Hundreds of service workers have been left jobless and services across schools, nonprofits and community health programs have been disrupted as a result of terminated AmeriCorps funding in Wisconsin, Madison365 reports.
The jobs of 430 active AmeriCorps members statewide — including 69 in Dane County — were eliminated by the cuts, and 300 sites across Wisconsin saw programming halt. The cuts will reportedly also impact roughly 680 service workers scheduled to work in summer programs.
Rooted, which serves the Department of Public Instruction’s Farm to School Program in Madison, has the budget to keep its one AmeriCorps staffer employed through the end of the school year and is seeking donations to keep the program afloat next year.
Fifty-two AmeriCorps members were reportedly working in three Dane County-based programs, including the Dane County Department of Human Services’ Partners for After School Success and United Way of Dane County’s Schools of Hope and Achievement Connections tutoring programs in the Madison and Middleton-Cross Plains school districts.
Statewide, six programs employed 17 more AmeriCorps members through Easterseals Wisconsin, Marshfield Clinic Health System Community Corps, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Farm to School, Wisconsin Association for Homeless and Runaway Services, Wisconsin Association of Free & Charitable Clinics and WisCorps.
