Established in 1965 as Green Thumb, then renamed to Experience Works in 2002, is a national, nonprofit organization that offers training, employment, and community service opportunities for older and mature workers. This includes a variety of programs designed to help older individuals enter the workforce, secure more challenging positions, move into new career areas, or supplement their incomes.
Experience Works and Green Thumb of Blair County offers a Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), and is in need of employers in Blair County, particularly within the Tyrone and Bellwood-Antis communities.
The program (SCSEP) is appropriated by Congress under Title V of the Older Americans Act, which allows Experience Works to help thousands of low-income individuals, age 55 and older, throughout the United States.
Through SCSEP, job-ready seniors are placed directly into employment, while other seniors benefit from training, counseling, and community service assignments at nonprofit organizations and public agencies in their communities, prior to transitioning into the workforce.
SCSEP participants will gain valuable new skills and experience that help them secure meaningful employment and provide valuable services to their host agencies and communities.
An innovative and cost-effective federal program, SCSEP allows individuals to remain productive and independent by contributing their talent and services to their communities while earning a modest income. Seniors in the program find fulfillment, add to their skills, train for further employment, and stay off public assistance.
While low-income older workers develop their skills and self-confidence needed to secure private employment, participants in Green Thumb’s SCSEP program also make valuable contributions to their communities in roles as varied as, teachers’ aides, computer operators, emergency dispatchers, child care providers, and library aides, among many others.
Others, with Experience Works and Green Thumb’s encouragement and help, are pursuing a high school degree, a vocational certificate, or the life-long goal of a college education.
SCSEP is a program that truly helps people across the nation and right here in Blair County. By putting the experience of older individuals and others to work, Experience Works will strengthen families and communities.
Peggy Woods, Field Operations Assistant at Experience Works, commented on the advantages of becoming involved with SCSEP. “If you’re on the lower end of the economic scale, it helps you financially obviously, and it provides some extra money to help pay taxes or bills.”
Woods continued, “It’s an opportunity to get out and meet people socially and make friends. Plus, your helping out a nonprofit organization.”
Currently in Tyrone, Experience Works has seniors working in the school district and Epworth Manor. Woods added, “The SCSEP is a training program, and after so many months we work with them to gain a better position in a public sector.”
To be eligible to participate in the SCSEP program a person must be 55 years of age or older and meet federal income guidelines. Participants are assigned to local nonprofit or public agencies (host agencies) for an average of 20 hours per week and paid by the prevailing minimum wage.
While receiving training or updating existing skills, participants provide valuable services to their local community, like Tyrone. SCSEP workers might read to children at the library, run a local blood bank, assist teachers and students in elementary schools, operate recycling centers, staffing emergency hotlines, cooking meals at a senior center, care for the disabled, and perhaps build parks and work on beautification projects within the community.
SCSEP participants find fulfillment from community service assignments by helping others and contributing to their communities. Often times, participants enjoy improved attitudes and health, resulting in maintaining independence and dignity.
Experience Works (Green Thumb) participants use their talents, skills, and abilities to help change stereotypes about aging and older people. They demonstrate the value of seniors by participating in America’s workforce, which will increasingly depend on them to fill its labor needs. SCSEP participants open doors for other seniors to continue working and learning.
Experience Works of Blair County is currently hiring. Not many people in Tyrone and Bellwood-Antis participate in this grand opportunity for seniors 55 years of age and older. If interested and want more information on Experience Works and its SCSEP program, you can call the office at (814) 943-8840.
