AmeriCorps is a program that creates better futures. Here’s how cuts to it harm Idaho.

June 23, 2025

First published in the Idaho Capital Sun

Over the last couple of months, funding for AmeriCorps and Vista programs has been drastically cut in Idaho and in the rest of the United States. These funding cuts have an immediate impact on the lives of those individuals who relied on AmeriCorps positions to help pay the bills. Beyond the immediate chaos that this defunding has created, eliminating AmeriCorps and Vista will impoverish our communities in many ways, well into the future.

As part of my role as a medical anthropologist at Idaho State University, I was the director of the Hispanic Health Projects between 2000 and 2009. During that time, we had AmeriCorps funding for dozens of students and community members to work on health-related projects in American Falls, Aberdeen and Pocatello in southern Idaho. Our focus at the Hispanic Health Projects was on using community based, participatory research to create locally appropriate and effective health interventions.

So now, 20 years later, what were the effects of AmeriCorps and Vista on the lives of individuals who participated with us at the HHP? From this perspective, one of the greatest advantages that I can see is that AmeriCorps and Vista positions helped students complete their university degrees at ISU.

The 20 hours a week of work done under these programs was focused on learning about community health issues. It paid some of the bills for the students, and it also gave them experience in working with health care professionals in the communities where they lived. Students going through the Hispanic Health Projects went on to become community members who continue to contribute to southeast Idaho and beyond, every day.

Working in AmeriCorps and Vista gave these students a way to create a vision for improving the health and well-being of their communities.

Students going through the AmeriCorps program are now working as physician assistants, dental hygienists and physical therapy assistants. Some went on for their master’s and Ph.D.’s in various health-related fields like public health and psychology. Some work as health professionals and some are involved in teaching at universities.  Some used their stipends, which were flexible at that time, to fund the education of their children through part of their college experience, thus, helping the next generation to succeed.

These young adults are now making a truly positive impact on their communities. The effects have been long-lasting.

Many of the AmeriCorps/Vista students at the Hispanic Health Projects spoke Spanish as their first language, and many of them had worked in agriculture and related forms of labor before coming to ISU. Other students learned Spanish as they engaged with the Hispanic community members both at the Hispanic Health Projects and in the rural communities around Pocatello.

The learning went the other way, too as those who spoke more Spanish became increasingly proficient in English. We created a bi-cultural atmosphere where all could thrive.

We worked on many topics over the years: diabetes outreach and screening, women’s health checks, school-based programs targeting mental health and teen pregnancy and, also, the very successful Salsa Aerobics program that served many women in American Falls and Aberdeen for years.

Students participating in the Hispanic Health Projects learned to identify local health problems and then to create culturally appropriate interventions that made our communities a healthier place. This work, funded by AmeriCorps and Vista positions made a positive, long-term impact on our rural, agricultural communities.

Cutting these programs is a profound mistake, the funding should be reinstated.

Further reading about the work done at the Hispanic Health Projects:

Cartwright, E. et al, “Community-based participatory research with Hispanic Agricultural Workers in SE Idaho” Women and Health, 43(4): 89-109, 2006.

Cartwright, E. “Immigrant Dreams:  Legal Pathologies and Structural Vulnerabilities Along the Immigrant Continuum”, Medical Anthropology, 30(5): 475-495, 2011

https://idahocapitalsun.com/2025/06/23/americorps-is-a-program-that-creates-better-futures-heres-how-cuts-to-it-harm-idaho/