On a Sunday evening in late April, several local nonprofit groups that rely on AmeriCorps grants received official word: The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE, had terminated nearly $400 million in federal AmeriCorps grants nationwide, closing some 1,000 community service programs and demobilizing more than 30,000 AmeriCorps members.
Started in 1993, AmeriCorps is the federal agency for volunteerism and national service. Its largest arm, AmeriCorps State and National, had congressionally approved funding of $557 million for 2025 and has awarded grants to groups addressing community needs in education, environmental protection, public health and safety, to name a few. Adults 18 and older (and typically on the younger side) join AmeriCorps to work in direct service positions; they receive a modest living allowance, health benefits, child care assistance, professional training and awards of up to $7,395 to put toward higher education costs.
The announcement of the cuts sent shock waves through AmeriCorps members and the organizations they work for.
“The order was to suspend services immediately,” says Ian Hadley, executive director of 916 Ink, a Sacramento-based literacy organization funded in part by AmeriCorps.
Then, on June 5, U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman of Maryland granted a temporary block on that termination in 24 states that had sued — California included. The lawsuit contends, among other claims, that it is illegal for the administration to unilaterally disband the agency created by Congress. While the block may ultimately be good news for some AmeriCorps members and organizations that depend on the funding, it addresses less than half of the AmeriCorps programs in the U.S. and doesn’t order reinstatement of the nearly 85% of AmeriCorps employees who were terminated in April. The reality of how it will all play out remains in question.
During the interim six weeks, significant decisions were made by people and organizations affected by the cuts.
Sunday night crisis
At 916 Ink, where AmeriCorps members have run its creative writing workshops and reading tutoring — the work central to its mission — Hadley needed to act fast when the cuts were announced on April 27. He called emergency meetings with board leadership and staff. “I hated to do this to them on Sunday,” he says, “but we had to tell people not to come in the next day.”
His workforce was gutted: The 23 AmeriCorps members at 916 Ink made up half of its team. Nine full-time and 14 half-time positions had been occupied by dedicated AmeriCorps members who worked directly with some 500 students at 28 area school sites. Hadley estimates, those young adults supplied nearly 2,500 hours and offset about $50,000 in payroll each month, a severe blow to his bottom line.
“We’re having conversations with district partners and funders to try and maintain capacity, same number of schools, same number of workshops,” Hadley says. “We had established a trajectory toward growth, more impact in the community … I didn’t think I’d be talking about, can we maintain?”
In April, Marissa Britto, 27, one of 916 Ink’s full-time AmeriCorps members, was in her second year of service. With her associate of arts degree in English, she edited manuscripts (since 2010, 916 Ink has published more than 300 books) and led writing workshops. The announcement meant she suddenly had no job and no income. Her rent was due within days. “I needed a job immediately,” Britto says.
At first, AmeriCorps members went on “pause,” a limbo status of no work and no pay, awaiting further word. They could maintain their pause till May 25 (at which point their service would terminate) or withdraw. Britto withdrew.
“Withdrawing enabled 916 Ink to offer me a temporary [staff] position to help finish the editing for the semester,” she says. “I’m grateful for that.”
She also could collect her education stipend — pro-rated due to her forced shortened service. She accepted a part-time position at another local arts organization to help ends meet. “I did form a close connection with my students,” she says. “I wasn’t able to see my classes through. It’s been really hard for me.”
Racing to provide coverage and raise funds
At Breakthrough Sacramento, which is partially funded by AmeriCorps, it’s a similar scenario. Breakthrough runs year-round college-prep programs for under-resourced youth, with an adjacent mission to inspire them to become future educators.
Executive Director Faith Galati says 95% of Breakthrough students attend college, typically as first-generation students. Her annual roster of AmeriCorps members has ranged from 12 to 35, depending on need and season; they’ve served as mentors and tutors to the students. When news of the cuts broke, she mobilized staff to cover school sites the next day.
“My program manager, high school resilience manager … all hands on deck, doing the tutoring to get us to the end of the school year,” she says, adding that students had to immediately adjust to new educators. “The way Breakthrough works so successfully is students form a connection with their tutor; they always have the same tutor. It was disruptive. It took us at least two weeks to get them to settle in.”
Galati immediately crunched numbers and reached out to supporters and donors. With that infusion, she hired seven people back to finish the school year’s tutoring. She then scrambled to fund Breakthrough’s summer sessions. “We had already gone through the recruiting process for students,” she says. “They had applied, interviewed, been accepted.”
Without AmeriCorps members as teacher interns, she says, it will cost the organization approximately $100,000 for staffing. By applying for grants and reaching out to their most reliable donors, she says, they have been able to raise most of the required money.
Jasmine Visitacion, 20, was an AmeriCorps member tutoring middle schoolers with Breakthrough when grants were canceled. She withdrew, and Breakthrough was able to hire her back temporarily through its donor support. She once attended Breakthrough as a student, and now takes classes within Los Rios Community College District. She hopes to return to AmeriCorps, but with its uncertain future, she isn’t sure it’s feasible.
“They’re helping my community and many other communities around the United States,” she says. “It’s a really good program to be a part of. My main purpose is to help people the way others helped me when I was growing up. This is my part of repaying them.”
Project delays and sad goodbyes
The emotions around the situation can’t be understated. At Community Shop Class, a neighborhood learning center in Oak Park that teaches young people basic building and repair skills, founder and Executive Director Chad Orcutt lost funding for his nine devoted AmeriCorps members. “All of them gathered together to tell me they had been disbanded and they were being shipped home,” he says. “Nine kids crying on a video call telling me they got pushed out.”
The cancellation of AmeriCorps contracts, Orcutt says, meant his Community Bike Shop (to teach bicycle repair skills) wouldn’t be finished by summer. He then paid more than $12,000 for outside labor to hurry it along; in mid-June, it still wasn’t done. Orcutt also won’t hold a long-planned AmeriCorps training this coming fall — a revenue driver he had counted on to pay rent on his 4,000-square-foot facility. “We haven’t found anything to fill that spot yet,” he says, noting that some 70 AmeriCorps members would have attended.
It’s not just about the benefits AmeriCorps brings to communities, Orcutt says, but the growth and compassion it inspires in the people who sign on. “Those young people who completed the program, they were going to live lives of service. They were going to be volunteers for the rest of their lives.”
And while the federal judge’s block on cutting AmeriCorps funding is a step in the right direction, the fact that it’s temporary and only addresses part of the initial cancellation creates uncertainty among nonprofit group leaders. They have also expressed some skepticism based on potential for legal back-and-forth — which has taken place with other DOGE actions.
“We’re excited about the ruling,” Orcutt says. “But some of the impact can’t be fixed.”
Krista Minard has been a volunteer in 916 Ink writing workshops since 2012.
This story is part of the Solving Sacramento journalism collaborative. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, Capital Public Radio, Hmong Daily News, Outword, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review and Sacramento Observer. Support stories like these here, and sign up for our monthly newsletter.
By Krista Minard
