Today, on a breezy Sunday afternoon amidst my various activities, I received an email that DOGE is canceling North Star’s Americorps program with six weeks to go. I am outraged on behalf of our Americorps Service Volunteer, our local Dial/SELF Americorps Program, and all of the people and agencies in our community impacted by this absolute meanness. This decision is so deliberately awful as to be beneath our dignity, but I want everyone in the North Star world to be aware of this decision.
Americorps is a domestic national service program, for which young people essentially volunteer a year of their lives to work for the common good. They receive a small stipend and vouchers for future college credit. North Star has hosted Americorps members on our core staff for most of the past ten years, and my son participated in Americorps for two years during the pandemic. This is a program for idealistic do-gooders to explore community service and to see if they can make a positive difference in the world.
Clearly some people object to having a federal government agency fund this sort of program. That debate has already been held in Congress, and it could be held again. I’m obviously biased in favor of a national service program, but I am open to having a political process that chooses to cancel it. To state the obvious:
1. The people in DOGE who have canceled a Congressionally-created program are not publicly elected officials.
2. Who in their right mind cancels a year-long program with six weeks remaining? These young people made a commitment to their communities to work for one year, and at the tail end of fulfilling that commitment, some unelected officials are terminating our country’s commitment to them!
Canceling six weeks of Americorps will not save real money. It simply shows the Service Members that they are not valued. It tells the youth, senior citizens, and organizations that receive their service that they are not valued. It tells everyone that contracts with the United States government are not valid.
I know that the combination of North Star, our local Dial/SELF Americorps program, and our Massachusetts Service Alliance will rally to make things whole for the current Service Members.
I know we all have other urgent political battles to fight. Thank you for adding this one to your list.
Here is the text of today’s email:
On Friday, the Department of Government Efficiency gave notice that 40% of AmeriCorps contracts would be canceled. Today, we learned that 17 of 31 programs in Massachusetts were entirely cut. The DSAP Positive Youth Development Corps and the DSAP Restorative Relationships Corps were both included in those cuts. DSAP will be working with the Massachusetts Service Alliance and state officials with a goal of finding a solution for current members to successfully complete their terms. We will be asking them to continue to serve on site as they would until further notice. We hope to have more information soon.