Federal budget cuts force organizations to dismiss members, cancel programs, and reduce services.
Updated: May. 03, 2025, 5:41 a.m.AmeriCorps members who respond to disasters and help nonprofits are let go in DOGE cuts WASHINGTON, D. C. - Nearly 600 AmeriCorps members throughout Ohio were dismissed last week after more than a thousand AmeriCorps programs nationwide were slashed as part of government cost-cutting efforts.
Out of the $400 million in national AmeriCorps grants canceled by the Department of Government Efficiency last Friday, more than $9 million came from Ohio entities doing work in education, health care, the environment, social services, historic preservation and other fields. In Northeast Ohio alone, the cuts forced out dozens of corps members who were serving Cleveland area school children, providing local social services and protecting area parks and waterways. Paid small stipends and ineligible for unemployment benefits, the defunded workers around the country had jobs that included helping out in public schools, career training, fighting childhood obesity, college counseling, water quality monitoring, surveying historic properties, and invasive species removal. “It is devastating,” says University Settlements Executive Director Richaun N. Bunton, whose non-profit social services organization was told last week that its nine AmeriCorps workers had to immediately stop work. As a result, she said an upcoming job fair coordinated by one of the workers has been canceled. The work they did in workforce development fields like helping to improve community reading, financial literacy and computer skills, will go by the wayside. “This was truly a loss, not just to us, but the impact it has is like a domino effect,” says Bunton, whose 99-year-old organization has partnered with AmeriCorps for 11 years. The organization’s AmeriCorps/Workforce Development Manager Sandra Buckner said its AmeriCorps participants were paid around $1,800 monthly before taxes. She said University Settlements and other agencies with AmeriCorps workers thought the funding was safe and were shocked by the sudden cancellation. Buckner said some of their AmeriCorps workers had no other income source, are not sure they’ll be able to get other jobs at a time when massive numbers of federal workers are being laid off, and fear eviction when next month’s rent is due. The clients they served are also upset by the cut-off, says Buckner. “They feel like they were just thrown to the wind with no safety net, no fair warning, no nothing,” Buckner says. “It was devastating to them, it was devastating to the host sites, it was devastating to the clients that they worked with.” The cuts forced College Now Greater Cleveland to dismiss its 33 AmeriCorps members, according to chief marketing and communications officer Alison Bibb-Carson. The workers helped guide middle and high school students through college and career exploration at four host sites throughout Ohio, including College Now Greater Cleveland; I Know I Can in Columbus; Ninde Scholars of Oberlin College; and Stark Education Partnership in Stark County. During the 2023-24 school year alone, the organization’s AmeriCorps members served nearly 13,400 unique middle and high school students, along with nearly 1,100 current college students and adult learners, she said. “The work that Ohio AmeriCorps College and Career Guides performed in schools had been an important component to helping many students enroll in college and complete a degree program – a necessity for careers and a catalyst for lifting individuals and communities out of poverty," said Bibb-Carson. Erica Matheny, who serves as executive director of Tinker’s Creek Watershed Partners in Twinsburg, said the sudden defunding of its AmeriCorps affiliated program “is a devastating blow—not only to our organization and our 32 service members, but to communities across the region that have benefited from their work." “This abrupt action forced us to immediately end service for all of our members, with no transition period, no safety net, and no continued health coverage or stipends,” said a statement from Matheny. Describing them as “emerging environmental professionals,” she said they worked at 17 host sites across northern Ohio including Cleveland Metroparks, Holden Arboretum, The Nature Conservancy, Cuyahoga and Summit County Soil & Water Conservation Districts, and many others. Over the past six years, she said AmeriCorps members in their program have restored habitats, removed invasive species, led public education efforts, expanded green infrastructure, conducted water quality monitoring, and helped communities become more resilient in the face of climate change. “This isn’t just a program loss—it‘s a capacity crisis,“ said Matheny. ”We’ve lost critical workforce in the environmental sector, opportunities for community engagement, and a key pathway for young professionals into environmental careers." A handful of Ohio’s AmeriCorps grantees were left intact, including the Greater Cleveland Neighborhood Centers Association, whose 23 current AmeriCorps members focus on education, including out-of-school programs for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. “There is definitely a lot of sadness for the other programs, not just because of the staff and the members, but because of the participants that they serve,” said its Executive Director, Allison Wallace. AmeriCorps is an independent federal agency tasked with engaging Americans in meaningful community-based service that directly address the country’s educational, public safety, and environmental needs. Before the cuts, it provided opportunities for more than 200,000 Americans to serve their communities each year.After the cuts