photo by: Niamh Coomey

Several dozen community members gather to express their dissatisfaction with recent federal cuts to AmeriCorps funding at the Public Market in downtown Wheeling on Tuesday.

WHEELING — Several dozen nonprofit leaders, volunteers and community members rallied at the Public Market downtown Tuesday morning for an event with a strong message printed on signs and spoken aloud: “Save AmeriCorps.”

The event, hosted by the West Virginia Nonprofit Association, aimed to show dissatisfaction with the recent $400 million in federal cuts to AmeriCorps — and advocate for funding for the programs to be restored.

News of the devastating Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts to the federal service program have echoed around the Ohio Valley for the past two weeks. The cuts raised concerns about the ability of local nonprofits — most notably the Mother Jones Center for Resilient Community and Grow Ohio Valley — to continue vital community programming with reduced staff.

West Virginia Nonprofit Association Executive Director and former Wheeling City Council member Rosemary Ketchum introduced several speakers at the event who have been “impacted personally and professionally” by the AmeriCorps program.

The DOGE AmeriCorps cuts displaced over 32,000 service members nationally. Ketchum noted the more than 200 positions that have been lost in West Virginia alone due to the cuts — each axed position having a direct impact on local communities.

“That’s not just a number,” Ketchum said. “It’s hundreds of people who are serving in our schools, in our communities, in our neighborhoods who are no longer there.”

Ryan Ewing, who served with the AmeriCorps through the Mother Jones Center, took to the podium to share his personal story of how AmeriCorps transformed his life.

Ewing said he grew up in poverty, experiencing incessant racism and being raised by a parent struggling with addiction.

“I never really felt like I had a place in the world and I also felt like I was less than the world around me. I was made to believe that I had no potential and no worth,” Ewing said.

As an adult, Ewing struggled with his own use of substances and was eventually incarcerated. When he was released from prison, he said he felt even more like a “second-class citizen” and struggled to find employment before he eventually got connected with the AmeriCorps.

“Almost immediately after putting on my first piece of Americorps gear and having a nametag with that ‘A’ on it I felt a sense of pride and belonging. For the first time in my life I felt like I was a part of something, a part of something bigger than myself and a part of making the world a better place,” Ewing said.

Ewing soon became a leader in his community, teaching adults and youth financial literacy skills and prevention strategies. Through the AmeriCorps, Ewing met his wife, also a volunteer and also in recovery from addiction.

Ewing was able to reach a place of stability, get full custody of his son, and he and his wife are working on buying a home together. They are both set to graduate college with their bachelor’s degrees in a semester.

“Being involved with the AmeriCorps has changed my life immensely,” Ewing said.

“I went from seeing myself as a second-class citizen to recognizing myself as a person of value and at the end of this semester I will literally be breaking the chains of generational poverty by being the first person in my family to graduate college.”

Today, Ewing is able to call himself a mentor, advocate and a role model thanks to his experience with AmeriCorps.

He emphasized the estimated average $34 in return in investment for each dollar the federal government puts into the AmeriCorps.

“That return is given directly to the people because it comes in the form of boots-on-the-ground services that make our community safer, stronger and healthier,” he said.

Grow Ohio Valley Executive Director Jodi Adams also spoke, noting that the cuts will impede the community’s access to fresh produce as the organization has lost the majority of its farm work force.

Paul Smith, a commissioner with Volunteer Wheeling and Beth Collins, the executive director of Sisters of St. Joseph Health and Wellness Foundation, also spoke at Tuesday’s event.