BANGOR, Maine — When 60-year old Steve Barrett moved to Bangor from Connecticut last year to be closer to family, he had a hard time finding a job. He had worked in a variety of settings in the past — retail, manufacturing, warehouses — but developed no specific expertise. Still, he needed work.
“You could call me a jack of all trades but a master of none,” he said in a recent phone conversation. “I don’t have a skill set I can really put down on an application, no technical degree or anything like that.”
Like Barrett, many Mainers plan on working well into their 60s and 70s, and sometimes longer, in order to make ends meet as they age. But even under the best of circumstances, it can be a challenge for an older worker to keep a job, and even harder to find a new one. Factor in problems such as poverty, disability, homelessness, an inconsistent work history or other barriers, and gainful employment can feel like an impossible dream.
That’s where the National Able Network fills a need. In 13 of Maine’s 16 counties, the agency administers the federal Senior Community Service Employment Program. For low-income people age 55 and older, the program provides job skills training and support, and it places participants in paid, entry-level positions with host employers for up to four years.
Barrett learned about the National Able Network office on Mount Hope Avenue at a job fair. After an intake and orientation process that took about a month and a half — some of it paid — staff at the National Able Network placed him in a position on the information desk for the School of Social Work at the University of Maine last spring. He spends 18 hours per week typing, filing, interacting with students and staff, working on a database project and completing other tasks as assigned. The National Able Network writes his minimum-wage paycheck — about $135 per week before taxes and other deductions — using funding from the Senior Community Service Employment Program.
“It’s not the money — that’s not why I’m there,” Barrett said. “It’s for the training and being out in the workforce.” He’s learning about routine office procedures and picking up some basic computer skills. He enjoys the campus environment, the mix of older and younger people, the swirl of current culture and ideas.
“I really like working there, but my objective is to find a real job,” he said.
And that’s one goal of the Senior Community Service Employment Program — to place people in a work environment where they can learn marketable skills and launch into regular employment as soon as they’re ready.
But the other half of the equation is to provide community service through the employers who partner with the program. There are dozens of them in the state, all non-profit agencies, public entities or governmental offices.
“We are always looking for more host agencies,” said Dan Muth, state director of the National Able Network. “The ones that work best have the flexibility to provide a setting where the participant can grow and develop job skills that will help them transition to greater self-sufficiency.”
While host agencies benefit from the free extra help, he noted, an element of compassion is also necessary in accommodating Senior Community Service Employment Program participants, many of whom have limited work experience and may also be dealing with disabilities of one sort or another.
“For a lot of these folks, learning a new job is really a series of baby steps,” Muth said.
The Washington-Hancock Community Agency has participated for about 10 years, according to Lee Hardison, director of energy services at the Ellsworth office.
“I don’t know what I’d do without [the program],” she said. “It gets very intense around here between September and April. There’s a lot to be done. We always need someone to answer the phone, file papers and do fuel oil calculations.”
The workers from the National Able Network vary in their ability to manage the workload in the busy office environment, and the agency makes every effort to accommodate their needs, she said.
“But the whole point is to help people get acclimated to an office setting,” she said. “If this really isn’t the right environment, they’ll find another placement that’s got less going on and is less confusing.”
For the most part, Hardison said, the Able workers fit in well and leave at the end of the busy fuel assistance season with valuable new skills and an enhanced resume. Some have even stayed on as regular employees.
“I have actually hired people who came to us from the Able program,” Hardison said. “Right now, I have four people on staff who are former Able participants.”
“People often don’t realize they have marketable skills,” said Arline Wood, area program specialist at the National Able Network. “We help them identify their skills and interests and help them set goals.”
Wood, 67, lives in Cornville and is a former Senior Community Service Employment Program participant herself. For many years, she and her husband were both long-distance truckers, hauling building supplies and camper trailers on their own flatbed rigs. But after the 2008 economic collapse, work dried up, and she realized she didn’t have many options.
“I just couldn’t find a job,” she said.
Her local career center referred her to the National Able Network; soon, she found herself interning at the Mercer town office. After that, she spent 18 months at the state career center in Skowhegan, where she picked up computer skills, and then at the Skowhegan town office, where she processed tax payments and car registrations. All these positions were funded through Able and the Senior Community Service Employment Program.
The office and organizational skills she acquired at these entry-level placements have served her well; she’s been working part-time at the National Able Network for going on two years, overseeing client services and cultivating relationships with host agencies in Kennebec, Franklin and northern Oxford counties. She clocks hundreds of miles each week covering her territory.
“Since my husband and I were self-employed all those years, we don’t have much social security coming,” Wood said. “So this job is really important to me.”
The Senior Community Service Employment Program is 50 years old this year, established in 1965 under the Older Americans Act and administered through the Department of Labor. It is active in all 50 states and the District of Columbia as well as in Puerto Rico. In Maine, it is administered in 13 counties by the National Able Network, with Cumberland, Sagadahoc and Lincoln counties served through Goodwill Industries. The National Able Network receives about $2 million each year; 75 percent goes directly to pay participant wages, and the rest supports training and administrative services.
About 325 Mainers each year take advantage of the program, Muth said.
“There is constant turnover, and we are always welcoming new applicants,” he said.
For more information, call the National Able Network in Bangor at 385-2500 or in Biddeford at 385-2480. The toll-free number for all National Able Network offices is 855-994-8300.
