow was primarily driven by lower working capital. An overview of the company capital structure as of March 31, 2025 can be found on slide 14. Total cash in the balance sheet as of March 31, 2025 was $54 million and we did not have anything drawn on the $60 million revolving credit facility. Net debt at quarter end was $462 million down 18 million compared to December 31, 2024, and represents two consecutive quarters of reducing net debt since refinancing. Superior's debt maturity as of March 31, 2025 is on July 15. As you may recall, we successfully completed our debt refinancing in 2024, attracting $520 million of new capital and extending our term loan maturity to 2028. As mentioned by Monty, subsequent to the end of the quarter, certain larger North American OEM customers notified superior that they would be shifting their wheel purchases to other suppliers with immediate effect and minimal wind down. This sudden loss of bodies results. In a short term liquidity constraint and reductions to the company's earning generation. The combination of these items has put in doubt the company's ability to meet the near-term covenant thresholds in the term loan and revolving credit facility. As mentioned in our earnings release this morning, we have received a commitment letter from our term loan lenders providing us access up to 70 million of additional term loans under the existing credit agreement. This is subject to certain conditions required by our lenders. We are also discussing with our lenders about getting some flexibility in our financial covenants. In addition, we are actively engaged in advanced dialogue with our lenders and preferred shareholders on a broader recapitalization transaction designed to deleverage the balance sheet. The results of the successful recapitalization transaction and the access to the incremental funds from the commitment letter would be near term financial stability and a meaningful improvement to the long term capital structure. Given the uncertainty stemming from our subsequent events, ongoing discussions with our lenders and preferred shareholder, and challenging macro environment with sudden global tariff changes, we are suspending our full year 25 guidance. Once the environment stabilizes and we have more clarity with our discussions as previously mentioned, we will provide a comprehensive update including all your projection. In conclusion, I want to thank the superior team for their hard work in our challenging operating environment. This has been a challenging quarter for the entire industry, and we appreciate everyone's commitment as we pursue solutions for our near term headwinds and overall capital structure. As we continue discussions with our lenders and preferred shareholder, we will not be taking any questions during this call. My. Majdi Abulaban Thank you again for joining our call today and many thanks for the superior team for your hard work and efforts. This concludes our call. Operator Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
03-05-2025
- Politics
AmeriCorps cuts leave people who serve and community organizations scrambling for alternatives
WEST COLUMBIA, Texas -- Years had passed since Hurricane Harvey's howling winds and heavy rains tore apart Dan Lee's century-old roof in West Columbia, south of Houston. Then came the knock on his door. It was Mosaic in Action, a nonprofit that has helped more than 450 homeowners and relies on an AmeriCorps community service program that sends young adults to work on projects across the U.S. The organization repaired Lee's roof and got rid of the mold left behind in Harvey's wake. 'Before they came, man, I had holes in the ceiling where it got wet and the sheetrock had failed,' Lee said at his home. 'I was ashamed of it. They've just been a blessing.' Last month, President Donald Trump 's cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, gutted AmeriCorps, a 30-year-old federal agency that dispatches 200,000 volunteers and hundreds of millions of dollars. For Mosaic in Action, that meant a 10-person team it was counting on would not arrive a few days later as planned, entailing a loss of nearly 2,000 hours of service that had been committed to help 11 homeowners. 'You can imagine what it's like to be in your home, never knowing how much rain's gonna come in that day,' said Debbie Allensworth, executive director and co-founder of Mosaic in Action. 'Without those valuable workers, we just can't do the work.' The far-reaching government cuts have left communities across the country — small and large, urban and rural, in red and blue states alike — scrambling for alternatives amid the uncertainty, trying to sustain a slew of initiatives, from after-school programs to veterans' services to natural disaster response. AmeriCorps employs more than 500 full-time federal workers, most of whom are now on administrative leave, and has an operating budget of roughly $1 billion. Despite bipartisan support, it has long been a target of critics who decry bloat, inefficiencies and misuse of funds. 'President Trump has the legal right to restore accountability to the entire Executive Branch,' Anna Kelly, White House deputy press secretary, said this week via email after Democratic officials in about two dozen states filed a federal lawsuit. In the weeks since corps members were let go and grants were abruptly canceled, organizations and volunteers have been searching for alternative solutions. In West Virginia, High Rocks Education Corporation was told last week to immediately halt its programming funded by the AmeriCorps State and National grant program, including growing food, teaching digital literacy and mentoring kids in afterschool programs. High Rocks executive director Sarah Riley said the organization has been trying to find emergency money to support corps members who will no longer have a paycheck and the nearly two dozen partner organizations that relied on AmeriCorps. 'We're all desperately trying to figure that out,' Riley said. 'Organizations will 100% fold over this.' Meanwhile there is a broader ripple effect that leaves holes in communities, Riley added. 'All of the kids that they mentor, that was a really important adult in their life who cared about them, who's now gone with no ability to say goodbye,' she said. 'I don't know how you measure that.' Anna Gibbons, a 23-year-old team leader with AmeriCorps' National Civilian Community Corps, started reaching out to sponsor organizations days after being discharged three months early. She and her peers also started an online fundraiser, which brought in over $11,000 in donations within a little over a week. Now they are headed to work at an environmental and education center in rural Oregon — without the support of the federal agency. 'We weren't ready for our service to end,' Gibbons said. 'We had the manpower to do it, we just needed the funds.' In central Wyoming, the Casper Housing Authority was counting on an AmeriCorps team to kick-start food production on an urban farm providing fresh, locally grown produce to residents. Within 48 hours of learning that AmeriCorps was dismissing the 10 workers, the authority received a $20,000 donation from the Zimmerman Family Foundation allowing it to bring in the corps members and pay them minimum wage. Such workarounds are bandages that will be difficult to maintain, said Judd Jeansonne, executive director of the Volunteer Louisiana service commission. Public funding through AmeriCorps has always been coupled with private dollars, he said, but it is a symbiotic relationship with one requiring the presence of the other to subsist. 'It's not sustainable in the long term,' Jeansonne said, 'because those investments historically have been part of the puzzle, not the whole puzzle.' And while AmeriCorps is a large national investment, Jeansonne said, it's unique in that most funding decisions are made locally by state service commissions like the one he runs in Louisiana. 'It's meeting critical community needs,' he said. 'These are people in Louisiana or Mississippi or Arkansas, or wherever they are, identifying the needs and making sure that the dollars go there.'
Washington Post
03-05-2025
- General
- Washington Post
AmeriCorps cuts leave people who serve and community organizations scrambling for alternatives
WEST COLUMBIA, Texas — Years had passed since Hurricane Harvey's howling winds and heavy rains tore apart Dan Lee's century-old roof in West Columbia, south of Houston. Then came the knock on his door. It was Mosaic in Action, a nonprofit that has helped more than 450 homeowners and relies on an AmeriCorps community service program that sends young adults to work on projects across the U.S. The organization repaired Lee's roof and got rid of the mold left behind in Harvey's wake.
