Scores of volunteers with AmeriCorps youth program let go after DOGE visit

WASHINGTON — One of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) visited the agency’s headquarters.

Volunteers with AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) program were abruptly sent notices Tuesday instructing them to pack up and go home, according to a memo obtained by The Post.

“In alignment with the Trump-Vance Administration priorities … AmeriCorps NCCC is working within new operational parameters that impact the program’s ability to sustain program operations,” the memo said.

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“As a result, AmeriCorps is sending all NCCC members to their homes of record as soon as possible.”

AmeriCorps’ NCCC program had a budget of $37.7 million during fiscal year 2024 and was on track to receive $42.7 million during the current fiscal year, according to its website.

Enrollees were told that their positions would be terminated by April 30, according to a separate memo sent out to members.

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“I am hereby approving your early release from the NCCC program for compelling personal circumstances,” the letter from NCCC National Director Ken Goodson said. “Your early departure is considered compelling as it results from program circumstances beyond your control.”

Volunteers were also told that they may be eligible for a “pro-rated education award if you have completed 15% or more of your 1700-hour service term.”

So far, the extent of the reductions at AmeriCorps NCCC is unclear as is whether the cuts extend beyond that program, which enrolls young adults in various environmental, housing and disaster response initiatives across the country.

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AmeriCorps recently confirmed that DOGE had begun looking into the federal agency.

“Staff from DOGE are currently working at AmeriCorps headquarters and the agency is supporting their requests,” AmeriCorps press secretary Erin Schneider told Politico West Wing Playbook last week.

A leaked internal document last week revealed that the Trump administration was mulling whether to cut “up to 50 percent or more” of the workforce at the agency, the Washington Post reported.

The Post reached out to the spokespeople at the White House and AmeriCorps for comment.

AmeriCorps’ NCCC, which hosts more than 1,000 18- to 24-year-olds each year for around 10 months of volunteer work, had long been a target for Republican fiscal hawks in Washington.

A 2017 AmeriCorps Inspector General’s report found that the services volunteers provided were “four to eight times more than the same services” provided by other programs between 2012 and 2013.

“Each member’s ten months of service costs $29,674 (for FY 2014), more than a year’s tuition, room and board at a public university; for that sum, four individuals could obtain two-year community college degrees,” the report stated.

“Yet, despite this substantial investment, NCCC alumni achieve no better long-term outcomes than alumni of AmeriCorps programs that cost a fraction of that amount.”

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That was due to several duplicative activities performed by grant recipients who worked in other AmeriCorps programs — all of which “cost significantly less per member.”

Up to 27% of NCCC program participants also failed to finish their 10-month service term — and “inefficient” use of some teams in deploying to disaster relief areas was noted.

Before leaving office, President Joe Biden issued an executive order, later promulgated in a federal rule, that would’ve also let AmeriCorps participants receive “living allowances and other benefits.”

An AmeriCorps representative on the organization’s hotline was not aware of any programs being shut down or privy to mass layoff plans when contacted by The Post Tuesday.

But multiple current members and alumni of the program vented on social media about the notices that were sent out ordering NCCC enrollees back home.

“I just found out that the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC), the program which gave me essential experience in disaster response and recovery, is in the process of being gutted entirely,” Stephan Edgar, a strategic resilience and preparedness manager at the University of California, Santa Cruz, wrote on LinkedIn.

“Members including my brother are being sent home, friends who worked as staff are being placed on admin leave, and dozens (at least) of active projects supporting the most vulnerable communities in our nation are being vacated.”