SCSEP seeks to get senior adults back to workforce

Franklin County older adults, governmental entities and non-profit organizations interested in taking part in the Senior Community Service Employment Program — also known as SCSEP — are invited to learn more about the initiative, according to Cossandra Penn Stewart, who serves as coordinator of the Wesson-based outreach.

“This program, which serves 13 counties locally through Copiah-Lincoln Community College, is federally funded by the Department of Labor and solicits and recruits the participation of senior adults who are 55 and older and who meet certain income guidelines,” she said.

“These individuals might be interested in starting new professional training or building skills toward future employment goals. We place them in governmental or non-profit agencies — at 19 hours per week at a compensation rate of $7.25 per hour paid for through our program — to maximize their training efforts.”

Penn Stewart said the workers serve in whatever capacity the agencies need them for from clerical to maintenance to janitorial, and can even help in schools by assisting teachers or working in campus offices.

“We are always looking for community entities in Franklin County that will partner with us through an agreement to place these senior adults who are willing to work,” she added.

“This outreach has been in existence for some time as I have been involved with it for the 11 years I have been here and it was in place well before I came to Co-Lin.”

Authorized through the federal Older Americans Act, the program provides training for low-income, unemployed people who meet the program’s criteria for enrollment, Penn Stewart went on to note.

This training serves as a bridge to civic engagement and skills enhancement and can also lead to unsubsidized employment opportunities for participants in the future.

“We see a lot of seniors whose only income is Social Security, and this program has served as a great way to subsidize the things they might have needed but could not afford, like their medicine,” she said.

“Also, there are a lot of older adults who are helping with their grandchildren which creates a need for more money and helps get these seniors out of their household for social interaction.

“In some instances, you have seniors who have retired and are sitting at home and their involvement in this program can be life-changing in terms of finding new ways to be active and to gain important skills they thought they would have never learned.”

Some of the program’s focus is on things needed for a job setting and giving participating seniors what they need to work — such as computer proficiency training.

“Technology, which is big a part of the workplace, can be a stumbling block for some older adults and cause them to doubt they can be helpful and productive in an office or on the job,” she continued.

“Our goal is to offer the training necessary to show that the modern workplace is nothing to be afraid of as we work to help prepare them to meet the challenges they will face. The biggest fear a lot of seniors have is of the unknown, and, by helping them with training, they learn they can do the things required of them on a job.”

Penn Stewart said the initiative is about uplifting people in reaching beyond their comfort zone to find a new mission in their life to better themselves and serve their fellow man.

“One example of the value of this program is a local governmental agency facing a tight budget and having workers from SCSEP in an office setting be able to help keep that organization running because they might not otherwise have the funds to serve the public,” she noted.

“This makes what we do a win-win situation, especially where say a small community needs someone to work at town hall, but does not have the financial means to hire an employee or two to do what needs to be done.

“These jobs offer those individuals, who can work for up to 19 hours per week, the chance to do things like filing, answering the phones and taking on tasks that are essential to keeping the doors open. In all honesty, they can be very helpful.”

While the program’s track record has been successful, it constantly faces challenges that limit its potential growth and benefit to the communities its serves.

“In small, rural communities in Southwest Mississippi, we are constantly looking for newly formed non-profit entities that are serving the public and work to let them know our service is here to help them,” she said.

“New non-profits always need help because their budgets are traditionally tight, so by us not knowing about them and them not knowing about us, we both struggle to try to serve the senior adults that could benefit from SCSEP.”

Other challenges include turnover in governmental entities on a regular basis and having to remind elected officials and agency department heads that the SCSEP service exists.

Some entities have limited office space that impedes having too many workers under roof.

There are even unfounded concerns that older individuals might not grasp the tasks at hand in the work environment and cause difficulties.

“The one thing we constantly tell those who are considering becoming partners with us is that this is a training program,” she said.

“The agencies have to be willing to spend some time, too, with the participant that comes in. We all play a role in the training process in developing the best workers possible.

“At the same time, we realize existing staff at a governmental office or non-profit might have difficulties in taking time to help train someone because they are already stretched to the limit with the things they have to do on a daily basis.”

Two-thirds of those taking part in SCSEP, which is an equal opportunity outreach, are women with 65 percent of those participants falling in the 55 to 64 age range.

“This age group is very willing to work, dependable and reliable — everything you could want in someone to be in the workplace,” she said.
“We ask our partner agencies that if they see a place in their budget to take on these workers to do so because it shows the program is working.

“Each year, we try to get a percentage of our SCSEP participants hired so that it becomes unsubsidized employment. The goal is to work to move these individuals into permanent employment situations.”

Enrollment in SCSEP is limited to those individuals whose family income is not more than 125 percent of the federal poverty level, and participation is capped at 48 months.

Veterans and qualified spouses of veterans are given first priority for participation in the outreach with other considerations including those who are over age 65; have a disability, low literacy skills or limited English proficiency; reside in a rural area; are homeless or at risk of homelessness; have low employment prospects; and have failed to find work using services through the American Job Centers system.

Penn Stewart encouraged anyone who would like to learn more to call Co-Lin’s Center for Workforce Inclusion at 601-643-8673 or 601-643-8678.