01-05-2025
Federal cuts to AmeriCorps impact rural West Virginians
HILLSBORO, WV (WVNS) -The federal government abruptly terminated around $440 million in federal grants nationwide, including AmeriCorps grants to nine West Virginia agencies.
Sarah Riley, the executive director of one of the impacted agencies, said the grants were awarded federal contracts.
The agencies which lost competitive federal grants were High Rock Educational Corporation in Pocahontas County (69 members) and Grow Ohio Valley (13).
Federal officials abruptly slashed state formula AmeriCorps grants for Tygart Valley United Way (22), City of Weston (19), Preservation Alliance of WV (25) and WomenCare FamilyCare (5) and a planning grant for the WV Food and Farm Coalition, Riley stated in an email to other AmeriCorps directors.
She added that United Way of Central West Virginia in Charleston also lost 15 members through a federal slashing of the VISTA program and that the WV Youth Promise Alliance lost 14 members.
Three national VISTA programs which place volunteers in West Virginia also lost funding.
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'This list was a random cut list,' Riley stated in the email. 'It does not reflect the value, effectiveness, or competitiveness of our AmeriCorps programs
April Elkins Badtke, executive director of Steward Individual Placement in Beckley, an AmeriCorps agency, said on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, that rural West Virginia is going to be impacted.
She called the loss 'devastating.'
'It's the ripple effect, that that's going to impact. It could be a local food bank,' Badtke said. 'It could be a local Boys and Girls Club or a YMCA Center or a school that's going to miss those mentors or those tutors.'
Riley is the executive director of High Rocks.
She said on Wednesday that federal Americorps grants that had been promised to her agency were cut without warning on Friday, after an unofficial list was circulated on social media.
She said the official cuts reflected those that had earlier been published on social media.
Trump Administration officials said AmeriCorps, which receives one billion dollars in tax funding, had failed eight consecutive audits and that the federal cuts are designed to eliminate government waste.
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Riley said High Rocks, however, has a nearly 100% success rate in helping participants find employment, education or job training, and that necessary services in West Virginia were being targeted by appointed federal officials.
'Nobody can make sense of that list. There's not a reason that we're on that list,' she said. 'There is nothing about the High Rocks program that is waste, fraud or abuse. We're really good at what we do. '
West Virginia has one of the lowest work force participation rates in the nation and one of the highest rates of opioid overdose deaths, according to recent national governmental data. It is the least educated state in the U.S., according to World Population Review data.
Riley said her AmeriCorps volunteers, mostly young people, are among 209 in the state whose positions were cut.
She said that they are all native West Virginians, some of them in addiction recovery and some of them using the program to help pay for college.
They live at the poverty level as volunteers, she said, and, as volunteers, they do not qualify for unemployment.
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'There's no safety net for them,' she said. 'They don't have parents that are making their car payments. They are working to improve their lives and the lives of the people around them, and they've done this service as a key way to move themselves forward, to go back to school, to get personal and professional development, to build their resume so they can be the work force that West Virginia needs.'
Riley said former Gov. Jim Justice, who is now a U.S. Senator, had been a supporter of AmeriCorps.
The Corporation for National and Community Service ranks West Virginia first in the nation for AmeriCorps enrollment.
About two dozen states have filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration, questioning the legality of the cuts and alleging the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) ordered them without authority.
West Virginia, as of Wednesday, April 30, 2025, was not among the plaintiffs.
59News contacted Gov. Patrick Morissey on Wednesday regarding potential state funding availability for AmeriCorps programming but did not get a reply.
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