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Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Nonprofits warn AmeriCorps cuts will reduce community services
May 11—Cuts to national AmeriCorps programs are creating uncertainty for community organizations that have long relied on the program to fill staffing gaps. The Trump administration last month rescinded about $400 million in grant funds supporting AmeriCorps members serving in local and regional programs. About 80 members stationed in Montana were abruptly released from service as a result, according to a May 7 press release from the Montana AmeriCorps Alumni Council. "It was kind of like whiplash," said Silas Smith, one of the Montana-based AmeriCorps members whose service was terminated last month. Smith had worked since January with the local nonprofit Land to Hand to spearhead food security efforts in Columbia Falls. His main task was to catalyze efforts to open a local food bank, but the 21-year-old accounting major also helped run the Weekend Backpack program, which provides food to schoolchildren in food-insecure households each weekend. The position was funded through a state AmeriCorps program. While Smith worked full-time hours at Land to Hand, he received only a modest living stipend as well as some financial education benefits such as deferred loan payments. After the Trump administration shuttered the National Civilian Community Corps branch of AmeriCorps and gutted the agency's administrative staff, Smith said he began to mentally prepare for his own position to be axed. On Sunday, April 27, he received what he described as a "very cookie-cutter email," informing him that his AmeriCorps position "no longer effectuates agency priorities." His service term originally extended to January 2026. "It's really sad and demoralizing. The way that this is happening is so disrespectful to people" said Gretchen Boyer, the executive director of Land to Hand. She said the abrupt termination is a major loss for Land to Hand, which has partnered with AmeriCorps for seven years. The cost of hosting an AmeriCorps member for a year is a fraction of what the organization would otherwise pay to hire an employee to a similar position, making it a cost-effective solution for the small nonprofit. Land to Hand is far from the only community organization that has benefited from the AmeriCorps model. Last year, about 2,900 AmeriCorps members served at nearly 400 locations across the state. Rural Dynamics Inc., a Great Falls-based nonprofit that helps low-income and elderly Montanans file taxes, has relied on AmeriCorps partnerships for over a decade. Executive Director Jordyn Schwartz said it is difficult to find local volunteers with expertise in tax filing, so the nonprofit instead hosts both short-term and year-long positions through AmeriCorps' National Civilian Community Corps and Volunteers in Service to America programs. Funding for both programs was cut in April. "It's kind of catastrophic to lose that," said Schwartz. "It just really makes it hard for us to mobilize and do the work we do." She said the organization lacks the staff capacity to take over the services AmeriCorps members were providing, such as tax clinics in rural communities. With the Trump administration now pushing for Congress to fully eliminate all AmeriCorps programming, the future of the organization remains unclear. ONE OF the state's largest AmeriCorps programs, Montana Conservation Corps, escaped April's cuts unscathed, but Executive Director Jono McKinney said the Department of Government Efficiency's presence at AmeriCorps "remains a grave concern" for both Corps members and the communities they serve. Each summer, Montana Conservation Corps members clear trails, reduce fuels and restore streams on thousands of acres of public lands. About 28% of the annual budget to support this work comes directly from AmeriCorps grants. Another third is derived from contracts with federal agencies like the U.S. Forest Service, which have been hit by large scale budget and personnel reductions by the Department of Government Efficiency. Corps members in the Kalispell branch typically work with federal and state officials to complete projects in Glacier National Park, the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness, the Mission Mountain Wilderness, Lone Pine State Park and Herron Park. "It's been 4-6 weeks that we've been waiting on some of these areas [to sign contracts]," said McKinney. "But there is progress." In a typical year, McKinney said major agreements between Montana Conservation Corps and federal agencies would already be signed, but negotiations with many land managers stalled at the height of the federal cuts and are only now being wrapped up. While millions of federal dollars go into the program each year, McKinney said Montana Conservation Corps, like many AmeriCorps programs, is a financial benefit in the long-term. A 2023 study estimated that Montana Conservation Corps has a return on investment as high as $144.32 for every federal dollar spent. "In an era where we're looking at how we improve government efficiency, Montana Conservation Corp and AmeriCorps are one of the best solutions," McKinney said. IN COLUMBIA Falls, Gretchen Boyer is seeking other solutions to keep Silas Smith on Land to Hand's staff. Earlier this month, the organization launched a fundraising campaign to support a temporary staff position for Smith and fill the deficit left by another terminated federal grant. According to Boyer, the organization needs $38,000 to hire Smith through the end of the year, when his AmeriCorps service was originally supposed to end. As of May 9, more than $17,000 had been contributed to the campaign. Boyer said the fundraiser was about keeping a promise the organization had made to Smith and to the community. "We want to fulfill what the government is not fulfilling," she said. Reporter Hailey Smalley may be reached at 758-4433 or hsmalley@
New York Times
29-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Cuts to AmeriCorps Volunteer Programs Leave Communities Scrambling
