Latest news with #ServeWisconsin
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Court hands a lifeline to AmeriCorps, but its future remains uncertain
Green Bay Conservation Corps workers, from left, Emily Swagel, Zak King and Cailie Kafura, plant native shrubs in Fireman's Park. The work is part of installing a pollinator corridor and a larger land restoration project across Green Bay. (Photo courtesy of Green Bay Conservation Corps) Jake White says he was lucky. A University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate with a global health major, White was in his second year of an AmeriCorps placement in the Sawyer County Public Health Department, where he helped out with department reports and outreach to the community. Then AmeriCorps pulled the plug at the end of April — cancelling its grants to agencies all across the country. White was in the middle of working with a team assigned to produce a community health assessment for the county when he got the news. Sawyer County kept him on so he could stick with the project, converting his position to a limited-term employee (LTE) through the end of June, when White starts medical school in Wausau. The reprieve also gave him a chance to hand over a second project, on substance abuse prevention, to another community member, White said. The future of that work was one of his biggest worries about AmeriCorps' sudden shutdown. His AmeriCorps experience at the county 'really gave me the foundation for the skills and knowledge I will carry into my role as a physician,' White told the Wisconsin Examiner. The aftermath of the AmeriCorps shutdown didn't go as smoothly for Maxwell Robin. He was placed with the St. Vincent DePaul charitable pharmacy in Madison. 'I did whatever needed to be done,' Robin said — working on computer projects at the pharmacy, filling prescriptions, serving as an interpreter for Spanish-speaking patients. When the AmeriCorps cancellation notice arrived, the projects he was working on 'got thrown into chaos,' Robin said a week after the notification. Now a federal judge has ordered AmeriCorps to restore its grants and reinstate its volunteers. But all of that remains up in the air. 'Things are just very confusing now,' Robin said Friday. Despite that, Robin has been able to move on. He is waiting to hear back from several job applications. And he still volunteers part-time at the pharmacy, where he developed a strong interest in working in the nonprofit sector. 'We were able to take people who, for whatever reason, had been kicked to the side,' Robin said. The federal judge's order, issued Thursday, includes an injunction ordering the federal government to reverse the cancellation of AmeriCorps grants and projects across the country and to restore those programs, funding and personnel. But program administrators still don't know for sure what will happen and when. 'We are still waiting for official notification from AmeriCorps,' said Jeanne Duffy, the executive director of Serve Wisconsin, in an email message Friday. Serve Wisconsin, based in the Wisconsin Department of Administration, is the state administrator for AmeriCorps. Wisconsin has 25 AmeriCorps programs operating in more than 300 locations across the state — volunteers who are paid a stipend and who work in health care, help with environmental projects, assist in school classrooms and carry out other projects. When the Trump administration canceled AmeriCorps grants April 25, the action caught participants in the program as well as officials responsible for coordinating its work by surprise. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul joined the federal lawsuit brought by 25 states to challenge the AmeriCorps shutdown. Thursday's order, by U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman in Maryland, found that the Corporation for National Community Service, the agency that operates AmeriCorps, and its administration 'likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to engage in notice-and-comment rulemaking before making significant changes to service delivery, that the plaintiffs will be irreparably harmed if this injunction does not issue, and that the balance of the equities and the public interest favor an injunction.' The cancellation affected programs all over Wisconsin that have worked with AmeriCorps, some of them for years, and the volunteers who have flocked to AmeriCorps looking for experience through community service work. 'It's a tragedy,' said state Rep. Supreme Moore Omokunde (D-Milwaukee), who spent two years as an AmeriCorps participant 15 years ago. 'AmeriCorps is about volunteerism. We have limited resources and we have this unlimited need.' In Green Bay, AmeriCorps helped staff the Green Bay Conservation Corps. Founded in 2022, the Conservation Corps has fielded teams of AmeriCorps members each year on projects that have included establishing a pollinator corridor through the city, removing invasive plants, maintaining walking trails and restoring area streams. 