Young volunteers working in AmeriCorps programs across Georgia found out this week that they no longer have jobs.
The state agency that oversees the program in Georgia sent an email notice to AmeriCorps partner, metro Atlanta-based One World Link, telling the group to suspend its work immediately.
That was on Saturday.
The group’s executive director, Ade Oguntoye, said many of the group’s 67 volunteers stepped away from other careers to serve Georgia communities.
“They were serving in federally qualified health centers doing outreach to patients,” he said. “They were starting food pantries. They also were working in schools, working in national parks. They were doing a host of things. They were doing critical things to meet community needs.”
He said there were about 300 AmeriCorps volunteers in Georgia all together, working in all parts of the state.
The national volunteer count was about 2,000, according to the program’s website.
Their dismissals are a result of the Trump administration’s campaign to shrink the government’s workforce.
They received a modest stipend and benefits, including health care, in exchange for their work.
“The service that they provide is more than they receive,” Oguntoye said. “It’s not doing the very thing that the action said that it’s doing to save money. It’s not actually saving anything off the federal deficit.”
The agency’s budget was nearly $38 million last fiscal year.
This article comes to Now Habersham in partnership with GPB News
