Mission: Ignite Statement on the Elimination of Americorps,
The Federal Agency Focused on Service to Others
As a nonprofit organization whose community service model relies on AmeriCorps members and its volunteers, Mission: Ignite is in a sudden stall after learning last week from the NYS Commission on National and Community Service that the Federal AmeriCorps Program was dismantled, without any warning to volunteers or the organizations they support.
Nationally, this decision shutters over 1,000 programs and halts the service of more than 32,000 AmeriCorps members. The impact will be immediate and long-lasting with effects felt in education, disaster relief, anti-poverty work, and countless community initiatives. The elimination of an agency that delivers an estimated $34 of benefit for every dollar invested while benefiting communities and those that serve, makes no social or economic sense.
At Mission: Ignite, AmeriCorps members are critical to the communities we serve in Western New York. They teach digital literacy, offer computer hardware support, and bridge the digital divide among all types of people across the region. This support is critical to ensure that more citizens have access and training to technology that allows them a pathway to further their education and to employment opportunities. Our efforts are more than our own technology programs; we invest with other nonprofits through partnerships where the members serve to support part of their mission as well, including those in sectors of education, workforce, health, and more. Importantly, we are one of many organizations in WNY that rely on their service and who will acutely feel their absence. This decision also means that AmeriCorps members lose the opportunity to gain skills, experience, and purpose through national service.
Our volunteers reported for work on Monday, ready to serve, only to learn at the end of Monday their roles had been abruptly terminated the previous Friday. With no notice, our members lost their modest service stipends, their eligibility for future support for their education, and the ability to plan for their next steps after their service term. This disrespectful treatment was wholly unnecessary. AmeriCorps members are not employees, but instead have dedicated themselves to domestic service for their country. Therefore they are not eligible to receive any unemployment benefits, leaving many members and their families in a terrible position.
Eliminating AmeriCorps, a truly grass roots program that delivers essential community services at minimal cost, does nothing to improve government efficiency. Instead, it weakens the very fabric of community well being and civic engagement.
Currently, about two dozen states are suing the Federal government alleging that the action illegally gutted the agency created by Congress and reneged on grants funded through the AmeriCorps State and National program. While we support this lawsuit, it leaves nonprofits like ours in a perilous “pause” in regard to AmeriCorps members and how we address the loss of these volunteers with our partners with whom they served. This means for an undetermined time we cannot move forward in addressing our staffing loss or assisting our members who have been cut.
We call on our legislative, philanthropic, and community leaders to assist in finding ways to support impacted organizations and AmeriCorp members who have been harmed by this short-sighted decision. We also encourage our fellow citizens, recognizing the profound value national service brings to our country, to raise their voices in support of the reinstatement of AmeriCorps.
