RAVENSWOOD, W.Va. — With the dismantling of around 85% of AmeriCorps staff and the termination of nearly $400 million dollars in grants through the program recently authorized by DOGE, a Jackson County museum says they are really feeling the blow.

The AmeriCorps program at the Great Bend Museum in Ravenswood has been terminated after a directive from the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, for short.

This comes after the Trump Administration had the federal agency for volunteer services, that’s approximately 30 years strong, almost completely dismantled and have placed most of its staff on administrative leave.

According to AmeriCorps, they offer over 500 full-time jobs, oversee a multitude of volunteer programs, and dispatches around 200,000 volunteers from across the country to work with students, veterans, and senior citizens.

Director of the Great Bend Museum, Faith Walker, said recently on MetroNews Midday that the museum provides displays on Native American roots, the early settlements, all the way up to the 20th Century community life as it relates to the area.

She said it’s extremely important these old stories get preserved, and a part of how that gets done is through the work of many volunteers, including the volunteers being provided to them through AmeriCorps.

Walker said over the past few years, AmeriCorps volunteers have been critical in helping to fulfill the museum’s mission and serving in vital staff capacities.

“AmeriCorps members are incredibly, incredibly valuable workers for organizations that just can’t afford staff like that, and so, I’m personally pretty heartbroken and frankly outraged by these sudden cuts,” Walker said.

Walker said AmeriCorps receives a grant from the federal government, but that the state determines where the funds will go and which specific program will receive funding.

Faith Walker

She said, then, there is a local and state match for the funds, so the museum has contributed its share of money in bringing on an AmeriCorps member.

Walker said that contributing the funding for an AmeriCorps member is well worth it to them, and this is the loss of a valuable asset to the team.

“They’re not just line items, they’re lifelines for small organizations like ours, and for the passionate professionals who serve our community through them,” she said.

Walker said that as a former AmeriCorps member herself, having recently served two terms, it was incredibly valuable to her, as it raised up the notion that she was truly giving back to her community.

She said that’s perhaps one of the most beneficial aspects about the program is that it brings in young professionals from other states to West Virginia, and many of whom, like herself, fall in love with the area, and choose to stay and build a life and career here long after their AmeriCorps service has ended.

She said this is now taking those potential and future employees away.

“Without AmeriCorps, not only are we not going to bring in those professionals, but unfortunately, we’re also going to lose a lot of people who simply can’t find a replacement job in this time,” Walker said.

Walker said recently, the museum was very proud to receive a $20,000 grant through the West Virginia Humanities Council for the development of their Clara Weisheit display.

Weisheit lived from 1885 to 1965 and was an avid photographer famous for documenting community life and the culture of the town of Ravenswood in the early 20th Century.

However, Walker said that, because of the DOGE cuts, they lost all of the funding a month before the exhibit was to open and right at the end of their fiscal year.

She said it has actually been devastating for them.

“We can’t cancel the project, so now, we’re bearing the costs ourselves, and we’ve had to make pretty tough decisions about what other projects to cut or to postpone in order to accommodate this unexpected expense.” she said.

Walker said, nevertheless, they are trying to stay committed to their mission and hopeful things will change.

She said they really need leaders who will step up and fight for the future of the arts, humanities, and all of the people that make preserving it possible.

And, she said she hopes the people making these decisions take a moment to see just how many lives this is affecting, and what the cuts actually say.

“AmeriCorps members are in our communities everyday helping kids learn, preserving history, mentoring youth, building trails , so many things, and cutting them and their service undermines everything they have sacrificed for, and to me, it kind of tells them that their service didn’t matter,” Walker said.

However, she said she can say for certainty that both the WV Humanities Council and AmeriCorps’ service matters a great deal to many, many people.

U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito has recently stated that AmeriCorps’ performance, especially in a rural state like West Virginia, is critical in filling gaps in employment and providing beneficial programs.