Every year, the U.S. National Civilian Community Corps, better known as AmeriCorps NCCC, organizes teams of volunteers to help communities across the U.S. with environmental work, including habitat restoration, emergency response and wildfire mitigation. It’s also the latest federal agency on the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) chopping block. Most of the staff have been placed on leave and volunteers abruptly sent home. AmeriCorps was created in 1993 to engage Americans in community service. A diverse group of nearly 200,000 members and volunteers are placed across all 50 states annually. More than 2,000 volunteers are young people, aged 18-26. In exchange for 10 months of service, participants receive housing and a stipend of roughly $4,000, and become eligible for an education award of up to $7,400. Former volunteer Maria Wilkinson said in a commentary for the New Hampshire Bulletin that the cuts to AmeriCorps remove “a path of purpose, growth, and opportunity for thousands of young Americans. Cutting AmeriCorps NCCC isn’t a budgetary win. It’s a national loss.” The 2025 budget for AmeriCorps was $1.3 billion. A 2022 study found that for every federal dollar spent, AmeriCorps volunteers generate as much as $34 in value. Their work can include helping the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in a subgroup called FEMA Corps. They’re trained to support disaster recovery following increasingly common extreme weather events, such as Hurricane Helene that devastated the U.S. Southeast. DOGE has already fired more than 200 FEMA employees. Volunteers also commonly work in the national parks.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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