The sudden termination of hundreds of millions of dollars in grant money from the federal agency focused on national volunteerism has thrown the fate of community service programs across the country into question. The cuts, coming as part of the Trump administration's campaign to slash the federal government, threaten localities with the loss of an array of services, especially those that ran education programs and tackled food insecurity. The agency, AmeriCorps, canceled nearly $400 million in grants — an estimated 40 percent of its remaining funding — spread among all 50 states; Washington, D.C.; and several territories on Friday evening, according to the nonprofit that represents AmeriCorps' state and national commissions. 'It has been determined that your award no longer effectuates agency priorities,' said an email to the commissions, a copy of which was reviewed by The New York Times. 'You must immediately cease all award activities. This is a final agency action and is not administratively appealable.' Some states, including Alabama, California, Oregon and Wyoming, had all their funding cut, the nonprofit, America's Service Commissions, said. States experienced the biggest cuts because they get the majority of AmeriCorps funds — about 80 percent. The programs funded by that money undergo a rigorous process to win grants, in which the groups are pitted against one another and are obligated to match grant funding by 50 percent. Many grants funded under a decades-old anti-poverty program, Volunteers in Service to America, or VISTA, were also cut, the nonprofit said, including all but two that run through the states. The nonprofit said Friday's cuts would shutter more than 1,000 programs and abruptly end the service of more than 32,000 AmeriCorps workers across the nation and in overseas territories, from high school graduates serving in VISTA to seniors who chose volunteerism after retirement. The cancellation of the grants further hollows out an agency that for three decades has marshaled Americans into a domestic version of the Peace Corps, putting them to work in poor communities and providing the grants that fund modest stipends and other expenses during their year of service. Some of those workers, faced with the prospect of no further money or housing, said they were getting help from the very communities where they had been placed for a job and a place to sleep. 'Terminating nearly $400 million in AmeriCorps grants with no advanced notice is already having a detrimental impact on the vast network that makes up the national service field in the United States,' said Kaira Esgate, the chief executive of America's Service Commissions. 'Thousands of people who have steadfastly dedicated their lives to serving their country through AmeriCorps are finding their livelihoods suddenly thrown into jeopardy, and hundreds of communities are losing critical services,' she said. The move drew a threat by California and other states to sue and even a smattering of Republican criticism. 'I support improving efficiency and eliminating waste,' Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, wrote on social media, 'but I would have to object to cutting AmeriCorps grants like those that support Louisiana's veterans and organizations that provide crucial support after hurricanes and natural disasters.' The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The Trump administration had already gutted most of the rest of AmeriCorps. At the direction of Elon Musk's government-cutting team, nearly all of AmeriCorps' federal staff was placed on leave this month. The emails sent on Friday were signed by the agency's interim head, Jennifer Bastress Tahmasebi. Mr. Musk's team also ended one of AmeriCorps' major service programs, the National Civilian Community Corps, sending home hundreds of workers stationed across the country who were working on disaster response projects. After receiving sudden notification of the broad cuts on Friday, state commissions were slowly informing organizations that their funding had been cut and that their workers, who receive a minimal stipend and sometimes housing and money for food, could not be paid for the remainder of their service. The loss of the grants, which are awarded in cycles, would not necessarily be immediate, and many organizations were left wondering whether they were affected. Sarah Riley, the head of High Rocks, a West Virginia nonprofit that runs educational programs, from educational youth summer camps to college prep, spent four days in distress over the future of the group's federal funding. On Tuesday morning, she received a call from the state commission telling her that her organization's two AmeriCorps grants had been canceled. High Rocks relies heavily on federal grants in the absence of other kinds of investment in the poor, rural parts of the state where it sets up programming. Ms. Riley was overcome with emotion during a video call Tuesday afternoon as she thanked her AmeriCorps workers for their service. 'It wasn't anything we did wrong; I want to emphasize that,' Ms. Riley said. Alex Tran, who has participated in multiple AmeriCorps programs and received a lifetime service award from former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., was devastated to hear on Friday that his latest program was ending. Mr. Tran has done disaster recovery and conservation work, among other volunteer work for AmeriCorps. He had recently begun a new role as part of the VISTA program that tapped into his experience and helped steward service members nearing the end of their time in AmeriCorps toward public service careers. 'Every dollar invested in the community gets more than invested back. DOGE thinks that they're looking for fraud-based abuse?' Mr. Tran said, referring to Mr. Musk's government cost cutting team. 'I'd like to believe them, but at the same time, I don't see it.'
Boston Globe
17-04-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Trump administration shuts down volunteer agency in latest DOGE takeover
The agency's shutdown followed a playbook familiar to employees of the US Agency for International Development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Agency for Global Media and a number of other smaller, semi-independent agencies. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Representatives from the Department of Government Efficiency, the team of presidential cost-cutters run by billionaire Elon Musk, arrived at the agency last week. Advertisement The shutdown has unfolded at a slower pace than in other parts of the government because the agency had more than 700 young adult volunteers working far from home — on projects like hurricane disaster recovery — and had to be safely returned. A small number of agency officials remain on the job to wind down operations, the people said. Earlier: DOGE Places Entire Staff of Federal Homelessness Agency on Leave The White House and an AmeriCorps spokeswoman did not return a request for comment late Wednesday. Advertisement Officially known as the Corporation for National and Community Service, AmeriCorps had 770 employees as of last year, according to federal data. Its total budget was about $1.3 billion. It was founded in 1965 as the domestic counterpart to the Peace Corps. Other AmeriCorps programs include VISTA, or Volunteers in Service to America, an anti-poverty program with 7,000 members, grant-funded state and local programs, and various volunteer programs for senior citizens. President Donald Trump first proposed eliminating the agency in his 2017 budget, arguing that 'subsidizing the operation of nonprofit organizations is outside the role of the federal government.'
