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After disasters, AmeriCorps was everywhere. What happens when it’s gone?

After the destroyed fires of Los Angeles in January, a crew of more than 300 young people appeared for help, many of whom were members of the American Service Program. Among them was Julian Nava Cortez, who traveled from northern California to help survivors in a disaster recovery center near Tadina, where the Etone fire was Almost destroy the entire neighborhood. He said that people reached crying, drowned and angry.

“We were the first face they saw,” said Nava Cortez, a 23 -year -old member of California Emergency Response Corps, He directed people to the resources they need to secure housing in emergency situations, navigate insurance claims, and go to the process of removing debris. He was sometimes working for 11 hours, emotional equipment, and listening to the stories of what the survivors lost. What I have kept continuous is how much people are granted to help him.

Volunteers such as Nava Cortez 47,000 families affected by fire, according to Volunteers in California, helped the state service committee under the Ruler’s Office. But in late April, Nava Cortez and his team were placed in the California Emergency Response Corps on leave. Another program that helps recover in Los Angeles, California Amir Corps disasters, suddenly closed as a result of discounts to America.

Both were victims of government efficiency management in Elon Musk, known as Duji, which destroyed the 30 -year -old National Service Agency within weeks. In April, I set an Americanorps 85 percent of its 500 employees on leave I was almost canceled $ 400 million in grants Of the $ 1 billion budget. This step was effectively ending with an estimated service 32,000 American workers Throughout the country. The agency puts More than 200,000 peopleYoung and adults, in service roles every year.

Throughout the state of California, the cuts mean that about ten programs work to change climate, conservation, and response to disasters, have been forced to “reduce services projects, reduce employment, and support expansion in high -needs societies,”

This work is just a small slice of what AmericanPs do all over the country. Dog’s attempt to dismantle the agency has revealed all types of programs – lessons in primary schools, efforts to reduce poverty, and corridor maintenance crews. If you see a team of youth running after school, helping with the soup kitchen, or cleaning after a hurricane, there is a good opportunity to connect it to America in some way.

Dana Fischer, a professor at the Faculty of International Service at the American University, who is studying how societies could help respond and recover from disasters, as well as preparing for future futures, said that most people “did not realize the degree that was everywhere and they were doing a lot of good.” After flooding, hurricanes and hurricanes, Americanorps volunteers helped manage donation centers, clarify debris, and “Mud and intestine” Buildings, often in coordination with other agencies and local non -profit organizations.

Fisher is called the American “connective fabric” that facilitates coordination after disasters, thanks to its connections throughout the country. Agency Proud “It is often the first to respond and the last to leave,” as members sometimes work for months or years after disaster strikes.

“This will be catastrophic for societies,” Fischer said of the Trump administration of the program. “The really unfortunate thing is that we will not feel it until after the disaster strikes.”

Disaster preparedness is weakened throughout the federal government, so that heat waves, floods and other harsh weather have become more extreme as temperatures in the climate. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is working on such decreasing levels that warn experts Hurricane expectations will be less accurate Before the season of a brutal hurricane. President Donald Trump has repeatedly introduced an idea Eliminate the Federal Emergency Management AgencyThat deals with relief and recovery after harsh weather.

Two American members install the door frame in a house damaged by Hurricane Sandy in Brooklyn, New York.
JEWEL Samad / AFP via Getty Images

The loss of employees and programs in America is another blow to the country’s ability to respond to disasters and recover from them. In mid -April, Americanors suddenly withdrew the workers’ teams with the National Civil Society Corps Outside their jobs The rebuilding of homes was destroyed in storms, distribution of supplies to restore the hurricane, and more. “People were very annoying, very sad, and many people did not know what they would do, because this was our plan for our Sunnah,” said Rachel Super, a member of the FEMA Corps, the American NCCC program. Super was helping Pennsylvanians Reconstruction After Hurricane Deby last year.

At the end of April, there are ten states, including California, Lay a lawsuit against the Trump administration Because of the discounts to Americanors, claiming that Duj had destroyed an agency that established and financed Congress. A Separate Receipt by American Grant last week tries to ban discounts. Nava-Cortez was told that the result of his program reaches the courts, so he is waiting until the end of the month to find out what is happening. He was hoping to move to San Jose to the school after the end of his term this summer, but he is now not sure that he was able to cover the rent this month.

It is a long tradition in the United States to provide low -wage service jobs for youth. President Lindon B. said. Johnson in 1964: “Your salary will be low, and the conditions of your business will often be difficult.” The first group of volunteers has performed the constitutional oath With Vista, a service to relieve poverty. “But you will have satisfaction with leading a wonderful national effort.” He created the Americanxorps in 1993 during the reign of President Bill Clinton, folding in Vista and NCCC, and continued to expand the program with Support the two parties.

Michael Smith, former CEO of America, said in GRIT last year that America has expanded her environmental work by about $ 160 million in recent years. Under the Biden Administration, climate service work was collected throughout the country within the framework of the American short -term Climate Circuit, which was She quietly ended in January Before installing Trump.

After Trump took office, some programs had the opportunity to amend any drafting in granting it contradicting the president’s executive orders, such as removing the language about diversity, fairness, inclusion, or exchanging the word “memorization” for “climate change”. She was told that some state commissions that distribute Americanorps did not allow their grant beneficiaries the opportunity to rewrite their grants, which may explain the cause of Dog’s injury to these programs in particular.

There may be more upcoming discounts. “There are many signs that the Trump administration has not yet taken place with America,” Fischer said. In recent years, some Republicans have argued that Amirorbes funds And that it was Repeated and repeatedly fail to provide appropriate data For audit operations. However, a number of Republicans in Congress supports Amr Corcras because of its influence in their areas, Sprinkel said. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, for example, Posted on social media He objected to the pieces of the Antiors grants that support old warriors and provide “decisive support after hurricanes.”

Americaorps workers receive what the agency calls “a modest living allowance” to pay the costs of their basic expenses. The amount varies according to the program: Vista members are usually paid 2000 dollars per monthWhile NCCC and Fema Corps receives 400 dollars per month In addition to housing and money for food. In terms of the explosion for Pak, Americanors pushes itself. Every dollar was invested in the environmental work, a lot was born in return, according to Agency evaluation of the agency’s search and evaluation office From December. For example, the Montana Conservation Corporation got revenues of up to 35.84 dollars per dollar spent.

“If it is a financial decision to close Americanors, this is not really logical,” said Sky Hawk Brezit, 26, who was working in the Garden Section for Bellingham, Washington. As part of the Washington Service Corps, he and his colleague taught fifth -grade students around the original plants and coordinated volunteers who planted thousands of trees and removed gaseous species – but a lot of this work stops now after financing discounts. “It is a great loss for the students we are working with in our city alone, and this was struck by every city that uses Americanors throughout the country,” said Pressette.

A picture of young students standing in a forest watching a guide.
Sky Hawk Bresstte teach a group of fifth graders about the removal of the English gas in Lowell Park in Bellingham, Washington.
Alison Grant Grant

Most organizations within the Corico network depend on Americanorps somewhere between 15 and 50 percent of their budget, according to Bobby Tellett, member of the network’s member services. He said that while trying to unveil the financing and continue of the work they can, they are not sure of what they are admitted to the admitted people about the summer programs that are supposed to start in June.

Fischer said: “All of these programs were part of this amazing network of service that has not given any large -scale jobs, but they returned to societies,” Fischer said. “All of this is lost.”

Zoya Teirstein contributed to the reports to this story.


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