AmeriCorps Cut
While you wait...
This past week DOGE's chainsaw came for AmeriCorps — the program has been decimated: volunteers sent home, grants yanked, and $400 million dollars of funding, about 40%, are gone.
AmeriCorps, a 30-year-old program that serves as domestic Peace Corps provides critical infrastructure to helping with natural disasters, pushing back against poverty, and supporting service-oriented non-profits.
The cuts — spread among all 50 states, several territories and Washington, D.C. — would shutter more than 1,000 programs and abruptly end the service of more than 32,000 AmeriCorps workers, said the nonprofit, called America’s Service Commissions.
This hits home because I served in AmeriCorps back in 2012-2013 in Portland, OR. I was a part of the anti-poverty program, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA). I worked out of a community center with Parks and Rec and the Mayor's office. We helped bring a scholarship to high school students so they could get a post-secondary education.
I tutored, ran classes on financial aid. I loved being a part of Portland's community for a year. I was one small part of a larger cause to help improve the grueling and magnificanly diffcult situation of being born poor, diffcult circumstances in this country.
AmeriCorps wasn't perfect, but everyday people who volunteer and work inside of the program try to improve American's lives. For many Americans, life is hard — people have to find lifelines.
It's equally hard for non-profits, cities, schools, counties. So they apply for AmeriCorps volunteers (and grants) to come in and help in natural disasters and the everyday grind of trying to build a thriving and strong community.
Also, AmeriCorps launched my professional career in a lot of ways. I was an unstable 23 year old at the time without a direction and a lot of personal difficulty. AmeriCorps gave me that grounding, and helped me get into the Peace Corps, which I did right after in Mongolia.
Now, more than 20 states are suing the Trump administration to fight this action against a program that was trying to help everyday Americans. Something people with power should strive to do.
Thanks for reading. I hope your name is called soon.