“It has cut back into our capacity to do outreach programs, and we’ve had to figure out another way to hire part-time staff to assist with that. We’ve stepped up our volunteer recruitment as well, trying to mitigate, but it was a pretty abrupt ending of the program,” said Doug Horvath, Five Rivers MetroParks education coordinator and naturalist.
AmeriCorps is the federal agency that helps support and launch national service projects and volunteerism. Beginning in the 1960s as an extension of the Peace Corps, the organization is a provider of funding and support to build new infrastructure in needy areas, assist with disaster relief, offer services to senior citizens and help rural and metropolitan health and education programs.
MetroParks accessed AmeriCorps volunteers through a partnership with The Sisters of the Notre Dame, a faith-based non-profit. The nonprofit received notice in June that their application for AmeriCorps funding for the 2025-2026 service year was denied.
This impacted MetroParks’ ability to fill or renew its eight AmeriCorps positions that were coming to an end. These AmeriCorps volunteers contributed to programs that helped teachers create green spaces and incorporate those vegetable or habitat gardens into the school day.
AmeriCorps volunteers also often helped with outdoor education programs, like the animal ambassador program and other partnerships between local schools and MetroParks.
“Our AmeriCorps members did a lot of that outreach. I know the agency used those positions, besides just with my program. We had, most recently, an AmeriCorps member working with our school tour program,” Horvath said.
Every year, AmeriCorps enrolls more than 200,000 individuals in nonprofit, faith-based, and local organizations, according to advocacy group Voices for National Service.
In April, the Trump administration cut nearly 40% of AmeriCorps funding, laying off the bulk of the group’s national staff. Shrinking AmeriCorps was among steps the Trump administration took to curb what he has called “waste, fraud and abuse” of federal funds, scrutinizing AmeriCorps’ audit failures over the past several years.
This summer, a federal judge ordered the government to restore some of the program’s funding — but thousands of volunteers in service programs across the nation have still been discontinued.
MetroParks manages 35 locations, including 18 MetroParks, the 2nd Street Market, eight conservation areas and eight sections of the region’s paved trail network.
“(AmeriCorps) gave us access to people who were trying new things they might not have. It might be a career change, or they were motivated by service,” he said.
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