Don’t lose a triple ROI: AmeriCorps cuts will hurt young people, communities and workforce pipelines

While the 2025 budget reconciliation process hasn’t yet included a target on AmeriCorps funding, many policy experts expect proposed cuts to the program to be included in Trump’s budget proposal expected later this spring. It’s important to understand the multi-pronged impact significant reductions or restrictions on the program would have on school age youth, young adults and community infrastructure.

AmeriCorps is the federal agency for national service and volunteerism. AmeriCorps provides opportunities for Americans of all backgrounds to serve their country, address the nation’s most pressing challenges, and improve lives and communities. It offers individuals and organizations flexible ways to make an impact in six key areas: disaster services, healthy futures, opportunity/pathways to employment, education, environmental stewardship, and assistance to veterans and military families.

In the education arena, AmeriCorps provides funding to nonprofit organizations and stipends to over 55,000 volunteers from young adults to seniors across all 50 states. Stipends allow volunteers to work full time in public and private schools, early childhood education and out of school programs providing tutoring, mentoring, college and career counseling, STEM programming and, more recently, supporting youth mental health. In their article, “For the sake of America’s school children, Congress must keep AmeriCorps going,” Bob Balfanz and Kevin Huffman shared examples of the centrality of the program to student success efforts.  Jodi Grant is equally persuasive in her recent post on AmeriCorps’ impact on afterschool programs.

Cuts to AmeriCorps would not only have an immediate effect on the quality of learning and development supports available to school age learners, it would have an impact on the immediate and long-term career trajectories of older teens and young adults.

COURTESY OF AMERICORPS

Take a look at City Year. City Year recruits and trains young adults to become AmeriCorps members who serve a year as full-time student success coaches. The organization focuses on developing the self-identity, durable skills, knowledge and agency of these AmeriCorps members, while training and guiding them to serve on teams that provide students with holistic support. Partnering with classroom teachers, more than 2,000 student success coaches tutor, mentor and provide research-based and data-driven supports that help students learn and develop in 29 cities across 22 states.

Schools that partner with City Year are up to two to three times more likely to improve in English and math assessments. And students who are supported by student success coaches have improved academic and social-emotional outcomes. Equally important, City Year is making onramps into teaching easier, more accessible and more affordable, particularly for alums of color. Nearly half of City Year alums report they currently work in the education sector as teachers, principals, guidance counselors, in education policy or in youth and education-focused nonprofits.

[Related: For the sake of America’s school children, Congress must keep AmeriCorps going]

In the community arena, AmeriCorps’ impact extends even further.  Take, for example, The Corps Network.

Engaging over 23,000 young people annually, The Corps Network is a national network of over 150 conservation and service corps that recruit 16 to 25-year-olds — most of whom are “opportunity youth” who have experienced school disruption, gangs, system involvement, homelessness, early parenthood or unemployment. These young people become part of teams that are trained and deployed to step in to solve big national and local problems — preserving our national parks, fighting forest fires, repairing roadways, cultivating local community farms, closing the digital divide, providing home remodeling, home repairs and energy audits, building wetlands to address flooding, cleaning rivers and responding to oil spills.

Each Corps is different because each community is different. And a single Corps may operate multiple programs, as illustrated in the Heart of Oregon Corps’ annual report.

But Corps share common elements with each other and with City Year: paid service, workforce development (training, experience, certifications), crew placements, guidance, individualized assessment and planning supports, civic engagement and transitional supports.

Corps’ primary clients are the government, nonprofit organizations and businesses who are looking for reliable solutions to environmental, infrastructure and talent pipeline challenges. While the bulk of The Corps Networks funding is from state and local grants and fee-for-service projects, the federal funding – which includes stipends for the volunteers – is essential.

Similar to City Year, these are triple ROI projects – developing the skills of young people to address a real community challenge while illuminating career pathways and connections. Whether young people are deployed to work with students or on community or environmental projects, AmeriCorps programs are positive youth development in action. Young people are paid modest stipends to serve in teams that meet local needs, giving them a clear sense of purpose, a deep sense of connection to peers and community, and the support and training needed to demonstrate that they can be productive, setting them on pathways to future employment and contribution. These are investments we can’t afford to lose.

[Related Grant Opportunity: Youth-led community project grants]

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To learn more about the invaluable contributions of The Corps Network, check out their recently released video above or here. Appropriately titled, “We can do more,” it shows the range of people, places and partners engaged in timely improvement projects. The final message: When youth thrive, we all thrive.