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.