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SENIOR
EMPLOYMENT:
A HELPING HAND TO A JOB
Bill
Johnson works with some strange critters in his new career
-- Country Bear, The Beetle, Mad Monkey -- these are Bill's
protégé DJs at the Oregon School for the Blind
radio station, OSFB. Bill, blind himself, sits back in the
once-closet-space-now-radio-station, as he listens to local
volunteers read the Salem Statesman Journal over the
air and smiles in satisfaction about what he has achieved
since coming to the school. "Just a few years ago, the
only thing I knew about radio was how to play one at home,"
says Bill.
Bill
is one of the many success stories of the AARP Senior Community
Service Employment Program (SCSEP). After arriving in Salem,
unemployed and supporting three kids, Bill turned to Daisy
Rush, director of AARP SCSEP for help. "Daisy is fabulous,"
said Bill. "She made this whole thing happen." With
help from Oregon Public Broadcasting's Jerry Delaunay and
the show "Golden Hours," Bill put together the new
radio station and helps mentor students interested in learning
about broadcasting. "SCSEP is not just an employment
program, it is about self-actualization, and it is about reward
and self-worth," says Daisy. AARP continues to touch
base with Bill to ensure that he is doing well. Seventy-five
percent of SCSEP placements are still employed a year later
-- and longer.
The AARP Oregon SCSEP has been a tremendous success -- it
has one of the highest placement rates of any government supported
employment program -- placing older Oregonians in jobs that
average $12 an hour or more. (The success achieved by AARP
Oregon SCSEP has been rewarded with a doubling of its grant
so the program hopes to reach even more seniors this year.)
SCSEP recruits private employers then matches them with seniors
who have the necessary skills. Alternatively, SCSEP can pay
wages for up to 200 hours of training to help a qualified
senior transition into an appropriate job.
But
short-term employment isn't the primary focus for the SCSEP
program, it's placing seniors in rewarding careers, and "no
one in the AARP Oregon SCSEP program has ever had to learn
how to say 'do you want fries with that?'" says Daisy.
AARP
Oregon SCSEP works in Marion, Polk, Multnomah, and Clackamas
counties. Currently, the program has the capacity to help
175 low-income Oregonians over age 55 find employment.
For
more information on AARP's Senior Community Service Employment
Program (SCSEP), please call (503) 231-8078 in Portland or
(503) 362-1572 in Salem.
You
can reach AARP Oregon over the Internet at:
www.aarp.org/or/
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