President Donald Trump’s administration ended grants for at least 16 community service programs in Virginia as part of sweeping AmeriCorps funding cuts, abruptly shutting down projects and forcing layoffs.
The U.S. Department of Government Efficiency — the Elon Musk-led team Trump tasked with slashing the federal government’s budget and workforce — recently ordered AmeriCorps, the federal agency for community service and volunteerism, to terminate nearly $400 million in grants.
The move pulled back funding used to plan and operate community service programs throughout Virginia, mostly in education and health care. Grant money went to nonprofits, organizations, schools and the City of Richmond.
Program directors and organization heads told VPM News the sudden cuts left them hurt, confused and scrambling to find answers. They shared stories of job losses, but said their biggest concern was the loss of critical services for the community — especially those aimed at children.
Along with providing these grants, AmeriCorps places people known as “members” to do service work on projects and in programs across the country. More than 160 members in Virginia were cut due to the grants ending, according to a count from the Richmond nonprofit Fit4Kids.
Sixteen grant recipients received an April 28 email from Kathy Spangler, the director of Serve Virginia — an office within the Virginia Department of Social Services that administers the grants — informing them the funding was cut.
“Pursuant to this notice of termination, all activities related to your grant should cease immediately,” Spangler wrote in the email, which was shared with VPM News.
One of the people who got the email was Karen Wesley, the AmeriCorps project director for the United Way of Central Virginia.
She told VPM News the nonprofit was using funding to plan and support staff for an initiative aimed at improving the region’s child care and early education workforce, and hoped to serve 200 to 300 children a week. The initiative includes plans to build a child care center, which is still expected to continue.
The cut also cost Wesley and the AmeriCorps member coordinator she hired in January their jobs, she said.
Wesley said she’s nearing retirement, so she can “manage” what comes next, but she’s struggling over her colleague losing her job: “To have moved a person from another position and brought her on, and now the rug just got pulled out from under her. I’m trying to deal with that. I feel awful about that.”
Mary Dunne Stewart, president and CEO of Fit4Kids, said the sudden cut to her organization’s planning grant is unlike anything she’s experienced. Dunne Stewart told VPM News the termination notice came minutes before she got an email about a new AmeriCorps grant contract.
“I've been in nonprofits for almost 25 years, and I can't remember another time where I've had a signed contract terminated for any reason, but especially no reason really, mid-term, when it's paying people salaries,” she said.
In Arlington, Aspire Afterschool Learning offers after-school and summer academic support for students between third and eighth grades. It was awarded a grant so 17 AmeriCorps members, each making about $30,000 a year, could work with students.
Paula Fynboh, Aspire’s executive director, said the organization works with “historically underserved children” who often are behind in reading and math. She said the work has helped students improve their test scores.
She said there was “no rhyme or reason” to cut the grant, which was expected to last until mid-August.
Aspire will serve 40 fewer students this summer, Fynboh said. And because of the uncertainty surrounding future AmeriCorps funding, she said the organization will likely lose its ability to serve one-third of the students it normally does.
Fynboh said giving members and Aspire staff the news last week was the most difficult conversation of her professional life.
“To look 17 people in the face — most of them who are under the age of 26 — who believe so much in this work,” Fynboh told VPM News. “And to tell them that that was essentially their last day of work just broke my heart.”
Another terminated grant allowed 25 AmeriCorps members in Southwest Virginia to work with about 450 students in the City of Galax and Carroll, Patrick, Radford and Smyth counties.
The members were tutors, after-school program aides and community support workers who served “some of the most financially challenged communities in the region,” current and past directors of the program said in a joint statement.
“This is more than the loss of a program; it is the loss of opportunity, of hope, and of essential support for our most vulnerable students,” they said. “For our communities, the path to recovery will be difficult.”
Arleen Borysiewicz, the executive director of the NVMS Conflict Resolution Center in Fairfax, said the center has had to pivot after losing its grant funding. She said the organization will have to “recalibrate” its staffing and consider pay reductions.
The Virginia Department of Social Services did not respond by publication.
Last year, nearly 2,900 AmeriCorps members and seniors served at 371 locations in Virginia. This includes schools, food banks, shelters, public health clinics, youth centers, veterans’ facilities and more, per Serve Virginia.
“AmeriCorps has failed eight consecutive audits and is entrusted with over $1 billion in taxpayer dollars every year,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement. “It is a target-rich environment for President Trump’s agenda to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse.”
AmeriCorps did not respond to a request for comment about the cuts and the 2024 audit that found it has not produced auditable financial statements for the last eight years.
A coalition of 24 states — not including Virginia — and the District of Columbia is suing the Trump administration over the AmeriCorps funding cuts, which reduce the agency’s workforce by 90%.
Dunne Stewart, the Fit4Kids CEO, said AmeriCorps grant recipients met with the offices of U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D–Va.) and U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman (R–Va.) about the cuts.
In a statement, Kaine said DOGE is “taking a chainsaw to our government and making it more difficult for Americans to access important services.”
Wittman said while he supports efforts to improve efficiency, “we must also take a compassionate approach that considers the real-life impact on those who rely on federal support.”
The AmeriCorps grant recipients that received the termination notice:
Aspire Afterschool Learning
Carroll County Public Schools
CASA
College of William and Mary
Greater Richmond Fit4Kids, Inc
Greater Roanoke Workforce Development Board
LeadingAge Virginia
Northern Virginia Mediation Services Inc
City of Richmond
State Council of Higher Education for VI
Teach for America
United Way of Central Virginia
United Way of Greater Richmond & Petersburg
United Way of Henry County & Martinsville, Inc.
United Way of the National Capital Area
Virginia Learns
