![\"Former](\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/danielzare-1024x761.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Former AmeriCorps service member Daniel Zare, 27, visits Project Change at Sligo Middle School on Monday, Aug. 11 in Silver Spring, Maryland, where he mentored students before federal government cuts in April (Ashley Murray\/States Newsroom).<\/p>\n
SILVER SPRING, Md. \u2014 Daniel Zare worked one-on-one as an AmeriCorps member with students going through rough times in school, lightening teachers\u2019 workload in the classroom.<\/p>\n
At AmeriCorps Project CHANGE, based in Silver Spring\u2019s Sligo Middle School, Zare was one of several in his group who tracked adolescents\u2019 emotional and social wellbeing over months using a system dubbed \u201cMy Score.\u201d They then helped support the kids who were struggling the most.<\/p>\n
In April, though, the program screeched to a halt. That\u2019s when the Trump administration abruptly canceled nearly $400 million in active AmeriCorps grants across the United States that fund volunteers who embed in communities, in exchange for a small stipend and education award.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the work that we had culminating toward the end of the year, the relationships that we built with teachers and students and officials, it just completely went kaput because we were told we weren\u2019t allowed to go to work at all,\u201d Zare, 27, told States Newsroom.<\/p>\n
Like so many longstanding federal programs and institutions severely reduced or dismantled as part of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency project, AmeriCorps \u2014 and its nonprofit partners \u2014 are now assessing the damage and seeking a way forward.<\/p>\n
AmeriCorps programs that survived last spring\u2019s DOGE cuts are slowly beginning a new year of service amid major uncertainty over whether they will be able to continue their work in classrooms, food banks, senior centers and other community hubs.<\/p>\n
AmeriCorps, a federal agency signed into law in 1993 by former President Bill Clinton, places roughly 200,000 members across the United States at 35,000 service locations, according to current agency data.<\/p>\n
Members serve in schools, local governments and with a wide range of nonprofits that focus on health, disaster relief, environmental stewardship, workforce development and veterans.<\/p>\n
The staffers, who pledge to \u201cget things done for America,\u201d are paid a modest living allowance that hovers around the poverty line. Some, but not all, can get health insurance while in the program.<\/p>\n
Members who complete their service term, which usually lasts from 10 to 12 months, receive an education award that can be used to pursue a degree, earn a trade certificate or pay student loans.<\/p>\n
AmeriCorps federal dollars reach programs via a couple routes. In many cases, grants flow from AmeriCorps to governor-led state and territorial commissions that divvy them up according to local priorities. In other cases, federal dollars flow straight to a program via a competitive grant process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kaira Esgate, CEO of America\u2019s Service Commissions, said when the Trump administration ordered the cuts in April, some states lost large portions of their AmeriCorps portfolio, while other states fared better.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were no real clear trend lines around what or who got terminated and why,\u201d said Esgate, whose member organization represents all 49 state commissions (South Dakota doesn\u2019t have one) and the commissions for the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n
Abby Andre, executive director of The Impact Project, an initiative of Public Service Ventures Ltd., a private corporation that launches and scales solutions to strengthen public service and communities., has been collecting data and plotting on an\u00a0interactive map<\/a> where AmeriCorps programs have been canceled. Andre, a former Department of Justice litigator, has also worked with her team to build other maps showing where federal workforce cuts have been felt across the country.<\/p>\n \u201cAmeriCorps is a really great example of the federal dollars being kind of invisible in communities. Communities often don\u2019t know that a local food bank or a senior center are supported by AmeriCorps volunteers and AmeriCorps money,\u201d said Andre, who taught administrative law at the Vermont Law School after working under President Barack Obama and in Trump\u2019s first administration.<\/p>\n Andre said communities with a lack of social services, including in rural areas, will likely feel the biggest losses without an AmeriCorps presence because the agency \u201cfacilitates pennies-on-the-dollar type services through volunteer work.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not as though if these community services folded, those communities would have the money to fund equal or better services through the private market,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The Maryland Governor\u2019s Office on Service and Volunteerism gave the green light to Project CHANGE to keep its program, which serves Montgomery County in suburban Washington, D.C., running through the upcoming school year.<\/p>\n Paul Costello, director of Project CHANGE, is now scrambling to launch a new AmeriCorps cohort after receiving the news on July 22 that the initiative had been funded. He estimates members won\u2019t be able to begin until almost a month into the school year.<\/p>\n \u201cSadly, AmeriCorps, as a brand name, is badly damaged, I think. I mean, I\u2019ve got a meeting on Wednesday with a major partner who told us two weeks ago \u2018We thought you were dead,\u2019\u201d Costello told States Newsroom in an Aug. 11 interview.<\/p>\n Costello\u2019s program not only places service members in Montgomery County Public Schools, where Zare served, but also with partners including Community Bridges, Montgomery Housing Partnership and Family Learning Solutions.