Updates on AmeriCorps Funding Cuts: Rising Together with our Community

May 6, 2025
Rising Together: Update 2

Since Aspire was impacted by DOGE cuts to AmeriCorps on April 28th, we have finalized a plan that will allow us to continue serving and supporting as many students as possible. But we need the community’s help to make this plan possible. Here are updates since our last update on 4/30: 

What Aspire was planning prior to these cuts: 

  • Aspire had doubled the number of students we served in the past three years, all while expanding and strengthening our comprehensive curriculum. We also opened new afterschool program sites at two Arlington Title I Public Schools to fill gaps in services and meet community needs. 
  • We were serving a record 150 students this school year and were on track to serve a record 140 this summer. We still had over 30 students on our waiting list.

How this is impacting Aspire, our families, and the Arlington community:

  • The need in Arlington is significant. These funding cuts make it harder for us to meet that need.
  • Aspire offers the only daily academic afterschool program for 3rd-8th grade students in Arlington that is provided at no cost to families. As one parent said, “I looked into lots of other [afterschool] programs and they wanted $10 more an hour than I make.” Without Aspire, many families literally have nowhere else to turn. 
  • This is a significant loss in funding for Aspire (approximately 30% of our budget). 
  • Our incredible AmeriCorps members – who all are deeply committed to service and community and the 150 students and their families we serve – have been left with an uncertain path forward. 

Our plans moving forward: 

  • We have finalized a plan to keep our afterschool program running as is through the end of the school year. This includes hiring back 15 of our 17 former AmeriCorps members on temporary contracts. This is good news! 
  • We will continue to offer our programming and are committed to serving as many students as possible in the summer and 2025-2026 school year. Our goal is to hire back as many of our former AmeriCorps members as Aspire staff as we can, but this will depend on available funds. 
  • The cuts may force us to serve fewer students and/or scale back programming this summer and in the 2025-2026 school year.

Our funding gap is currently $350,000. To close that gap, we will need to rise together with our community to raise $350,000 by June 30th to set Aspire and our students up for success. If we do not raise funds to fill the gap, one-third of our current students and their families will be without safe, high-quality academic afterschool and summer programming. This comes at a time when many of our students are entering our program two or more grade levels behind due to lingering impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. Without Aspire, promising young people will be left behind.

Here’s how you can help:

  • Make a donation to Aspire. We’ve launched a fundraising campaign, Rising Together, to help us close the funding gap. Your contribution will help us close the gap, support our students, and sustain and strengthen our work this year and beyond.
    • Consider making your donation a monthly gift to sustain your impact and ensure Aspire will be supported in the long-term.
  • Raise funds for Aspire. We need the support of our community now more than ever, and urge you to set your own fundraising goal to help Aspire continue to providing learning support. We have a fundraising toolkit with sample emails, text, social posts, and more. 
  • Advocate for Aspire. Help us spread the word about the impact of these funding cuts on local students and the Arlington community. We have an advocacy toolkit with resources for contacting your representatives and making your voice heard.

We’ve already received an outstanding amount of support from community members, partners, AmeriCorps members, parents, and students since last week. This is proof of the deep partnerships that Aspire has formed within the Arlington community throughout our 30 years of impact. We’ve also received many messages from our community. For example:

  • A parent told us that Aspire is “a program that helps my children, unites the community, and is an oasis for parents that work and don’t have another place for their children to be safe.”
  • A student tearfully told one of Aspire’s AmeriCorps members, “Thank you for your help, you are the best. I love you and I will do whatever I can do to help Aspire.”
  • A community leader shared, “I have personally witnessed the profound impact of Aspire on our most vulnerable students. To have any students lose access to this program would have devastating consequences. We must ensure Aspire continues to be a cornerstone of support for our most vulnerable community. I hope everyone in our community can support Aspire during this critical time.”
  • A school partner said, “As a school system in Arlington, we often discuss the critical need for additional literacy and social-emotional support for our students, and are fortunate to have a partner and program like Aspire! I ask that if you value education and expanding learning opportunities to help historically underserved students fulfill their potential, please consider supporting Aspire at this critical juncture.

We will continue to share updates and information. Please reach out to Paula Fynboh with questions.

Media Contact: 

Paula Fynboh, Executive Director, paula@aspireafterschool.org, 202-813-2140