'Altogether we've seen over 70 AmeriCorps members come through our doors,' said Maria Otto, the Green Bay Conservation Corps coordinator. 'They're the ones getting the work done.' The Green Bay city council passed a measure covering the rest of the 2025 service year from city funds. 'After two weeks of uncertainty, our entire crew was able to work for the Conservation Corps again' thanks to the funds, said Cailie Kafura, one of the AmeriCorps volunteers. The money will allow the program's work to keep going through August. 'We were doing a lot of work that people maybe don't even know is being done,' said Kafura. 'I know that the work I'm doing, I want to be doing that kind of work in the future. I want to be using my body and my mind for good out in the world.' Lynn Walter operates a nonprofit, New Leaf Foods, that promotes access to healthy food and education in the greater Green Bay area. Founded 15 years ago, New Leaf began working with AmeriCorps five years ago through a partnership with Marshfield Clinic. The clinic deploys AmeriCorps participants on health-related projects around the state. Walter said Friday after the cancellation she was able to retain one of her three AmeriCorps participants this year on a contract basis. A second AmeriCorps member chose to stay on as a volunteer to complete a project she had been working on, while the third needed more paid hours and went to another job. Even with the court ruling, Walter said, she's been told that what happens next remains uncertain. And she fears there's been longer-term damage regardless of what happens in the court case. 'Even if the program starts up again, there won't be the momentum that there has been in the past,' Walter said. She expects prospective participants to be wary of signing up in the future: 'What would you tell a young person?' In his early 30s, Omokunde joined Public Allies, a leadership development nonprofit, in 2010 and 2011 as an AmeriCorps participant. He called the experience 'a tipping point' for him personally and professionally. 'One of the core values is collaboration,' Omokunde said. 'It taught me that collaboration is one of the most difficult things to do — but it's one of the most necessary things to do.' Omokunde is blunt in his assessment of why AmeriCorps was targeted in President Donald Trump's second term. 'I think it follows a long tradition of people not valuing the work that is done in certain communities,' Omokunde said. 'Donald Trump is a bully. He doesn't want anything in opposition to him and his agenda.' Omokunde ticked off a list of colleagues in politics who came up through AmeriCorps and Public Allies: State Rep. Darrin Madison (D-Milwaukee), Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, former state Rep. David Bowen, and the late Milwaukee alder Jonathan Brostoff, also a former Assembly member. 'When he sees this cadre of individuals who are rooted in community and learning about asset-based community development, diversity and being committed to anti-oppression as well, people who represent all people, he doesn't want that kind of opposition,' Omokunde said. 'He just wants people to go along and do his bidding.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
State joins lawsuit to block Trump administration cancellation of AmeriCorps
Participants in Western Dairyland Economic Opportunity Council's Fresh Start program build a house, learning construction skills in the process. Program participants enroll in AmeriCorps and are paid an hourly wage for their work. (Photo courtesy of Western Dairyland EOC Inc.) A coalition of 25 states, including Wisconsin, sued the Trump administration Tuesday to block the cancellation of AmeriCorps programs across the country. The cancellation has upended plans at more than two dozen organizations in Wisconsin that have engaged AmeriCorps members in community service work, and stranded scores of participants in the midst of one-year stints in the program. 'I was completely blindsided,' Parker Kuehni told the Wisconsin Examiner on Tuesday. The University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate with a degree in global health was in his second year with AmeriCorps, working at a Madison free health clinic and preparing to start medical school in June when he learned Monday morning that the program was canceled. Created by Congress in 1993 as the Corporation for National and Community Service, its official name, AmeriCorps has deployed community service workers across the country in the decades since. AmeriCorps members are usually recent college graduates who join the program for a year or two. They teach in schools, assist with disaster relief and take on a host of other roles. Wisconsin has 25 AmeriCorps programs that operate at more than 300 locations across the state, according to the office of Gov. Tony Evers. In Wisconsin, AmeriCorps operates through Serve Wisconsin, which administers its Wisconsin contracts and is housed in the Department of Administration. On April 16, AmeriCorps placed about 75% of its employees on administrative leave with pay, the New York Times reported. At 6:20 p.m. on Friday, April 25, Jeanne Duffy, the Serve Wisconsin executive director, received an email message that AmeriCorps grants and their recipients in Wisconsin were being terminated immediately 'because it has been determined that the award no longer effectuates agency priorities.' The form letter instructed recipients to notify all organizations and agencies with AmeriCorps-related projects. 