‘It’s devastating’: Michigan loses about $15M in federal AmeriCorps cuts

• The Department of Government Efficiency this week cut about $15 million in grant funding for AmeriCorps volunteer efforts in Michigan
• Programs impacted include tutoring for students grades three through eight, Special Olympics funding and homeless supports 
• The cuts come as part of a larger decimation of AmeriCorps funding, with DOGE this month cutting an estimated 41% of the agency’s budget

LANSING — Michigan is expected to lose about $15 million in grant funding for AmeriCorps projects, which range from assisting seniors to reading tutors for children, as part of a larger effort by the federal government to slash the agency’s overall budget.

A request for comment from the state was not returned Tuesday, but Bridge Michigan obtained a spreadsheet of dozens of operations that had received notices of the termination of their AmeriCorp programs.

Those cuts appear to total at least $15.1 million and positions eliminated — an expected 1,218 participants — includes companions for seniors in Kent County, environmental work in Otsego County and help with the Special Olympics.

It’s part of a larger effort by the US Department of Government Efficiency, which earlier this week ordered AmeriCorps to terminate nearly $400 million in grants as part of DOGE's ongoing effort to eliminate what it perceives as waste and fraud at the federal level. 

Since the coronavirus pandemic, the federal deficit has doubled to nearly $1.8 trillion, while debt has grown 121% in 10 years. Interest payments alone on that debt cost $881 billion this fiscal year — more than the government spends on veterans or children.

The $400 million figure cut from AmeriCorps accounts for about 41% of the agency’s total grant funding, according to a recent Washington Post report, and will impact 1,031 organizations staffing just over 32,400 AmeriCorps members or senior volunteers.

“AmeriCorps service programs exist to meet a local community need that wasn’t being met,” Bobby Dorigo Jones, with the Michigan Association of United Ways, told Bridge on Tuesday.

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According to most recent estimates, AmeriCorps reported having more than 7,900 members or senior volunteers working at 1,300 local sites across Michigan between January 2024 and February 2025. The organization also reported investing more than $31.6 million in federal funds in Michigan during that same time while also bringing in more than $17.5 million in outside resources — such as foundations, businesses and public agencies — to the state.

“These are not grants designed by the federal government,” Jones added. “These are local proposals picked with local priorities in mind.”

The cuts are a hodgepodge, impacting everything from the promotion of literacy in K-12 schools to tackling homelessness in the state of Michigan, and Attorney General Dana Nessel has already filed suit alongside more than 20 other state attorneys general to contest the grant terminations.

Among the bigger grant funds terminated this week:

• $1.3 million for AdviseMI, hosted by the Michigan College Access Network, which places college graduates at high schools in communities with low college-going rates to serve as college advisers
• $1.3 million for the AmeriCorps Urban Safety Program, hosted by Wayne State University, which promotes public health and safety in Detroit
• $1.2 million for the MEC Reading Corps, hosted by Hope Network West Michigan, which provides reading and math tutors to students grades three through eight
• $1.2 million for the MI Healthy Climate Corps, put on through the state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. The program aims to avert the worst impacts of climate change on Michigan by bolstering the state's clean and sustainable energy workforce while moving toward a carbon-neutral Michigan by 2050.

The Michigan College Access Network (MCAN) and Michigan State University coordinate a total of 65 college advisors and 20 more AmeriCorps members who are stationed at community colleges and tribal colleges to help with college completion through the AdviseMI program.

MCAN is cumulatively losing more than $2 million through the AmeriCorps cuts, the bulk of which supported the advisor program. Executive Director Ryan Fewins-Bliss told Bridge Michigan that the organization is scrambling to move funds around to keep advisors in schools through the end of May.

Barring a reversal of the funding cut, Fewins-Bliss said the college advising program that has been in existence since 2015 can’t operate next school year.

“It’s devastating,” Fewins-Bliss said.  “Our communities will suffer because of this.”

Lee Fitzpatrick, director of communications for Alpena Public Schools and a site supervisor of its AdviseMI program, said the college adviser helps four high school counselors for 1,100 high school students. State data shows 60.1% of Alpena High School’s class of 2024 went to college within six months of graduating, compared to 53.4% statewide. 

Fitzpatrick said that, if the college adviser isn’t able to stay the rest of the school year, high school seniors would lose a college-going resource at a critical time.  He said he does not know what the district will do if it doesn’t have a corps member next year. 

“Schools are really resilient about changing as budget needs force us to but this one is particularly challenging because it’s money already promised and then taken away during the time span,” Fitzpatrick said. “You normally worry about cuts next year and you plan around that.”

At the Hope Network’s Michigan Education Corps, members provide one-on-one or small group literacy or math instruction to 3,740 students. The students range from 3-year-olds through eighth grade. 

Michigan Education Corps Executive Director Holly Windram said it’s going to cost the organization about $130,000 to continue these services for the remainder of the year. 

“We are not going to sacrifice the mission and our reach to our school partners, we are not pulling our members,” said Windram.  

She said 75% of tutored students are meeting or exceeding their grade-level targets, meaning they are closing achievement gaps. Without federal funding for the program next school year, there would be a $2.8 million funding gap.

Another 18 Americorps members were let go in and around Flint, as well, working with local agencies ranging from neighborhood blight to early childhood literacy.

“We understand there are a lot of changes at the national level — when it lands on your doorstep, it’s challenging,” said Jamie Gaskin, CEO at the United Way of Genesee County. “We don’t understand how the decisions were made, there’s been no explanation.”

Then there’s the YouthWork Conservation Corps program in northern Michigan, which normally sends about 80 young adults to work in the state’s national parks and forests each summer. 

It lost more than $844,000 in the funding cuts, prompting Bryce Hundley to question whether the program will “be lucky” enough to afford to pay 15 or 20 young adults for their time.  

“We’re desperately trying to figure out what we can salvage,” said Hundley, finance director of Child and Family Services of Northwestern Michigan in Traverse City, which runs the program. “It breaks my heart.”