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Experience Works -- matchmakers for senior job seekers and employers
By Laurie Wade
Nevada Daily Mail
Juanita Thomas faced some real challenges in finding work. There were the issues faced by everyone looking for work, like wading through want ads looking for an appropriate position. Transportation was an issue as well, so she needed a convenient solution that matched her skills.
So, she sought help from Experience Works, a program that helps senior job-seekers to find their niche, while supporting their employment in a way that helps employers as well.
She found work through the Experience Works program and now has a permanent job at Allied Mental Health Associates, Inc.
Of Experience Works, Thomas said, "I think it's an excellent program and I don't think enough people know about it."
Thomas was hired, trained, with Experience Works paying 50 percent of her salary for her first four weeks, and hired permanently at Allied.
"We appreciate the work ethic that the senior workers bring. It has almost a mentoring effect," said Randy Noble, the licensed psychologist at Allied.
Allied Mental Health Associates, Inc. has been providing quality behavioral health care services to people in rural areas since February 1992. The clinic represents the life-long goals of Randy Noble and Buddy Gullett to provide quality services to a rural area. With a clinical staff of 20, they are able to provide behavioral services to smaller areas to reduce the need to drive a long distance for one's mental health needs.
The staff at Allied specializes in a full range of therapy services, addressing many issues facing today's families such as divorce, depression, alcohol/drug abuse, sexual, physical and emotional abuse, and many more. They also offer a variety of services such as individual, family, and group therapy, domestic abuse classes, anger management classes, and many other forms as well.
The largest program offered by Experience Works is the Senior Community Service Employment Program, through which Thomas found her job, and through which Allied found an employee well suited to the company's needs. Through the program, seniors benefit from training, counseling, and community service assignments at community organizations.
Participants are placed at eligible host agencies for which they are paid minimum wage for an average of 20 hours per week. A host agency is either a private non-profit organization that is tax exempt or a government agency. Thirty-eight percent of seniors that found work through Experience Work's SCSEP program have found permanent jobs, notably as teachers' aides, emergency dispatchers, care providers, and clerical assistants.
To be qualified for the program one must be 55 years of age or older, and a resident of the state where he or she is enrolled in the SCSEP program, their annual family income must not be more than 125 percent of the established federal poverty income guidelines, and they must be eligible to work in the United States, according to printed information supplied by the Experience Works staff.
Bill Thole, field coordinator, pointed out that Experience Works is only one of the many services offered at the Missouri Career Center on East Highland Avenue.
The Division of Vocational Rehabilitation provides services to people with physical or mental impairments who find it difficult to become employed.
There are also referral services to programs such as Parents Fair Share which is a program for non-custodial parents that helps them gain employment and/or job training to increase employment skills.
Also, an Education and Literacy referral program is also available for those who are interested in obtaining their high school/GED certificates. ESL assists those wanting to improve their ability to speak and write in the English language.
There are many on-site services such as job training assistance, job placement, unemployment insurance information, career counseling, Job Corps information, and more.
Employers also have services available to them through the career center such as customized training, business workshops, financial incentives and labor market information.
If the service one needs is not available at the career center, they most likely have a referral service for it.
Clients can be referred to services for information on emergency or utility assistance, housing rental assistance, weatherization, protective services, state paid day care, Medicaid, Food Stamps, temporary cash assistance, health information for children, and mental health information.