April 30, 2025
Dear Members and Friends,
I am extraordinarily sad to share that PVAS was notified yesterday that our AmeriCorps funding has been cancelled, and our eight AmeriCorps Service Members’ contracts were terminated immediately. Our State Service office hastened to reassure us that this was in no way a reflection of the value of our work or effectiveness of our programs.
AmeriCorps is the reason Potomac Valley Audubon Society (PVAS) has been able to provide the breadth and depth of services the community has come to expect from us over the years. We started with one VISTA in 2013 to help us with grant writing and our communications. In 2024, PVAS provided 3,000 individual children with 1-30 hours of educational programming in West Virginia. AmeriCorps members made up 74% of our education team in 2025. Without them our programs would only be able to reach about a quarter of the students it serves now in Jefferson, Berkeley and Morgan Counties. The AmeriCorps program has made PVAS’s youth programs affordable, far-reaching, and highly cost-effective. The program allowed us to use donor and grant dollars incredibly efficiently, expanding our outreach exponentially.
AmeriCorps Service Members have gained valuable on-the-job training, too. AmeriCorps alumni are now teachers, naturalists, freshwater ecologists, and founders of non-profits. One of our permanent staff, Laurel Schwartz, served as an AmeriCorps member with PVAS years ago!
To fulfill its commitments to schools, youth and families, PVAS immediately hired these terminated AmeriCorps Service Members as seasonal, hourly employees. Four classes (100 fourth graders) in Berkeley County were scheduled for a field trip at Poor House Farm Park today and we were committed to fulfilling that obligation. All former AmeriCorps Educators pivoted immediately and showed up to work in their “new” role. We are so grateful for their dedication in spite of being cut by AmeriCorps just the day before.
Employing our former AmeriCorps members at this scale is not a long-term solution – that would be way beyond our budget – but we are determined to fulfill our existing commitments to the former AmeriCorps and to you, our community, through the summer. Truthfully, this commitment will cost PVAS approximately $75K over the next four months, but the board felt strongly that it wasn’t right that the AmeriCorps members and the children and families we serve should pay the price for this federal government action. PVAS is exploring ways to raise funds to cover this unanticipated but ethically necessary expenditure. If you are inspired to help with this effort, please click here and put “AmeriCorps Support” in the “in honor of” line.
We’re also asking you to consider joining PVAS in contacting Senator Shelley Moore Capito to ask her to do everything she can to fully fund, as a discreet program, the work performed by former AmeriCorps in Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan Counties in the upcoming funding cycle that runs October 1, 2025 – September 30th, 2026. Senator Capito has been a champion of AmeriCorps in the past – receiving a national award for her efforts last year, so she recognizes the value of their work. And as Chair of the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee (LHHS), she is the most influential Member of Congress in determining its future financial support for this type of program. We’d like to share with her the story of how beneficial the program has been to us, thank her for her support, and encourage her continued support of this type of service work program in West Virginia and nationally. We’ve taken the liberty of providing a template of what you might personalize and use when you write or call her office (ideally both) at the end of this letter.
Thank you for your support in these unprecedented times, and for helping us broadcast and promote the value this type of program brings to PVAS and the local community.
Sincerely,
Kristin Alexander, Executive Director
Suggested Verbiage for a call to Senator Capito:
“Hello, my name is [your name] and I live in [your town and County].
I am calling to tell Senator Capito how important the AmeriCorps Program was to me here in (insert your town/ County). I’d like to thank her for the strong support she demonstrated for the program over the years. With the current cuts, I hope she’ll find other ways to fund the services formerly performed by the AmeriCorps program in the upcoming funding cycle.
As one example of the program’s impact, Potomac Valley Audubon Society has been able to reach thousands of children with its educational programs each year thanks to AmeriCorps Service Members as a direct result of being able to leverage this program. Those Service Members gain employment, a local network, and valuable job training for future careers – reversing the trend of trained professional people exiting our state. As one of the Senator’s constituents, it is extremely important to me that she continue her support of this cost-effective type of program for the benefit of our community.”
Please remember how important it is to remain polite in your tone and word choice, as it will be better received by the person on the other end of the phone. She has historically been a champion of AmeriCorps, and we are reaching out to thank her and urge her continued support of this type of program. Thank you!
Senator Shelley Moore Capito
(304) 262-9285 (best to call the local office) or (202) 224-6472 (ask for Mimi Vance, her legislative assistant for education)
https://www.capito.senate.gov/contact/contact-my-office
Enjoy some photos that highlight our amazing AmeriCorps Service Members in action during their time with PVAS below.
