IU grad shares AmeriCorps NCCC experience after DOGE cut

INDIANA - A longstanding community service program funded through the federal government is the latest to be cut by the Department of Government Efficiency.




On Tuesday, volunteers working for AmeriCorps' National Civilian Community Corps were informed they would exit their program early.




According to an unsigned memo obtained by the Associated Press, it said NCCC's "ability to sustain program operations" was impacted by the priorities of President Donald Trump's administration and by the creation of DOGE.




NCCC oversees volunteerism and service work at AmeriCorps Volunteers between the ages of 18 and 26 are sent to multiple areas around the nation, helping with projects related to housing, land conservation, disaster relief and more.




President Bill Clinton created AmeriCorps during his first term in 1993.

Alexis Mehringer is an Indiana University graduate who served two terms with NCCC in 2019 and 2020. She worked as a team leader in nine different states during her time with the program, including a COVID-19 vaccination clinic in New York.




"That was just such a unique thing that AmeriCorps was set up to be able to step in and do," she said.




Mehringer majored in nonprofit management at IU but said she wasn't sure what direction she wanted to go with that in her future. She researched several volunteer programs like the Peace Corps and Teach for America before deciding AmeriCorps was the best fit for her.




Mehringer fondly remembered her first project serving in Columbia, Missouri, at a food bank.




"We helped distribute hot lunches to kids during the summer, typically kids that relied on school lunch, so during the summer they didn't have any access to that same program," she said. "We also helped in the garden that grew a lot of that food."




She said the communities they served were always very grateful for their work. They would develop deeper relationships with people where they worked for longer projects.




"They invited us over to have cookouts in our off time and we got to meet their families," she said. "We really created a bond in the communities that we were serving in."




NCCC would pay for the volunteers to have basic living expenses. Mehringer said that during the project in Missouri, they slept on cots at a local church. They also would get a daily food stipend of $4.75.








"As a team leader, we were in charge of the $4.75 stipend that each member gets for their food budget and it was our job to make that small amount last the entire project."




When volunteers complete the program, they can qualify for funding for future education expenses or certain student loans after their service time is completed.




According to documents obtained by Fox News Digital, AmeriCorps as a whole receives around $1 billion in federal funding. The Associated Press reports that NCCC gets about $38 million in funding.




Several Republican lawmakers have called for cuts to AmeriCorps after it failed its eighth straight audit in the past decade.




U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens R-Utah, chair of the House Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee, said in a statement in December, "Unfortunately, AmeriCorps has a long history of abusing taxpayer dollars."




U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-North Carolina posted on social media in November that "AmeriCorps should be wiped off the map."




Mehringer said she was sad to learn the news of the funding cuts to NCCC. She worries how the next community hit by a disaster will be able to recover.




"I like to say that they were kind of more of a phase two kind of recovery team," she said. "They came in after the Red Cross and helped put back together the communities that they were serving in.




"I think it will be a hole, and I think that there will be other, you know, organizations that can fill those holes, but it'll take time for those types of things to be set up."








Mehringer also feels for the volunteers in the program now who are impacted directly.




"My heart goes out to them because they're gonna have to figure out their living situations," she said. "Anybody in that situation who just immediately doesn't know, you know, where their housing is gonna be, it's that's gonna be really stressful."




Mehringer also said her time with the program prepared her for her job now working in the nonprofit world.




"I learned how to be a team leader," she said. "I learned how to team build. I learned conflict resolution. I learned how to manage a team budget."




According to the AmeriCorps website, members and volunteers have served at more than 600 locations across Indiana, including food banks, homeless shelters, health clinics and veterans facilities.




California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, posted on social media on Thursday that he plans to sue the Trump administration over this cut.





via: https://fox59.com/indiana-news/iu-grad-shares-americorps-nccc-experience-after-doge-cut/