ALAMOSA — On April 25, the Trump Administration abruptly announced deep cuts to AmeriCorps staff and grant funding totaling $400 million, 41% of funding allocated by Congress for 2024 to 2025. Organizations received notice of this administration’s actions at 6 p.m. on that Friday night. Members were told that their services would be terminated on April 30 – five days later – and they would only be paid through that time. 

AmeriCorps is a federal agency for national service and volunteerism that has been in existence since the early 90s, and engages over 70,000 Americans (referred to as “members”) each year in intensive service working in areas like education, community development, public health, the environment, helping rebuild areas hit by disasters and fighting wildfires.  Members are paid minimum wage for their service and often live in subsidized housing with other members in the community where they are serving for up to a year.  

Over the past three years, more than 120 AmeriCorps members have come to the San Luis Valley and provided more than 250,000 hours of service in support of critical services.  Services and programs impacted include community food pantries, soup kitchens in Durango and Alamosa, mental health services and crisis outreach, specialized programs for victims of child abuse and neglect, in-classroom tutoring, after school and recreation programs, behavioral health programs, promotion of economic development, providing services to seniors and the elderly and connecting veterans and their families to important services. 

For example, one organization – Alpine Achievers – has members who serve youth in Salida, Alamosa, Monte Vista and Creede, including the Boys and Girls Clubs of the SLV and one in Salida plus a recreation program in Creede and Kids Connection in Monte Vista. In the classroom, AmeriCorps members are, at all grade levels, providing 1 to 1 tutoring, leading groups, helping teachers lead activities and, essentially, providing services to school-aged students that, given the frequently inadequate funding for public schools, would not otherwise be provided.  

In an area of the state where three of the six counties are listed among the poorest in Colorado, that impact is felt especially hard. “In looking at the national list of impact for AmeriCorps programs, the negative consequences for the San Luis Valley are both deeper and wider than anywhere else in Colorado,” says April-Dawn Knudsen, executive director of Community Resource Center.  

This decision, recommended by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), also has a number of people questioning the rationale as multiple economic studies over time have shown that, for every $1 invested in AmeriCorps, a community reaps $34, precisely because of what the members do for existing agencies while living – and spending – in the community as  residents. 

According to a statement from a spokesperson for the office of the governor, this termination will end the service of nearly 300 AmeriCorps members in Colorado at close to 200 sites across the state. However, officials at the state level have also told some organizations to hold off on taking any action just yet to see how things develop. The reprieve may only be temporary, but at least it’s better than what other states are encountering.  

“We’re lucky we live in Colorado,” says Renee Mackey, program manager at Alpine Achievers, an educational organization that places AmeriCorps members in classrooms and several of the Boys and Girls Clubs in the San Luis Valley and Salida. “The state is giving us a little time to see what’s going to happen. Other states aren’t as lucky. In Kansas, they had to tell all their members to leave and go home.”  

Mackey, who came to the San Luis Valley as an AmeriCorps volunteer from 1997 to 1999, is focused on the impacts to vital programs and, should the agency be dismantled, what will be lost.

"There may not be a theater program at a school or a club may not continue to exist.  That recreation program in Creede? That won't be able to continue. There are also students who have connected with AmeriCorps members who make that kid feel noticed and wondered about when they don't come to school. That's just an example of what will be gone."

But Mackey is equally focused on how spending a year as an AmeriCorps member changes the individual and how communities will be impacted when those members no longer come to the Valley.

“These are people who come to a community with a mindset to make a contribution and to serve. A lot of them could have gotten a job someplace else, but they’ve decided to take a year, come here and devote it to others. AmeriCorps members used to mainly come from privileged homes – that’ s not true anymore. We get members with different backgrounds from all over the country and the change I see in them… We’re building these adults who are going into the world with the mindset of making things better. 

"People talk about how people in their twenties don't care about the world. Well, the members who have come here through AmeriCorps give me hope. They should give all of us hope. How do you put a price tag on that?” 

The AmeriCorps experience has also convinced some members who had never thought of going into education before to get their alternative certification to teach. In fact, Mackey could think of three individuals off the top of her head who are in classrooms in the San Luis Valley right now specifically because of their AmeriCorps experience.  

While people often express concerns, rightfully so, about youth leaving the Valley – Jeff Hurd, the congressman for CD3 even listed that as a primary concern while campaigning – AmeriCorps brings bright, motivated, community minded young people to the area and many of them stay here, sometimes pursuing advanced degrees and going on to serve in key positions such as co-responder for the police department or in marketing at San Luis Valley Health or as regional representative for a U.S. Senator.  One member came here and was so moved by his experience that he attended medical school and returned to the Valley to work as a surgeon. He is still practicing today. Another former member who lives in Alamosa and owns an international tech company  says she "can't unwind at all" where she is now from having been an AmeriCorps volunteer.And those are just an example of the dozens of people whose lives have been impacted by AmeriCorps and who have, in turn, impacted the communities in the Valley they now call home.  

Steps are currently being taken to stop Trump’s actions, including 24 states, co-led by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who have filed a lawsuit.

“What this administration has done is illegal,” Weiser told the Valley Courier. “Congress passes laws. The executive branch has the obligation to take care that laws are faithfully executed. The executive branch does not have the authority to repeal laws passed by Congress. This president has on numerous occasions taken steps to dismantle federal agencies enacted by Congress. That’s illegal and unconstitutional. It’s hurting Colorado and, especially, the San Luis Valley.” 

Weiser has frequently come to the SLV.  When asked what concerns him most, he said, “I’m going to make this personal. Aaron Miltenberger was in AmeriCorps before he came to the San Luis Valley and it had a profound impact on him. Look at what he has done. There have been 120 AmeriCorps members in the Valley in the last three years. What kind of an impact are they going to make? What happens if people with that kind of commitment don’t ever make it to the Valley?”  

A bi-partisan letter is also circulating through the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives urging President Trump to rescind his actions and keep AmeriCorps intact. Colorado’s two senators and several representatives from Colorado have signed.  

The Valley Courier reached out to Congressman Hurd, representing CD3, and asked if he he intended to add his name. Hurd has not responded.

The biggest impact of this decision is evident in the members. 

“They’re heartbroken,” Mackey says. “The first question they ask is, do I have to leave right now? Do I get to say good-bye to the kids?”  Mackey pauses. “It breaks my heart, too.  I don't understand. Why would anyone end a program like this?”  

This article has been updated since first appearing in the May 2 edition of the Valley Courier.