Sunset Park after-school program upended by Trump's AmeriCorps cuts

President Donald Trump’s cuts to the federal AmeriCorps agency have forced a Brooklyn nonprofit to scramble for money to cover living expenses for the idealistic young people who help care for children with working parents.

The Center for Family Life in Sunset Park supports 54 AmeriCorps volunteers who help families with educational enrichment programs serving some 800 children from 11 public schools. Funding from AmeriCorps typically covers a stipend for the volunteers, who mostly come from the neighborhood, as well as money toward their college tuition.

In April, the Center for Family Life learned more than $200,000 of the program’s AmeriCorps funding had been slashed for the remainder of this school year. It also lost nearly $750,000 in AmeriCorps funding for next year.

The social service group scraped together funds for the volunteers to help pay their bills through the end of their contracts in June, but leaders said it's not clear what will happen to the college grants they had been promised.

“For that generation, I think it could create some cynicism that they were cheated from something they were promised when they made this commitment,” said Kristie Mancell, a director at the Center for Family Life. “The ripple effect that we’re imagining that this will have is severe.”

Without AmeriCorps volunteers, there could be hundreds of fewer slots at the after-school programs, where demand has always outstripped supply, she said. “All of our out of school programs, including afterschool and summer camps, have waitlists,” Mancell added.

AmeriCorps is similar to the Peace Corps, but operates within the United States. In exchange for living expenses and education funding, young volunteers across the country help with after-school and summer camps, clean up after natural disasters, serve in health clinics, build housing, and possibly get inspired to pursue a career in public service.

Xavier Harmon, 26, joined AmeriCorps in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said it was a “dark time” when multiple family members were dying from the virus and cancer. He recalled his grandfather’s last words were “to make sure I do something meaningful and purposeful — and give back to the kids.”

AmeriCorps allowed Harmon to do just that. With education funding from the program, he graduated from York College, completed his term as a volunteer with AmeriCorps and is now studying to become an occupational therapist. He still works with the Center for Family Life and is now an employee.

“It kept me on the straight and narrow,” Harmon said. "It gave me a sense of purpose, honestly … so I'm grateful for that experience.”

The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency last month cut nearly $400 million dollars at AmeriCorps programs nationwide, out of a $1 billion overall budget. Around 30,000 volunteers across the country stopped receiving stipends, including those at the Center for Family Life. Many of them were just a couple months short of finishing their contracts, and say they don’t know whether they will receive the college grants they were counting on.

Mancell said AmeriCorps has fostered a virtuous cycle for generations of young people in Sunset Park that has now been disrupted. Young adults from the neighborhood often volunteer with AmeriCorps, with the higher-education grants paving the way for some to become the first college graduates in their families. Many then return to the neighborhood to work for the programs or in similar fields, like social work, human services and youth development. according to Mancell.

The administration has said it wants to save money and ensure AmeriCorps is accountable to taxpayers, noting the federal agency has faced criticism for its accounting practices from an internal watchdog.

“President Trump is restructuring AmeriCorps, which has failed eight consecutive audits, while simultaneously standing up for children and families across the country,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement.

Federal officials overseeing AmeriCorps have acknowledged it needs to modernize technology and tighten accounting. The agency was in the process of taking corrective steps when the Trump administration cut its funding.

According to New York Attorney General Letitia James, the state is facing more than $30 million in AmeriCorps cuts at programs supporting a range of needs, including food pantries, senior centers, veterans groups, homeless shelters and health clinics. James and two dozen other states are suing the Trump administration to stop the AmeriCorps cuts.

Yasira Dorta grew up in Sunset Park and attended programs through the Center for Family Life as a child before joining AmeriCorps to help her neighbors and earn money for college. She’s now a director of the same type of after-school program she once participated in.

“Through the AmeriCorps contract, I was able to go to Brooklyn College and get my degree in Puerto Rican and Latino studies,” she said. “Honestly, without it I wouldn’t have been able to go to college.”

Dorta said knowing how meaningful the experience was for her makes the cuts particularly painful.

“ It just turned into like my life's passion afterwards, just learning how much I enjoyed working with the community,” she said. “So just to see these opportunities being taken away from members within our community …  is disheartening.”

This story has been updated to correct Yasira Dorta's name.