were announced, Democratic attorneys general from two dozen states and the District of Columbiathe terminated grants and the dismantling of the agency through an 85% reduction of its workforce. A statement from one of the Attorneys General who filed the lawsuit, Connecticut‘s William Tong, described gutting AmeriCorps as a “cruel and lawless blow” to communities across his state. “Trump has zero authority to bypass Congress to unilaterally dismantle this important work,” said Tong. A group of Democratic U.S. Congress members including Shontel Brown of Warrensville Heights, Marcy Kaptur of Toledo, Joyce Beatty of Columbus and Greg Landsman of CincinnatiThe letter pointed out that a 2020 study found that for every one dollar that Congress appropriates to AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps Seniors programs, they return over $17 in benefits to society, program members and the government. It also said eliminating AmeriCorps would violate the law, and urged Trump to work with Congress to improve the program “so that more Americans have the opportunity to serve their communities.” “We are deeply concerned these actions will prevent the agency from continuing to deliver critical services, which include supporting veterans, fighting wildfires, tutoring in schools, combatting the fentanyl epidemic, and much more,” their letter said. Last month, a bipartisan group of Congress members introduced legislation that would prohibit federal dollars from being used to carry out AmeriCorps cuts and damaging the agency’s core functions., Nebraska’s Don Bacon, said he supports Trump‘s efforts to cut the size and cost of federal government, but is “deeply troubled that once again, they are using a sledgehammer approach on vital programs such as Americorps, which gives young people an opportunity to serve their country through programs such as disaster relief efforts and food banks.” “It seems that no thought goes into what gets cut, and DOGE is just slashing to meet some number goal,” Bacon continued.”: $248,597 - 14 AmeriCorps members who screen, provide education, and referrals to community resources including mental health care, substance use disorder treatment, and social needs in Mercy Health Cincinnati Emergency Departments in Butler, Clermont, Hamilton, and Warren Counties.: $809,844 - 74 AmeriCorps members who facilitate a rural and urban volunteer public health corps.$376,920 - 70 AmeriCorps members who build capacity for local nonprofits and governmental agencies.$774,984, 32 AmeriCorps members who provide highly needed college and career access and readiness services in 6 Ohio communities .$1,263,644 - 55 AmeriCorps members who provide academic support and mentoring to students in 5 public schools in Cleveland, Ohio.: $1,075,000 - 43 AmeriCorps members who provide academic support and mentoring to students in 6 public schools in Columbus, Ohio.: $161,448 - 6 AmeriCorps members who sample and monitor local waterways, educate the public and K-12 students, assist with Master Rain Gardener trainings, plant trees and rain gardens, remove invasive species, lead stream walks and litter collection events, develop and post educational information as well as assist with the Rain Barrel Art Project and the Caring For Our Watersheds contest.: $115,544 - 15 AmeriCorps members who deliver health and wellness-promoting activities in 15 school sites across Cuyahoga County..: $177,994 - 9 AmeriCorps members who provide financial literacy, adult basic education and basic skill development in Cleveland.$330,411 - 37 AmeriCorps members who serve in an environmental stewardship corps providing trail reconstruction and increasing trail accessibility, promoting community engagement in the park system as well engaging community organizations to increase capacity for trail related projects and investments in Ohio, and promoting forest health through service at the Buckeye State Tree Nursery, with a focus on rural, low-income, and Appalachian communities.$153,531 - 20 AmeriCorps members who provide childhood obesity prevention programming in the cities of Elyria, Lorain, North Olmsted, Berea, Lakewood and Cleveland.: $1,207,367 cost reimbursement for the state entity that administers AmeriCorps programs in Ohio.: $94,500 - 5 AmeriCorps members who serve as outreach specialists to link the target population to economic opportunity resources in specified NCH clinics.: $283,766 - 21 AmeriCorps members who serve at-risk college students who are facing academic and nonacademic barriers that are preventing academic success, retention and degree or credential attainment at:Case Western Reserve University Kent State University Ohio University Ohio University Eastern University of Cincinnati Breakthrough Cincinnati Inc. : $388,512 - 68 AmeriCorps members; 66 serve as the teachers of its summer academic enrichment program for underrepresented youth in Greater Cincinnati and 2 AmeriCorps members support students year-round.: $230,245 - 10 AmeriCorps members who increase local history organizations’ capacity by providing coaching, training, and assistance to their staff and volunteers, and who increase the ability of communities to plan for historic preservation by surveying historic properties and adding them to the Ohio Historic Inventory.$756,263 - 66 AmeriCorps members who provide direct literacy instruction to children from birth through age five in nonprofit child care and public preschool, pre-kindergarten, and kindergarten classrooms.$766,595 - 32 AmeriCorps members who focus on conservation, stewardship, and environmental education to improve water quality, maintain local habitats, and increase public awareness in the Lake Erie watershed.
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