Program funds cut: AmeriCorps loses finances, refuge volunteers sent home | News, Sports, Jobs

(Photo provided by Mark Krivchenia)
Six volunteers in the AmeriCorps NCCC program were sent home due to the termination of the program as a result of federal funding cuts. The team was called Team Delta 5 and worked for a week and one day at the Ohio River Islands Wildlife Refuge alongside Mark Krivchenia.

WILLIAMTOWN — AmeriCorps volunteers were unexpectedly recalled from their assignment at the Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge on Tuesday.

After only serving for a week and one day, six volunteers were abruptly sent back to their regional campuses as a result of funding cuts from the program.

AmeriCorps is a federally funded program that seeks volunteers to assist with a variety of programs and community engagement. AmeriCorps offers a wide selection of opportunities that volunteers can apply for.

“I wrote a grant proposal to AmeriCorps last fall to get a team out here,” said Mark Krivchenia, president of the Friends of the Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge. “It was accepted in January and we got a team to come here for a month starting April 6.”

The National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) is a specific AmeriCorps program for individuals ages 18-26 to volunteer across the country, all expenses paid, and earn money while serving on the program.

Krivchenia said the volunteers were assigned to help plant more than a thousand trees and build a retaining wall along one of the trails in the refuge.

“The group arrived on April 7 and started to work and they had events and we introduced them to the community and we were having a great time,” said Krivchenia. “Then yesterday we got a call from Washington, D.C., saying that they were terminating the program.”

Once the volunteers received information on Tuesday that their program was terminated, they were sent home that same day.

Krivchenia and the volunteers received an email from the AmeriCorps office on Wednesday morning which stated “In alignment with the Trump-Vance Administration priorities and Executive Order 14222, implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Cost Efficiency Initiative, AmeriCorps NCCC is working within new operational parameters that impact the program’s ability to sustain program operations.”

“The decision was taken on an urgent timetable and reflects a rapidly shifting operational environment and diminishing ability to support the programming of members in this field,” said Krivchenia.

As steward of the Broughton Nature Preserve and president of Friends of the Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge, Krivchenia expressed how important it was to have volunteers helping out at the refuge.

The team of volunteers had been in the program for a year and were involved with a variety of work from hurricane recovery in Florida to trail building in the Smoky Mountains. The program had the volunteers traveling and working across the southern region.

In lieu of funding cuts as a result of the Trump-Vance Administration’s DOGE initiative, AmeriCorps has demobilized members of the NCCC program.

Krivchenia stated on Wednesday, a few hours after receiving the email from AmeriCorps, that it was a shock and completely out of the blue.

Due to the abruptness of the termination and recall, Krivchenia wasn’t able to see any of the volunteers before departure.

“The AmeriCorp program as we have experienced is fantastic, six young people gaining leadership and numerous useful skills over the course of their volunteering,” he said.

In honor of Earth Day, there was a planned celebration from 1-4 p.m. on Saturday to get a handful of volunteers out to help plant trees.

At the time, Krivchenia thought they would have the help of the AmeriCorps volunteers but with the termination of the program, he is unsure of what they’ll do moving forward.

“We were going to train them and they were going to learn how to do it and meet the local folks and learn how to plant trees,” said Krivchenia. “We had all these volunteers so we doubled the size of the acreage that we would plant the trees on.”

Without the help from the AmeriCorps NCCC volunteers, Krivchenia is concerned about how they’ll get all of the trees planted in time.

Krivchenia also stated that he’s going to miss working with all of them and he had a great experience even if for a short time.