'You must immediately cease all award activities. This is a final agency action and is not administratively appealable,' the message said. The lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Maryland charges the Trump administration's cancellation of the program 'flouts Congress's creation of AmeriCorps and assignment of agency duties; usurps Congress's power of the purse and thereby violates the Constitution's separation of powers; and arbitrarily and capriciously — without any reasoned analysis — vitiates the agency's ability to function consistent with its statutory mission and purpose.' The suit charges that the program's abrupt end also violates federal law, which states AmeriCorps can make 'significant changes to program requirements, service delivery or policy only through public notice and comment rulemaking.' 'The attempt to dismantle AmeriCorps is part of a pattern from the Trump administration of disrespect toward those who serve others,' Attorney General Josh Kaul said in a statement. 'That approach is not just shameful — it's misguided. AmeriCorps volunteers and projects help strengthen communities. AmeriCorps should be thanked for its work, not abruptly dismantled.' Evers' office telegraphed Wisconsin's plan to join the lawsuit late Tuesday morning. 'Once again, the Trump Administration is trying to cut federal funding that Congress already approved and Wisconsin is counting on to help kids, families, and communities across our state — all so they can pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires,' Evers said in a statement. 'These latest reckless Trump and Musk cuts will hurt Wisconsin's kids who are homeless or who need tutors for math and reading, folks who are working to overcome addiction and substance use, stop work on conservation projects, as well as all of the dedicated public servants whose livelihoods are depending on this work.' AmeriCorps' cancellation affected organizations and agencies all across the state. In Madison, the United Way of Dane County enlisted 27 AmeriCorps members in two tutoring programs — one in math for high school students and the other in reading and literacy for elementary school children. AmeriCorps members were placed in schools to help identify students who would benefit from tutoring, United Way officials said. They also screened and conducted background checks for more than 175 community volunteer tutors as well as serving as tutors themselves. More than 1,000 children have received tutoring in the two programs this year. 'And these kids are able to accelerate their academic success, which puts them on track for [higher] graduation rates,' said United Way CEO Renee Moe. 'So, this is a really huge loss for us.' AmeriCorps members were 'really key to having successful volunteers support students in literacy,' said Emily Greene, director of Schools of Hope, the elementary program. In the high school program, Achievement Connections, members have supported and trained other high school students as peer tutors. That helps those students 'be engaged in their school in a way that they otherwise wouldn't be and also gain some skills,' said Karl Johnson, director of Achievement Connections. 'We find that those relationships . . . are some of our strongest when it's students helping each other out, and our [AmeriCorps] members are a pretty key part of facilitating that,' Johnson said. The Wisconsin Association of Free and Charitable Clinics has deployed 30 AmeriCorps members throughout Wisconsin this year. Some assist clinics, local health departments or the state Department of Health Services in administrative tasks, writing grants, collecting and analyzing data and related work, said Domonique Coffee, the association's AmeriCorps program manager. Others staff clinics in a public health role, taking a patient's blood pressure or other vital signs, teaching patients about managing their diabetes or hypertension or providing other direct care, she said. The program allowed 'free and charitable clinics to increase their services and capacity for services . . . to those who are underinsured or uninsured,' Coffee said. It has also helped prepare the AmeriCorps members as future health care providers — 'the future physicians and public health leaders of our next generation,' she