Cuts to a national public service program are hitting local conservation organizations and other nonprofits.
Termination notices went out to more than 32,000 Americorps members at roughly 1,000 organizations nationwide late last week as the federal government cut about $400 million in Americorps grants. Corps members at local groups like the Mill Creek Alliance and the Hamilton County Conservation District were among them.
It's the latest in the Trump administration's effort to cut the size of the federal government via its Depart of Government Efficiency initiative. The administration laid off most of Americorps' full-time staff earlier this month.
Americorps provides paid opportunities for people to serve their local communities for one year terms through programs like VISTA and the National Civilian Community Corps. Stipends are generally modest. The roles in which corps members serve vary across a number of programs and include conservation work, education, housing initiatives, and other social service jobs.
'They were doing their jobs'
It's unclear how many local Americorps members lost their positions. But the cuts have hit some Greater Cincinnati conservation groups hard. Dave Schmitt is the executive director of the Mill Creek Alliance, which lost two corps members abruptly late last week. He says emails from the federal government about the terminations came to statewide service groups over the weekend and the organization didn't realize the cuts had happened until Monday morning.
"These young people had been terminated, but they were out there doing their jobs," he said "They were out doing great projects and bringing benefits to the community, even though they were officially no longer part of the program."
Schmitt says the terminations are happening less than halfway through the members' contracts.
One of the corps members with the Alliance served a youth nature and environmental education program, which serves 2,000 students a year. Another corps member served a conservation role, helping to remove lowhead dams in the Mill Creek, restore wetlands, and remove invasive species.
"These programs were bringing tens of thousands — if not hundreds of thousands — of dollars in benefits to the community, and unfortunately that's going to be harmed now," Schmitt says.
Other conservation programs also have been affected. The Hamilton County Conservation District had five additional Americorps members doing educational and technical conservation work. A representative for the district acknowledged those positions received termination notices late last week, but declined further comment.
WVXU has reviewed the notices statewide Americorps organization ServeOhio received about the termination of members with the Ohio River Basin Corps, which includes the Hamilton County Conservation District's and Mill Creek Alliance's Americorps members.
The emails say the "program no longer effectuates agency priorities and has been terminated as of 4/25/25."
It instructs ServeOhio to remove corps members from its system, citing "compelling personal circumstances" as the reason.
"All member and program activities must cease immediately," the notice states.
Other local organizations recently have felt cuts to Americorps. United Way of Greater Cincinnati hosted an Americorps National Civilian Community Corps team to help with cost-free tax preparation. The program when the corps members were told their funding had been cut.
Host organizations split the salaries of corps members with the federal Corporation for National and Community Service, which runs Americorps. Many of those host organizations like the Mill Creek Alliance pay their share up front.
"In our case, for our two members, we paid a little over $22,000 for both of them," Schmitt says. "Now, even though much less than half of these contracts have been fulfilled, the government is telling us it is not going to prorate those funds and we won't get them back."
Schmitt says the terminations will have big impacts on the corps members themselves.
"Sure, Mill Creek Alliance is upset about the way this has gone, and it's going to have impact on us," he says. "But just from a basic human standpoint, they have put 32,000 wonderful young people out of work with absolutely no notice, no severance, no grace period, no time to go look for other work."
America's Service Commissions represents state commissions like ServeOhio. It said that Friday's cuts to Americorps are sweeping.
"All 50 states, D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands were notified of grant terminations..." the statement read. "Some states have had every AmeriCorps State program eliminated."
WVXU has reached out to other local organizations about the status of their Americorps members.
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