Nine AmeriCorps volunteers serving in Sitka learned on April 25 that they had to leave their jobs by the end of the day April 28.
The volunteers, who had been working with the Sitka School District, Mt. Edgecumbe High School, Sitka Parks and Recreation and nonprofit organizations, were notified that their employment was ending by order of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which was closing out $400 million in AmeriCorps grants nationwide.
The order terminates more than 1,000 AmeriCorps programs and 32,000 positions across the country.
The Serve Alaska State Commission, which administers federal AmeriCorps funding for Sitka and other host communities in Alaska, received notice April 25 that one or more of its programs “no longer effectuates agency priorities” established in the federal Serve America Act that authorizes the AmeriCorps program.
Sarah Lawrie, who directs the AmeriCorps program in Sitka, said she is “deeply troubled by the implications of this message.”
“AmeriCorps members commit themselves to service, not to leisure or profit,” Lawrie said. “Their role is to strengthen and support our communities.”
She questioned how the “government could suggest that a program like mine, along with thousands of others across the country, ‘no longer effectuates’ the (AmeriCorps) program goals or priorities.”
Program volunteers receive a monthly living allowance of about $1,600 after taxes and qualify for a $5,000 education award after completing 1,200 hours of service in their host communities.
A significant portion of AmeriCorps funding is provided by local sites, which chip in $17,000 per volunteer, Lawrie said.
Terms for some of this year’s volunteers were set to end at the end of the school year in late May, while some were to end in late July.
Lawrie said she doesn’t understand why the federal government chose to terminate the positions before the close of this year’s term. She doesn’t yet know how the funding cut will affect her position as director, which is also funded through the Serve Alaska State Commission.
Kiera Dent, who volunteers with the city’s Sitka Parks and Recreation Division, said the announcement was “a shocking moment,” even though it was in line with the Trump administration’s priorities.
“From the second he took office, Trump has been cutting tons of programs that literally exist just to help people,” said Dent, who has spent much of her term organizing summer camps for youths. She and two other AmeriCorps members were ready to be counselors in this summer’s Parks and Recreation camp in Sitka.
Thirty kids are already enrolled and 30 more are on a waitlist for the summer program, she said, and the city was in the process of hiring temporary staff "in hopes of being able to open up more spots.”
AmeriCorps has been active in Sitka since 2004.
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