Sudden termination of AmeriCorps funding in Wisconsin has left hundreds of young service workers jobless and disrupted vital services across schools, nonprofits, and community health programs. The cuts eliminated the jobs of 430 active AmeriCorps members in Wisconsin, including 69 in Dane County, and halted programming at more than 300 sites statewide.
The AmeriCorps members worked in schools, clinics, homeless shelters and other direct service agencies.
Serve Wisconsin, the state agency that oversees AmeriCorps programs in Wisconsin, learned at about 6:20 pm Friday that all funding for AmeriCorps programs was terminated effective immediately because the programs no longer “effectuate agency priorities.”
The AmeriCorps website lists the agency’s priorities as disaster services, economic opportunity, education, environmental stewardship, healthy futures, and supporting veterans and military families.
Serve Wisconsin executive director Jeanne Duffy said the cut will also affect about 680 service workers scheduled to work in summer programs.
“We should have been better prepared,” Duffy said, after agents of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, the Elon Musk-led agency that has slashed spending across the federal government, entered the national AmeriCorps offices April 8.
Serve Wisconsin staff then worked to notify the nonprofit and local government agencies across the state that employ AmeriCorps service workers, who then had to notify the workers themselves before they came to work Monday.
“She’s going from working 45-50 hours a week to nothing,” said Erica Krug, Farm to School director for Rooted, which serves the Department of Public Instruction’s Farm to School program in Madison. “It’s incredibly important to have (her) working… we are able to provide this really high-quality nutrition and garden education at some of the schools in Madison that have the highest economic needs.”
Rooted was able to find money in its budget to keep its one AmeriCorps staffer employed through the end of the school year, and is now seeking donations to keep the program going next year.
United Way of Dane County (UWDC), which employs 27 AmeriCorps members in its Schools of Hope and Achievement Connections tutoring programs in Madison and Middleton-Cross Plains school districts, was only able to keep its staff on for one additional week, which ends today.
The loss of those staffers also cuts off 178 volunteer tutors who were helping more than 1,000 students with reading and math, as AmeriCorps staff also serve as coordinators for community volunteers.
“These 27 AmeriCorps workers… really are the bridge, because a lot of times, schools don’t necessarily have capacity to manage volunteers… They’re also sort of the trusted person in the school—the point person—and they’re also tutors themselves,” said UWCD CEO Renee Moe. “With the results that we see—kids improving their text reading levels, engagement, attendance, academic scores—it’s a very efficient program and it gets really good outcomes. It helps build their confidence. It also helps build community support and proximity, which we know is important for community health.”
Serve Wisconsin staff said 52 AmeriCorps members were working in three programs based in Dane County, including the Dane County Department of Human Services’ Partners for After School Success and the UWDC’s two tutoring programs.
Additionally, six statewide programs employed 17 more AmeriCorps through Easterseals Wisconsin, Marshfield Clinic Health System Community Corps, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Farm to School, Wisconsin Association for Homeless and Runaway Services, Wisconsin Association of Free & Charitable Clinics and WisCorps.
Serve Wisconsin also oversees the AmeriCorps Seniors program, which has not yet been eliminated. It also supports nonprofit organizations in volunteer recruitment and management; funding for that activity has been eliminated.
Uncertain future
Wisconsin Attorney General Joshua Kaul joined two dozen other states in suing the federal government to restore the $400 million in funding that DOGE cut, $14 million of which funded programs in Wisconsin.
Duffy said AmeriCorps has processes in place to terminate grants if necessary, none of which were followed. She said even a victorious lawsuit wouldn’t necessarily restore the programs.
“Even if we win [the lawsuit], we might lose—because who’s going to trust us again?” Duffy asked. She noted that one Fresh Start program in Beloit gets AmeriCorps funding through a national program, which has not been cut. Nevertheless, that program is not even going to apply for funding for next year.
UWDC CEO Moe said the organization will work to re-envision the Schools of Hope and Achievement Connection programs so they can go on without AmeriCorps funding. That will include seeking $650,000 in private donations.
“I think that there are different ways to do it,” Moe said. “How does a community outreach and engagement volunteering project really support the goals of what the school is trying to accomplish?”
Moe said anyone who has been part of the Schools of Hope or Achievement Connections programs in the past can support that effort by emailing [email protected] to share their stories.
“Someone who was affected 10-20 years ago could add some perspective to help us with what’s next,” she said.
In the meantime, community members can support Rooted and its work in the Farm to School program by donating at this link, or the UWDC in its tutoring programs by donating at this link.
