Aurora AmeriCorps NCCC members react following cuts made to national program

A program that paved the way for young people nationwide to do service work across many disciplines lost funding earlier this month when the federal government cut spending towards one of its programs, affecting many across Colorado.

"Our program was a refuge for people to come here and learn about what it means to be a professional, learn about what it means to be a public servant and do that in a safe and productive environment," said Drew Tienken.

Tienken, Elias Ferguson, and Phoebe Serlemitsos are all team leaders for the Southwest region of the AmeriCorps National Civil Community Corps, based in Aurora. They spoke with CBS Colorado in the days after their entire program was told to stop work and return home amid budget cuts.

For them, the program was more than just a post-grad service work opportunity.

"What I liked about that is they would try to choose places that have been historically overlooked or might be economically marginalized and kind of leveling the playing field a little bit between different communities throughout the southwest region," said Tienken.

Each of them managed teams of up to 10 people, who traveled to different volunteer assignments around Colorado and the surrounding Southwest region for weeks at a time. The NCCC program is stipend based, and members live together, work together, and receive health insurance during their time with the program.

Some of their assignments stretch as far as wildfire mitigation, home building and working for local food banks like the Food Bank of the Rockies.

"We're the ones on the ground," said Ferguson. "The connection between the actual people who run the organizations that we work with. This is like Habitat for Humanity or anything kind of adjacent to that and the team, and then also the actual government workers for AmeriCorps."

These leaders say AmeriCorps gave them a sense of purpose, life skills and exposure to new career paths while transitioning out of college and into the professional world.

"We all had projects that were counting on us or sponsors for projects that were counting on us for the next few months, and none of us can go help those organizations, and they're kind of stranded now," said Serlemitsos.

On the very same week they were set to deploy to new projects, funding for the NCCC program was slashed.

"During our lunchtime, we got pulled into the gym and we were basically told that, like in a 30-minute time span, everyone was going to have a flight home booked," said Tienken.

Tienken says members at the Aurora campus felt demoralized after dedicating physical and emotional labor for months, only to have their experience cut short with little notice.

"There's a lot of crying and a lot of emotions, understandably. I think it's difficult to hear that like, your income and your health insurance and your sense of purpose is going to be upended within the course of like 9 hours," he said.

Their biggest fear, however, is what will happen to organizations that have already invested and depended on receiving their help.

"I'm sad about knowing all the work that needs to be done, and just, it's not going to get done," said Serlemitsos.

Last week, Colorado Lt. Governor Dianne Primavera shared her concerns with cuts to AmeriCorps NCCC, urging Congress to act on keeping the program intact:

"Since its founding in 1993, AmeriCorps has empowered Coloradans across the state to serve their neighbors, solve real problems and strengthen communities," said Primavera. "To dismantle these programs now, when so many Coloradans rely on them, would be devastating. These actions will impact service members and result in a loss of tax support for working families, wildfire response teams, those who build affordable housing and behavioral health support in our schools. These are the people behind the numbers, and the work they do matters deeply."

According to the Lt. Governor's statement, more than 6,600 AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors served at over 700 local sites across Colorado.

Roughly 2,000 NCCC members are deployed nationally each year, with 300 of those members coming from the Aurora campus alone.  

"I think everybody is a little bit nervous, kind of on edge, trying to figure out what comes next," said Colton Varholak, who works for Habitat for Humanity Metro Denver under the AmeriCorps state program.

While this branch of the organization is not currently impacted by the federal budget cuts, they do worry about what could happen if more aspects of the organization are cut in the future.

"From new builds to repairs, renovations, modifications, building accessory dwelling units, AmeriCorps members touch all of those programs," said Nicole Stanekscott, Director of Engagement for Habitat for Humanity Metro Denver.

Stanekscott said it's why, without the option to contract future NCCC members, they cannot risk also losing other parts of the program.

"I think it's a really important program and it gives people purpose, it gives people direction, it gives them meaning," said Varholak.

While some NCCC leaders hope to continue doing service work outside of AmeriCorps, they said it's unclear if the future of collaborating public service with local organizations will ever be as successful without federal support.

"We don't have that safety net for service members to have food and have health insurance, and when we don't have a dedicated staff looking for projects to serve in places that we've, like, haven't touched in a long time," said Tienken.