1 week Ago By Lilly Keller Chronicle Staff Writer
After the Department of Government Efficiency's latest round of cuts, another Montana nonprofit is bracing for an uncertain future. Among the programs affected was the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps, a service initiative of more than 2,000 young volunteers who assist with disaster relief and support community projects across the U.S.
Last week, many Corps members were suddenly discharged or placed on administrative leave — disrupting organizations that rely on their labor and funding and casting doubt on the future of the program itself. That uncertainty is already being felt in Montana. Montana Conservation Corps, which partners with AmeriCorps through the National Service Partners initiative, is among organizations grappling with the fallout.
For MCC, the disruption is just the latest challenge in a year already marked by instability and shake-ups, President and CEO Jono McKinney said. “Roughly around three-quarters of the AmeriCorps agency workforce were placed on administrative leave with pay,” McKinney said. “That creates a lot of uncertainty and we’re certainly nervous about whether this suggests an imminent shutdown of AmeriCorps.
But we've also heard that the AmeriCorps state and national programs, which include MCC, are still able to enroll our members in the AmeriCorps systems.” Since 1993, AmeriCorps grants have been distributed through the Montana Governor’s Office of Community Service, which promotes national service and volunteerism across the state and oversees funding for Montana-based programs. Still, McKinney emphasized that the situation hasn’t reached a point of doom and gloom.
AmeriCorps has assured MCC that grant funding for both this season and the next will remain in place — for now. “We've been told that we're to continue with our programming. We've been told that the grant award process for next year's awards is moving forward and that basically to keep on keeping on,” he said.
“Montana Conservation Corps is nervously moving forward with the hopes, and frankly, all the indicators that we will have a normal season.” For more than 30 years, Montana Conservation Corps has employed young people in seasonal roles to complete conservation projects. Crews undertake projects such as building trails, removing invasive vegetation and repairing infrastructure on public lands.
The nonprofit also runs a summer youth program for individuals aged 14–18 in Bozeman, Helena and Kalispell, designed to foster leadership and personal growth. But even with its AmeriCorps partnership holding steady — for now — MCC has not been immune to the ripple effects of broader federal policy shifts this year. Earlier in 2025, the organization faced significant uncertainty after layoffs at the U.
S. Forest Service, a longtime project partner, and a freeze on Inflation Reduction Act funding, which supports many of MCC’s on-the-ground efforts. While both issues have seen partial resolution — a federal judge recently ordered the reinstatement of IRA funding, and the Custer Gallatin National Forest temporarily brought back some employees who were laid off — McKinney said challenges remain.
One of the more disruptive changes, he said, has stemmed from the administration’s rollback of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. As a result, MCC has had to suspend several of its identity-based crews, including an all-women’s fuel and fire crew that operated in partnership with Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. “A single-gender crew would be a violation of the executive orders around DEI,” McKinney said.
“The park basically said, we've got to pull that program, for concern that it would be discriminatory. We had other all-women's trail crews that we needed to suspend, but we're continuing to do all the projects, just not with individual or single identity crews.” In total, five identity-based crews were cut ahead of the summer season, McKinney said.
But he said the projects those crews were slated to work on will still move forward using other staff configurations. “For the most part, we are operating as normal, but we do have to recalibrate some of the messaging," he said. "Montana Conservation Corps, for over a decade, has seen the value of engaging young people from diverse backgrounds and life experiences.
We see that as enriching our program by having young people work with people who are different from themselves, and it was easy to just call that DEI. We can't do DEI anymore, but we can still provide inclusive, welcoming, supportive, learning spaces.” Additionally, MCC is awaiting decisions regarding approximately $3.
5 million in project funding currently under administrative review, with limited clarity on when or whether the funding will be released. Still, McKinney said he wants the community to know MCC isn’t going anywhere, and for individuals wanting to help but not sure how, his message is simple: contact Congress. “We, the national service committee across the country, are working to demonstrate to our members of Congress that AmeriCorps is a valued and cost-effective solution so we're asking our board members, community members and supporters to reach out to Congress and share about the impacts they see AmeriCorps making,” he said.
“Don't end AmeriCorps, it is a valuable asset for the country.”.
