At least 87 federally funded AmeriCorps volunteers were notified last week that their current or upcoming service work in Alaska was abruptly canceled.
They include local aspiring teachers planning to tutor young Alaskans, out-of-state volunteers set to work at Girl Scout Camps in Chugiak this summer and school and parks workers in Sitka.
AmeriCorps is a federal agency aimed at volunteerism that operates a network of local, state and national service programs. But last month, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency began dismantling the program, placing the majority of the agency’s employees on administrative leave, and demobilizing a branch of close to 2,000 young volunteers three months before their service projects ended, according to the nonprofit that represents commissions in every state and territory.
Then, late last week, DOGE directed the termination of $400 million in AmeriCorps grants, the nonprofit reported, the vast majority of which were allocated to state and national programs through state commissions.
In Alaska, the funding loss amounts to $1.8 million, according to Katie Abbott, who leads the state commission that funds and supports local AmeriCorps programs, Serve Alaska.
Serve Alaska funded five AmeriCorps programs that operated in 18 urban and rural communities across the state, Abbott said. On April 25, AmeriCorps’ interim director said in a message that federal funding had been cut for four of those programs — comprising 43 active volunteers and 44 in the summer pipeline.
They were told “the grants no longer effectuate agency priorities,” Abbott said. One state grantee remains: The Student Conservation Association, an organization that hosts about 40 AmeriCorps volunteers annually to work projects on public lands in Alaska, was spared from cuts, though it’s unclear why.
Additionally, an AmeriCorps Senior program, open to people 55 and older, remains intact with about 80 Alaska corps members.
The loss for residents — recipients of service work — is harder to quantify, volunteers and their host organizations said this week.
But it is being felt across the state, according to Abbott: Youths in Nenana will lose their science, technology, engineering and math coach. A number of low-income Alaskans dealing with the criminal justice system — about 35 per volunteer — will no longer have an advocate to connect them with recovery resources and housing aid. In Sitka, students will lose their tutors and classroom support, and mental health organizations in the community will be left without a workforce for youth community outreach.
Kids in Ouzinkie will lose their dance coach. Koyukuk youths enrolled in an afterschool program designed by the AmeriCorps members will miss out.
Prince William Sound Science Center attendees in Cordova will lose summer programming.
Also, 19 Alaska high school and college students — each interested in a teaching career and in the process of securing summer positions tutoring elementary schoolers in STEM — will no longer have an “on-ramp” into the education field, said Alaska Afterschool Network’s AmeriCorps program director, Lily Tegner.
Tegner was in the midst of onboarding the interns for their summer camp tutoring positions in the Anchorage and Mat-Su areas when the cuts came through, she said.
Tegner herself is a former AmeriCorps volunteer who came to Alaska in 2021 and stayed on as an employee and a new Alaskan. She will be losing her job, which is funded through AmeriCorps dollars.
“I was able to find my whole career (through AmeriCorps),” said Tegner, whose educational background was in engineering. “Also, the thing that I keep thinking about is — Alaska became my home because of AmeriCorps. And I don’t want to leave.”
A team of young service workers was days away from their flight to Anchorage to work at two Girl Scouts of Alaska camps in Chugiak for the summer when they were demobilized. They are also looking for a way to complete their service work, team leader Alani Rose said by phone from New Jersey this week. But Girl Scouts of Alaska CEO Jenni Pollard said the loss of federal support has made it trickier to host the AmeriCorps members, even if they do make their way back up to Alaska.
“We’re still trying to figure this out,” she said.
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