California Attorney General Rob Bonta visited Reading Partners in San Francisco to recognize the work of AmeriCorps members in California communities. Reading Partners, supported by AmeriCorps, provides one-on-one tutoring to elementary school students to improve their reading skills.
AmeriCorps is a federal agency that funds and places volunteers in organizations across the country to address community needs. In 2024, more than 6,000 AmeriCorps members served at over 1,200 locations in California, including schools, food banks, homeless shelters, health clinics, youth centers, veterans’ facilities, and other nonprofit and faith-based organizations.
Earlier this year, the Trump Administration sought to reduce funding for AmeriCorps and dismantle the agency. Attorney General Bonta responded by filing a lawsuit that resulted in continued support for AmeriCorps members throughout the year.
“When we invest in AmeriCorps, we invest in people, potential, and progress,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta. “Today I got to see first-hand how AmeriCorps volunteers are lifting up the next generation of students through programs like Reading Partners. Amid all of the challenges over this past year, these volunteers have remained undaunted in their dedication to serving their communities. My office will continue to stand up for them and fight to protect AmeriCorps and its spirit of giving this holiday season.”
“Today we highlight the need to stand up – to the Trump Administration for our values and for each other. We are standing firm to defend AmeriCorps in California and together we’re demonstrating the power of service to strengthen our communities,” said California Chief Service Officer and GO-Serve Director Josh Fryday. “I’m grateful to Attorney General Rob Bonta for standing with us to protect service, and to Reading Partners, who continue to strengthen communities across the Bay Area.”
“AmeriCorps has been a successful service program for decades in large part because it has consistently enjoyed broad bipartisan support. At Reading Partners, our focus is on supporting students and communities, and one of the primary ways we are able to do that at scale is through the service of hundreds of AmeriCorps members each year in California and across the country,” said Hong Thach, Interim Executive Director, Reading Partners SF Bay Area. “In addition to building trusting relationships with students in our dedicated reading centers, AmeriCorps members also collaborate closely with our school partners, principals, and teachers to ensure our program is part of an integrated approach to learning. Reading Partners has been a proud AmeriCorps partner organization since 2010 because, quite simply, the program works. Without AmeriCorps, Reading Partners would not be able to operate at the scale required to meet community needs.”
AmeriCorps invested more than $133 million into California programs during 2024 by working with local partners such as Reading Partners.
In April 2025, Attorney General Bonta led a coalition of state attorneys general that sued over attempts by the Trump Administration to cut AmeriCorps funding. The legal action resulted in blocking those cuts and later secured an additional $184 million after expanding their challenge.
Attorney General Bonta has taken legal action against actions by the Trump Administration 48 times within 45 weeks on issues ranging from constitutional rights protections—such as birthright citizenship and voting rights—to public safety funding for victims’ services; securing education funding; preventing immigration enforcement conditions on transportation grants; and protecting Californians’ data privacy.
More information about these efforts can be found at https://oag.ca.gov/federal-accountability.
