WOODBURY – AmeriCorps programs across the country learned on April 25 that $400 million in grants had been terminated. The news trickled through various agencies, landing in the email in-box of Ana Maria Arroyo, an AmeriCorps volunteer who lives in Montpelier and works at the North Branch Nature Center (NBNC), where she has been involved with a variety of activities that include carrying out the work of the ECO Institute (Educating Children Outdoors).
That day, Arroyo wrote a social media post, saying, “Today I was fired. Effective immediately. Until today I have been serving as an AmeriCorps member with the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board.”
She went on to say, “I received a termination email alongside 30,000 other people who were volunteering their time to serve their community.”
Arroyo has been visiting Woodbury Elementary School one day a week along with a NBNC staff naturalist, where they would alternate mornings between kindergarten and first graders one week and second and third graders the next. Afternoons are spent with fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders.
Each week’s activities vary, with an emphasis on place-based programming. That has included earth science activities, ecology and environmental studies, said Arroyo. It’s sometimes group work, or playing thematically appropriate games. Sometimes children simply sit to observe nature from one to 15 minutes, then discuss what they’ve seen.
Larger lessons involve the history of the landscape and how glaciers have affected it. They’ve explored wildlife diversity, tracking and installed trail cams.
Lindset Benton, a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher at Woodbury Elementary School wrote on social media, sharing Arroyo’s post, to say, “I just feel so sad that AmeriCorps has been cut by DOGE. Just after college I served two AmeriCorps terms through the Student Conservation Association, and those experiences significantly shaped the trajectory of my life.”
In speaking of Arroyo’s work with NBNC, Benton said, “Programs like this serve so many communities, and the assistance that AmeriCorps members provide within nonprofits is essential to their overall healthy functioning.”
The late April email Arroyo received said, “Over the weekend, SerVermont received notice from AmeriCorps that all five AmeriCorps state grants were terminated effective immediately due to a determination that ‘the award no longer effectuates agency priorities.’”
She said she received no explanation of exactly how those priorities had changed.
The message said Vermont AmeriCorps staff learned 80% of all AmeriCorps state and national programs received notice of termination, including Vermont’s five state programs: VHCB AmeriCorps, ECO AmeriCorps, LEAP, ReSOURCE and Vermont Youth Conservation Corps.
The email said, “AmeriCorps members are vital fabrics of Vermont communities and host site organizations – this notification severely impacts not only our members’ personal lives but the essential services they provide.”
Arroyo offered that other information in the message explained how she was to proceed and said, “It’s discouraging and incredibly frustrating.”
Arroyo, who graduated from Ithaca College with a BA in Environmental Studies, has been working with AmeriCorps since June 2024. For two months she was a camp assistant. She said she loved the NBNC work and extended her time for another 10 months to work with them, despite being paid a living allowance of just $14 per hour, when a living wage is between $21 and $23 per hour.
In a social media post announcing her termination, she said, “Americorps members are the people who came to muck out houses after Vermont experienced debilitating flooding in the last two years. AmeriCorps members are the people who are providing food to people who need it, no questions asked.”
“It was not entirely unexpected,” she said, “but no one seemed to want other work. AmeriCorps gets things done!”
Arroyo said AmeriCorps volunteers are part of a larger network that provides food access work, assistance with health and housing for low-income people nationwide. Without AmeriCorps volunteers, the work they have been doing either won’t get done, or will cost a lot more.
Arroyo says, while the termination notices said to stop service immediately, her relationship with NBNC has been good and she was told her living allowance would continue through May 15. After that she expects to be volunteering her time, but there’s a fine line between paying rent, car insurance and other living expenses, she said. “There’s not a lot of wiggle room.”
The email Arroyo received said, “The State is currently reviewing the legality of this termination and exploring options to challenge it.”
NBNC and the various other Vermont organizations involved with AmeriCorps have been working to identify ways for volunteers to continue serving, she said.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
