Attorney General Jeff Jackson today won a court order that blocks AmeriCorps from unlawfully ending job and recovery grants that support western North Carolina.
“Western North Carolina will get the funds it needs so AmeriCorps members can keep helping people, keep cleaning up after Helene, and rebuild their homes and neighborhoods,” said Attorney General Jeff Jackson. “The people in western North Carolina can keep rebuilding while I keep fighting this case.”
On April 15, AmeriCorps ordered more than 50 full-time volunteers to stop working on Helene recovery in western North Carolina, as part of terminating more than 750 volunteers working nationwide for the National Civilian Community Corps. On April 25, North Carolina was notified that AmeriCorps would immediately stop funding 10 volunteer organizations funded through the NC Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service, including several serving hard-hit communities in western North Carolina. On April 29, Attorney General Jackson joined a coalition of 23 other attorneys general suing AmeriCorps for not administering grants that Congress had already appropriated.
Today, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland granted a preliminary injunction and restored all programs that had been terminated in North Carolina while the case continues. A federal judge found that the actions were unlawful because Congress explicitly required that the agency provide advance notice and an opportunity to comment on an any major changes to AmeriCorps services.
Programs in North Carolina to which funding will now resume include:
- Project MARS (Big Brothers Big Sisters of WNC): employs 45 people who served 18 western North Carolina counties after Hurricane Helene by delivering supplies and meals to homebound and stranded families, distributing food and clothing, assisting shelters and crisis hotlines, and supporting schools as they reopened.
- Project Conserve: employs 25 people who partnered with local organizations in 25 western North Carolina counties after Hurricane Helene to perform debris removal, tree replanting, storm-system repairs and rain-barrel distribution.
- Project POWER: employs 14 people who assisted more than 10,500 people affected by disasters in Buncombe, Henderson, and Madison counties by coordinating large-scale food donations, setting up distribution sites, conducting wellness checks and managing cleanup efforts.
- Programs that provide literacy services, community gardens, support for future teachers in rural communities, mental health support for students, and food and grocery distribution.
Joining Attorney General Jeff Jackson in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin, and the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
A copy of the preliminary injunction is available here.
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