Colorado joined more than 20 states in a lawsuit against the Trump administration on April 29 after it made significant cuts to AmeriCorps. In rural areas like Southwest Colorado, the cuts threaten the future of many nonprofits.
AmeriCorps is “the federal agency for national service and volunteerism,” and has been around for more than 30 years.
It employs more than 500 federal workers full-time and sends another 200,000 members to different places across America as part of its service program.
The southwest corner of Colorado is one.
The lawsuit “alleges that President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting efforts through the Department of Government Efficiency illegally gutted the agency created by Congress,” according to an AP News article.
Because when his administration suddenly cut $400 million in AmeriCorps grants – which accounts for 41% of its funding for 2025 – without Congressional approval, nearly 300 AmeriCorps members in Colorado at 200 sites across the state could impacted and cut early, a news release from the state reads.
In the 3rd Congressional District, 15 programs will be directly impacted if these federal cuts go through, according to Conservation Legacy, a Durango-based nonprofit.
“It goes beyond cutting AmeriCorps members, it’s cutting at the heart of small towns and the services we provide,” said T.J. Mendez, the long-term volunteers director at La Puente, a nonprofit in Alamosa.
AmeriCorps “makes a huge difference in what local nonprofits and organizations can offer” in rural communities like Montezuma County, said Lynn Urban, the CEO and president of United Way of Southwest Colorado, which places AmeriCorps members at host sites across five counties in our region.
At present, United Way has stationed 10 AmeriCorps in Montezuma County at:
- Southwest Open School.
- The Montezuma School to Farm Project.
- The Mancos Conservation District.
- The School Community Youth Collaborative.
- TeamUP.
- The Department of Social Services.
Over in La Plata and Archuleta counties, members have been placed at:
- Community Connections Inc.
- Compañeros: Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center.
- Fort Lewis College.
- In the Weeds.
- Manna Soup Kitchen.
- SOIL Lab.
- The Juniper School.
- Healthy Archuleta.
For nonprofits that typically “operate on a shoestring,” having AmeriCorps members “greatly boosted their capacity”– they’re the “people power,” she said.
“It’s not looking good, but we’re trying to be hopeful,” Urban said of the cuts. “Hopefully a judge rules quickly (on the lawsuit because) Southwest Colorado will lose people supporting services.”
“People might not even realize that it’s AmeriCorps supporting these things,” she said.
Last year, an estimated 1,400 AmeriCorps members served in Colorado and contributed over 1 million hours of service.
The program also boasts graduating 100 fully trained wildland firefighters and 350 certified chain saw operators every year in the state, as well as “treating almost 1,000 miles of public trails” and “providing human services to over 27,000 community members,” a news release reads.
“For every $1 spent on AmeriCorps efforts, up to $34 is returned,” the news release said.
AmeriCorps has six focus areas in its work, according to its website, though they’re especially visible after disasters when they help communities rebuild.
They also act as environmental stewards, teachers and a support for veterans.
“They get no salary, just a humble living stipend and an education award at the end of their service,” said Mendez.
With those federal cuts, though, the promised education award – which is a scholarship of sorts that members use after their service to pursue higher education – is cut short too.
“I was extremely disappointed to hear our program was cut,” said Gwenyth Houchens, an AmeriCorps member at the Montezuma School to Farm Project.
“Every AmeriCorps member I have met is … committed to their volunteer work, serving up to 40 hours a week for cents on the dollar. I think that’s telling to how dedicated we are to serving the communities we’ve become a part of,” said Houchens.
She said she plans to pursue a master’s degree in teaching, and will use her education award – that’s now more than $1,000 less than she anticipated – to help cover costs.
Elijah Smith, another AmeriCorps member at the Montezuma School to Farm Project, called the situation they’re in “stressful” and intends to put his education award toward student debt.
“The lower amount would definitely bring extra stress when having to pay student loans,” said Smith.
To curb this stress and uncertainty under the threat of cuts, the Montezuma School to Farm Project’s board agreed to dip into its reserves and pay its four AmeriCorps members through July 31, the end of their service term.
It’ll also make up the difference lost in the education award, said the project’s Executive Director Sorrell Redford.
Redford said they’ll run out of funding in the next two weeks if the cuts go through.
She said that the program, which aims to connect students to the area’s agricultural heritage, depends on AmeriCorps.
“It’s how we function,” Redford said. “We have no money to hire full-time people, and if we hired full-time people, it’d be one or two, and one or two people can’t do the job of six.”
So in a future without AmeriCorps, the Montezuma School to Farm Project may no longer be.
“I feel devastated about it,” Redford said. “And there was no actual cause or notice- that’s why a lot of states are suing.”
Indeed, “there’s this ripple effect that we can’t really measure right now,” said Mendez.
For the better part of a decade, AmeriCorps members have been in Montezuma County, supporting its nonprofits and organizations, he said.
“It brings in people who wouldn’t come here otherwise, and they’re enthused and encouraged to change the world and give back,” Mendez said. “It’s a selfless act, to come out and volunteer for a year.”
Plus, members take advantage of that education award and often return to the communities they served in, bringing that knowledge back with them, he said.
“I did AmeriCorps with Southwest Conservation Corps about 20 years ago,” said Danny Margoles, the executive director of the Mancos Conservation District.
He spoke highly of his personal AmeriCorps experience, and said it opened the door for other job opportunities. Ultimately, his service in this region decades ago encouraged him to come back to this corner of the state.
Typically, at the Mancos Conservation District, there are two AmeriCorps members who bolster its education outreach arm in both its forestry and watershed programs.
But if AmeriCorps is cut and the district doesn’t bring in two new members this August as planned, it’ll be forced to cut back those educational programs, said Margoles.
“Their role would be sorely missed,” he said. “We’re figuring out what in practice it’ll mean for us.”
And so are people at La Puente, an Alamosa-based nonprofit that’s dipping into emergency reserves now to retain its 18 AmeriCorps members.
“We’re handicapped, lacking 18 people,” said La Puente’s Executive Director Lance Lance Cheslock.
“That’s a third of our workforce, but most of our services will be able to limp along,” said Cheslock.
On the bottom of its website, in big bold letters, a message reads: “La Puente would not exist without the support and energy of our AmeriCorps members, who commit a year of service and are the core of our team.”
In addition to offering shelter for the homeless, La Puente has a soup kitchen, 15 food pantries, a program for kids with trauma, a family resource center, clothing closet and street outreach program.
Cheslock said “a little over 12,000 individuals – that’s an unduplicated number – take advantage of one of these services in the San Luis Valley.”
As with all the nonprofits The Journal spoke to, La Puente is “trying to come up with a plan for how to navigate the shrinking resources.”
Mendez added that “we’re having to ask questions like, ‘Should we keep the food bank open five days, or scale it back to three?’ Or, ‘Should we offer two meals a day, or just one?’”
“The questions we’re having to grapple with are not easy to answer because it means services are not being provided to the most vulnerable population,” said Mendez.
Urban, Mendez and Cheslock encouraged people to reach out to U.S. Congressman Jeff Hurd and Sens. Michael Bennett and John Hickenlooper about the cuts.
“AmeriCorps has always been bipartisan,” Urban said. “The abruptness of these cuts doesn’t take into account the human aspect of it all on either side- for the AmeriCorps member or the community they’re serving.”
