CT AmeriCorps programs shut down by Trump administration cuts
Laura Tillman / CT Mirror
Gov. Ned Lamont speaks at a press conference about cuts to AmeriCorps programs in Connecticut.
Until last week, Makayla Field oversaw a team of AmeriCorps members who were working in preschool classrooms in Willimantic. The program, called Jumpstart, was scheduled to wrap up this week when those educators-in-training would say their end of the year goodbyes to students.
But on the evening of April 30, Field had to reach out to her team with her own goodbye. She informed them that the program had been cut. It was just one of scores of programs on the chopping block as the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) dismantles an ever-widening range of programs.
The Jumpstart team didn’t get to go back to the classroom.
“They told them they were coming back on Thursday and they weren’t,” Field said. “I’m very big on keeping promises to children, so my Corps members were devastated that they made that promise and they didn’t get to see it through.”
In Connecticut, 184 AmeriCorps members were working on the Jumpstart team. They were part of a national agency that contracts workers and volunteers, a total of 200,000 in 35,000 locations across the country, to serve Americans. Together, they work in communities to help them to recover from natural disaster, work on environmental conservation and education, help seniors stay in their homes, support veterans and more.
On April 25, Connecticut officials learned that the state-administered portions of AmeriCorps had been abruptly cut, along with its programs for senior volunteers and 85% of its federal workforce. On April 29, Attorney General William Tong joined a lawsuit to sue the Trump administration for cutting the program.
“Gutting AmeriCorps is an irrational, cruel and lawless blow to communities across Connecticut and the proud, longstanding tradition of giving back in our country,” Tong said in a press release. “Trump has zero authority to bypass Congress to unilaterally dismantle this important work.”
For many young people, the program is a way to give back to their country, while also learning skills that can prepare them to join the workforce. Some take a gap year between high school and college, others work for AmeriCorps while they are figuring out what to do next. They earn a modest wage ranging from $18,700 to $37,400 over 10 to 12 months, and are eligible to receive an education award that can be used for tuition or to pay back student loans.
Over time, AmeriCorps has grown to encompass a variety of programs, from the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps for people age 18 and 26, to programs that help seniors volunteer, like Foster Grandparents and RSVP.
During a press conference on Wednesday, state officials highlighted the success of the AmeriCorps programs in Connecticut and the effect of the cuts. In some cases, programs and employees cut by DOGE have been reinstated following court battles.
Gov. Ned Lamont showed support for the AmeriCorps program at the press conference and said he was getting sick of DOGE.
“I thought DOGE was all about waste, fraud and abuse — and sign me up if that’s what it’s about,” Lamont said. “But AmeriCorps has nothing to do with waste, fraud and abuse. AmeriCorps is bringing out the best in folks age 18 to 25, making sure that they have the opportunity to serve in their greater community.”
Lamont said he had wanted to add even more resources to AmeriCorps. In March, Lamont announced that he was awarding more than $38,000 in mini-grants to youth-led initiatives. “I wasn’t doubling down on a lot of things in our budget this last cycle, but I wanted to double down on AmeriCorps,” Lamont said.
He added that he wanted to give more young people the opportunity to be part of something bigger than themselves, “especially coming out of COVID, especially with some of the stress and mental health issues out there. That’s what we wanted to expand, and that’s what DOGE wants to cut.”
Emma Preuss and Zoe Kendall, members of AmeriCorps who recently learned their work at an educational program in Stonington at the New England Science & Sailing Foundation had been eliminated, talked about how they’d been teaching underserved youth from Bridgeport and New London about marine science. More than half of participants receive financial aid.
“Kids that thought they’d never want to go in the ocean are the kids that, by the end of the day, you can’t get them out of the water,” Preuss said. “They say, ‘I’m gonna be a fisherman now, I’m gonna be a scientist.’ You really see these kids transform in front of your eyes, where the ocean becomes a place that they just saw as part of their city to a place where they can actually interact with and engage with.”
Andrew Oravecz, an alum of AmeriCorps and the program director for a recently cut AmeriCorps program called Health Forward, spoke to the press on Wednesday, repeatedly invoking the pledge that is made by AmeriCorps volunteers. That pledge states, “I will get things done for America – to make our people safer, smarter, and healthier. I will bring Americans together to strengthen our communities. Faced with apathy, I will take action. Faced with conflict, I will seek common ground. Faced with adversity, I will persevere.”
“I’m someone that believes that we have no alternative than to seek common ground, as our oath invokes,” Oravecz said. “The alternative is too catastrophic for any of us to imagine. Now I’m speaking to House and Senate leadership directly: these are my values, informed by an oath that I took in 2016 and have kept since. What do you value? What is your oath? And what are you going to do to uphold it?”
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