added. Parker Kuehni had graduated with a degree in global public health two years ago and was preparing to go to medical school. But he knew he first wanted to get more experience in directly working with patients. He volunteered as a barbershop health screener for the Perry Family Free Clinic, which serves uninsured, low-income Madison residents. Through the clinic he connected with AmeriCorps and then shifted to helping with patient coordination, communication and scheduling, discussing care plans with patients and managing referrals to specialists. The experience 'built my empathy for people,' he said. The experiences he had 'will contribute to me being an overall better future physician.' While the typical AmeriCorps participant is a college graduate, the Western Dairyland Economic Opportunity Council in Eau Claire took a different approach with the program. Since the late 1990s Western Dairyland has operated Fresh Start, an education, skills and career program for young adults ages 18 to 25. Participants often have a sparse job history and might not have completed high school. The program engages up to 15 participants in a year-long house-building project. 'We provide them with life skills and job skills and technical education, allowing them to then leave the program and either go on to school or attain full-time employment,' said Dale Karls, Western Dairyland's communications coordinator. The participants themselves become AmeriCorps members and earn an hourly wage on the job. Some 600 young people have gone through the program over the last three decades, building 45 homes, Karls said. All the organizations the Wisconsin Examiner contacted Tuesday said the news of AmeriCorps' cancellation came too recently for them to know what they will do if the program isn't restored. Coffee said the Wisconsin Free and Charitable Clinics Association is trying to support its AmeriCorps members, 'helping them find their footing.' At United Way of Dane County, 'We've spoken to our school district partners,' said Moe, the agency's CEO. 'We have reaffirmed with them that tutoring continues to be an important strategy to help with academic success. And so right now we're trying to be creative around how to best keep really effective tutoring programs going.' 'We're hoping that the funding will be reinstated,' said Karls of Western Dairyland. In the meantime, he added, 'We have a half-constructed house in Strum, Wisconsin. We have to find a way to finish that.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Wisconsin suing over cuts to the service and volunteer agency AmeriCorps, Gov. Tony Evers says
Wisconsin is joining a multi-state lawsuit against sweeping cuts to AmeriCorps, the federal agency for national service and volunteerism, Gov. Tony Evers said. "Once again, the Trump Administration is trying to cut federal funding that Congress already approved and Wisconsin is counting on to help kids, families, and communities across our state — all so they can pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires," Evers said in an April 29 news release. Dozens of nonprofits, municipalities and agencies across Wisconsin found out starting April 25 that their partnerships with AmeriCorps were terminated effective immediately. About 430 AmeriCorps members in the state who were working on issues like literacy, conservation, homelessness and health care will now be out of a job, Serve Wisconsin Executive Director Jeanne Duffy said. The cuts are part of an effort to slash AmeriCorps' budget led by billionaire Elon Musk's U.S. Department of Government Efficiency. Close to $400 million in grants to the service organization were eliminated nationwide, according to the Washington Post. AmeriCorps was created by President Bill Clinton more than 30 years ago. By 2023, more than 1.25 million Americans had served in the program, according to the group. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly on April 28 pointed to recent audits of the AmeriCorps program and concerns about waste, fraud and abuse in response to questions about the cuts. In mid-April, the federal government halted the National Civilian Community Corps program, stopping volunteers from coming to Wisconsin to work as home-builders and camp counselors. Then the Evers administration was informed April 25 of the federal government's plans to end federal grants for all of the AmeriCorps programs administered by Serve Wisconsin, according to the news release. The cuts will end services at more than 300 sites across the state, the release said. Duffy said Serve Wisconsin was "appalled by the immediate and illegal termination" of the federal grants. She said the cuts were made "without any warning, causing incredible upheaval for programs and AmeriCorps members serving at hundreds of sites across Wisconsin." This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin suing over sweeping cuts to AmeriCorps, Gov. Tony Evers says
