Hira Siddiqui felt she was making a real impact through AmeriCorps.
She spent her days researching rural vaccine hesitancy and tackled the health needs of refugee high schoolers through Ohio State University Extension’s Public Health program.
Then suddenly, she was told to stop.
“We were actually basically laid off, and we were asked to discontinue our services,” Siddiqui said. “We had to drop the project in the middle of everything. It was very disheartening.”
In late April, the federal government slashed nearly $400 million in grants to AmeriCorps, a national volunteer service agency that provides support to nonprofits across the country. Officials sent a blanket email to more than 20 Ohio programs, stating their grants “no longer effectuates agency priorities.”
Ohio social service organizations lost more than $9 million in funding. Nearly 600 Ohio Americorps members, like Siddiqui, were yanked away from their service.
Dick Wittberg’s peer support program in Washington County was among those cancelled. He said the project’s termination will hurt 20 local nonprofits and the people they serve.
“I'm against government waste, we don't want to see that,” he said. “But is AmeriCorps the place to cut?”
An abrupt end
In statements to NPR, the White House has pointed to the agency’s financial mismanagement. AmeriCorps failed eight consecutive audits, reportedly making more than $45 million in improper payments last year.
Critics say the cuts were an overstep. Twenty four states sued the Trump administration, leading a federal judge to order the administration to temporarily restore funding.
But Ohio wasn’t a part of that lawsuit, so its grants — tackling everything from environmental issues to food insecurity to historic preservation — remain suspended.
“If we were spending funds inappropriately or something like that, I would totally understand our program being terminated,” said Philip Shaffer, who manages Americorps grants in Washington County. “We weren't.”
The aftermath
In communities across Ohio, organizations are now adjusting to the loss of staff, while demand remains steady.
On a recent weekday at the Life and Purpose Community Resource Center in Marietta, guests filled out applications for Social Security, heaped steaming casserole onto plates and stood in line for a hot shower. All the while, staff greeted visitors and passed out cleaning supplies.
“There's just so much need out there,” said Rick Hindman, executive director of the nonprofit, which works with the local homeless coalition to lift people out of poverty and toward self-sufficiency.
Prior to the cuts, seven Americorps peer support specialists helped do this kind of work. Without the federal funding, he can only afford to keep two of them.
“I'm trying to support with volunteers, but it's tough. I'm just not going to have the same consistency of coverage, the same consistency of outreach that I had before,” he said.
Cancelled programs
Elsewhere, the AmeriCorps cuts have meant some programs have shut down.
Shawnee State University discontinued Project Bear, its early childhood literacy partnership with rural schools. Miami University ended its Service+ Program that sent more than 70 students out into nonprofits like Serve City, Oxford’s local homeless support organization.
“These members helped nonprofits such as ours to distribute food, provide direct care and even connect individuals to housing and critical resources. So losing them means that our state of collective care dwindles, and that directly affects our most vulnerable neighbors in our community,” said Jeff Gambrell, community relations director with Serve City.
For other organizations, it has put planning in flux. GoPacks, a nonprofit that provides food and health programming for families in need at Marietta schools, lost the majority of its staff.
The organization will survive, Executive Director Heather Warner said, but she’s not sure if they will be able to expand to meet rising food insecurity needs.
“It is going to be a shift, and it's probably going to be a slower journey now because more funds are going to have to go toward manpower,” Warner said.
Losing a sense of purpose
The ripple effects go beyond services. Hindman, with the Community Resource Center, said the Americorp positions served as a career pipeline for young people.
“Every legislator, I don't care if you're a liberal or conservative, Democrat, Republican, every one of them, no matter who they are, they care about job creation,” he said. “This is perfect for that. It doesn't make sense from an economic development standpoint to cut it.”
The program helped Marietta resident Brandi Beaver get on her feet. She was unable to leave the house, battling anxiety and depression. Until, she said, Americorps gave her a chance and a purpose.
It set her on the path to become the executive director of a nearby recovery center, House of Hope.
“The biggest thing was just figuring out where it is that I fit in. And without (AmeriCorps), I wouldn't have been able to. And if I wouldn't have been able to, I'd still be a stay at home mom on disability – if I survived that long, honestly,” Beaver said.
She worries about the hundreds of young Ohioans who may now find that same sense of purpose suddenly out of reach.
