A year ago, seven people received a living allowance from the federal program AmeriCorps to provide tutoring for Literacy Pittsburgh. The organization had utilized service members from AmeriCorps since the launch of the program during the days of the Bill Clinton administration, which created the agency to monetarily support volunteers serving community organizations.
Then, in April of last year, the federal government, as part of the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency, swiftly announced massive cuts to AmeriCorps, leaving the relationship between Literacy Pittsburgh and AmeriCorps unclear. Several states, including Pennsylvania, sued the federal government and, a few months later, succeeded in restoring funding and service member positions.
For some Pittsburgh-area organizations, the court-ordered restoration meant a return to business as usual. Others shifted, and may have emerged stronger.
After the chaos of last year, Literacy Pittsburgh had some issues with the AmeriCorps application process, according to Chief Executive Officer Carey Harris. The organization applied through Pennsylvania’s AmeriCorps commission, PennSERVE, for a competitive grant from the federal government but didn’t get it, she said. The organization could have then applied for funding already allocated to PennSERVE, but the time sink of interviewing candidates and applying for funding led them to make a “heartbreaking” decision to end the relationship with AmeriCorps.
“We realized that there was just so much uncertainty about what was happening at the national level that we didn’t really know when or if we would ever find out if we had a program or not,” Harris said. “And so, we just made the decision to walk away from it.”
Since then, the organization upped its volunteer classroom aides from 32 to more than 50 and decided to bring on more interns in a given semester. The organization has been managing, Harris said, but she wouldn’t say things feel back to normal.
“We might have added other staff for other programs, but we never replaced the capacity that we had from AmeriCorps,” Harris said.
AmeriCorps did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Since the sudden cuts to AmeriCorps in April 2025 and the subsequent reinstatement a few months later, Pittsburgh-area organizations have been figuring out how best to move forward. While Literacy Pittsburgh decided to move on, other groups have successfully returned to similar usage of AmeriCorps. Still, those groups have been forced to prepare for an uncertain future.
How AmeriCorps works
A judge ruled a year ago that the federal government must reinstate AmeriCorps funding and positions to the states joined on the lawsuit.
Organizations looking for AmeriCorps funding apply through either the federal government or their state government. Organizations based in multiple states apply directly to the federal government. Groups based only in Pennsylvania seek funds through the state government, through PennSERVE. For Allegheny County organizations, PennSERVE works with KEYS Service Corps and the Allegheny County Department of Human Services to distribute approved funding.
According to Allegheny County DHS Interim Director Alex Jutca, KEYS placed 80 AmeriCorps members in 2026, an increase from 49 in 2025. Similar numbers of AmeriCorps members served during the school year in 2025 and 2026, but this year, DHS expects 45 will serve in the summer as opposed to 12 last summer.
“This growth reflects a rebuilding year following last year’s funding challenges,” said Jutca in a statement to Pittsburgh’s Public Source. “KEYS’ 30-year history and long-standing partnerships helped maintain many placements despite national AmeriCorps funding reductions and delays.”
This year’s number, though, is lower than the 92 AmeriCorps members — 41 for the school year and 51 for the summer — KEYS placed in 2024.
How best to navigate the future of the program remains up for debate. For the communities served by AmeriCorps, and for the unique experience offered to service members, the stakes are high.
Braddock: ‘What is happening?’
When she was 15 years old, Mikala Jones’ older brother told her how much fun he had through Braddock Youth Project’s (BYP) gardening program, staffed by AmeriCorps members. That sounded good to her, so she joined and spent her summer weeding and planting and taking field trips. She vividly remembers visiting a beautiful flower farm, followed by ice cream.
“It was so great, so lovely. I loved it,” Jones said. “I had so much fun. I made great friends. I met my now-husband.”
After she turned 18, Jones became an AmeriCorps member, inspired by those who had created “a second home” for her. After a one-year stint in the program, she enrolled at college and took a job in a grocery store bakery for a few years. She didn’t like the job, so, pregnant with her second child, she decided to go back home and do another AmeriCorps stint for BYP.
Toward the end of her term, though, the federal government, guided by the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency, abruptly cut all funding for AmeriCorps. BYP couldn’t guarantee their regular living allowance, but Jones and other members continued their work with the group regardless. She had access to food stamps, and family members helped with her finances.
The lawsuit restored AmeriCorps funding and service positions, including Jones’.
“I was so off-kilter,” Jones said. “I’m like, what is happening?”
Jones’ current AmeriCorps term ends in August, but she will continue with BYP as the head of the garden team, taking over for Cassie Staub, who served in AmeriCorps with BYP when Jones was a teenager. Staub plans to go back to school and become a therapist, and long hoped Jones would take over from her.
“It’s the perfect transition for her,” Staub said.
The added responsibility makes Jones trepidatious, but she’s happy to continue working for BYP. Staub, with the help of four AmeriCorps members, will remain this summer to ease Jones into the position, and funding seems stable for now.
Still, the disruptions of last year have left a lasting impression.
“In a sense, I guess I could say I always have it in the back of my mind now that it could happen again,” Jones said.
West Homestead: Doubling the AmeriCorps workforce
Public Allies Pittsburgh, a local chapter of a national nonprofit that also gets its AmeriCorps funding from the federal government, continues to use AmeriCorps. The West Homestead-based chapter places members as “allies” in various nonprofits for a wide range of apprenticeships.
The local chapter started in 2006 but entered a “hiatus” during what would have been its 2023-2024 term. After the hiatus, Public Allies Pittsburgh relaunched with the intention of expanding. In its first year back, 2024, it had eight AmeriCorps members for a September through July cohort. Then, in 2025, it had 11. For 2026, there will be 18 full-time and 13 part-time members, marking a full relaunch and rebuild using longstanding connections in the area.
Public Allies, though, decided to move beyond its main AmeriCorps-funded program. It now offers “Custom Leadership Labs” that provide personalized training programs for particular teams and organizations.
“But we have also diversified our funding as well to move forward and safeguard Public Allies programming going forward,” said Public Allies Pittsburgh’s Program Manager Clark Outridge. “So we have launched these leadership labs and civic action labs … to diversify how we are impacting and developing emerging leaders just beyond the AmeriCorps program.”
Homewood: Crowdfunding, rebranding
When Homewood Children’s Village thought it would lose its AmeriCorps funding last year, it started an online crowdfunding campaign to replace those funds. The organization, which places members in Homewood-area classrooms, didn’t meet its full target but used the money it raised to make sure none of the members went without compensation, according to President and CEO Walter Lewis.
This year the organization, which receives AmeriCorps funding through PennSERVE, has seen some delays but hasn’t suffered significant loss of AmeriCorps members or disruptions to their programming, according to Lewis. However, the group plans to do more to ensure it’s prepared for any future threats to AmeriCorps funding. This means being “more intentional” about other fundraising and rebranding to not rely as much on “AmeriCorps” in the language describing its programming, in case a future situation forces the group to operate without that federal program.
Lewis wants to ensure the program is sustainable.
“Because of what happened last year, we’ve been putting things in place to prepare for really whatever realities come, and so we’ve been rethinking and recalibrating the way we structure the program,” Lewis said, “… just so that we’re a little bit less susceptible to mass disruption in the way that funding cut would have presented last year.”
Matt Petras is a visiting lecturer of English at the University of Pittsburgh and a freelance reporter. He can be reached at matt456p@gmail.com and on Bluesky @mattapetras.bsky.social.
This story was fact-checked by Ada Perlman.
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