<\/p>\n The nonprofits respectively focus on helping adolescent girls from diverse backgrounds, children whose families live in community-developed affordable housing units and teens eyeing college and career paths.<\/p>\n The county\u2019s school system is the largest in the state and serves a highly diverse population. About\u00a044% of the system\u2019s 160,000 students\u00a0<\/a>qualify for free and reduced meals, and close to 20% are learning English while continuing to speak another language at home.<\/p>\n Costello\u2019s 18 cohort members embedded in those schools and nonprofits this past academic year were suddenly yanked in April when the government cut his grant. The partners, which had planned and budgeted to have the members through June, were thrown into \u201ctotal chaos,\u201d Costello said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo some of them are so desperate, they rely on their members. They had to dig into their pockets to keep them on as staff. And then we go back to them this year and say, \u2018You want members this year?\u2019 AmeriCorps has made no attempt to make them whole. So they\u2019ve been screwed,\u201d Costello said.<\/p>\n AmeriCorps did not respond to States Newsroom\u2019s questions about nonprofits losing money.<\/p>\n The federal courts granted some relief to members and organizations who abruptly lost living allowances and contractually obligated funding.<\/p>\n A\u00a0Maryland<\/a> federal district judge ordered in June that funding and positions\u00a0 be restored in 24 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia that sued the agency.<\/p>\n Another district judge in the state also handed a\u00a0win<\/a> to more than a dozen nonprofits from across the country that sued to recover funding they were owed.<\/p>\n But for many it was too late, and AmeriCorps\u2019 future still feels shaky.<\/p>\n After suddenly losing his living allowance in April, Zare had to leave Silver Spring.<\/p>\n \u201cI was renting a room off of Georgia (Avenue), and I was not able to pay rent there anymore, so I actually moved back to my mom\u2019s in Germantown for the time being,\u201d he told States Newsroom in August, referring to another Maryland suburb.<\/p>\n Hillary Kane, director of the Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development, said by the time the court orders were issued, many of her AmeriCorps members had already found other positions and she had completely let go of one of her full-time staffers.<\/p>\n While the court injunctions were \u201cwelcome news,\u201d reinstating the programs remained \u201cquestionable,\u201d Kane\u00a0wrote<\/a> in a July 21 update for Nonprofit Quarterly.<\/p>\n Kane\u2019s organization is a member of the National College Attainment Network, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that was among the successful plaintiffs.<\/p>\n Other organizations that joined the lawsuit are based in California, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Virginia.<\/p>\n The Democratic-led states that won reinstatement for AmeriCorps members include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.<\/p>\n Kane got news on July 10 that PennSERVE, Pennsylvania\u2019s state service commission, reinstated funding for her AmeriCorps program that places members in four West Philadelphia high schools to mentor students on their post-graduation plans.<\/p>\n The late notice meant Kane could only begin recruiting new members in mid-July.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so our start date has to be a bit fluid,\u201d Kane told States Newsroom during a July 22 interview. \u201cWe have to essentially recruit people into this one-year cohort position, and say, \u2018We\u2019re hoping to start September 2, but we\u2019re not 100% sure. Can you kind of just roll with it?\u2019 It\u2019s an awkward position to have to be in.\u201d<\/p>\n Other AmeriCorps programs have not fared so well, as the Trump administration\u2019s Office of Management and Budget continues to withhold funds that were appropriated by Congress for the ongoing fiscal year.<\/p>\n Trump signed legislation in March that extended the $1.26 billion for AmeriCorps for the full 2025 fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30.<\/p>\n Kane said the most \u201cinsidious\u201d part of the recent AmeriCorps storyline is that programs that receive grants directly from the federal agency are being strung along by OMB.<\/p>\n \u201cSo there are agencies who have been theoretically awarded money, but they\u2019re like, \u2018Is it actually going to happen? Should I spend all this money and then not be able to bill the federal government to reimburse me if OMB is going to hold it hostage?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Programs at risk include 130 recently expired contracts for AmeriCorps Foster Grandparent and Senior Companions programs that support roughly 6,000 senior citizen volunteers across 35 states. The programs are eligible for just over $50 million for the new service year, which should be off to a start.<\/p>\n A bipartisan group of U.S. senators pressed the executive branch agency on Aug. 1 to release the funds.<\/p>\n \u201cFurther delays in grantmaking will have immediate and irreversible consequences for programs, AmeriCorps members, and communities,\u201d the senators\u00a0wrote<\/a> in a letter to OMB Director Russ Vought.<\/p>\n Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina joined Democratic Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware, Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York in signing the letter. All are members of the Senate National Service Caucus.<\/p>\n The White House and AmeriCorps did not respond for comment.<\/p>\nLosing trust<\/h4>\n
\n\n ![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/paulcostello-scaled.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>Legal action<\/h4>\n
Going forward?<\/h4>\n
\n\n ![\"The](\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/americorpspledge-scaled.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>Congress pleads with budget office<\/h4>\n
![\"Former](\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/danielzaretwo-scaled.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>