Enhance Economic Security

• Benefits Access
• Economic Security Initiative
• Mature Workers
  • Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP)
  • Senior Environmental Employment Program (SEE)
• Home Equity
• National Center for Benefits Outreach & Enrollment

Resources

For Professionals

• SCSEP Targeted in Workforce Investment Act Proposal
• NCOA and Bank of America Charitable Foundation Partner to Help Seniors Become Savvy Savers
• Restoring Sight and Hope to One in Need
• NCOA Shares Economic Security Work with Midwest Funders
• Banking on Local Partners: Successes from the Field
• The Impact of Isolation on the Economic Security of Older Adults
• Enhancing the Economic Security of Older Adults: Connecting Clients with Public and Private Community Resources

For Older Adults and Caregivers

• Economic Security for Seniors: Fact Sheet
• Mature Workers: Fact Sheet

For Advocates

• SCSEP Targeted in Workforce Investment Act Proposal
• Squeezing Core Benefits through a Reverse Mortgage

SCSEP Success Story: Lin Doyle

Thousands of older adults turn to the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) each year in the hopes of transforming training and service opportunities into full-time employment.

For Lin Doyle from San Francisco, that hope is now a reality. The SCSEP participant has just accepted an administrative assistant position at Tel-Hi (Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center).

Giving Back to the Community

Nearly 90% of all SCSEP participants live in poverty, with annual incomes at or below $10,890. Yet many, like Doyle, are committed to contributing to society while making ends meet.

Doyle is particularly pleased to work for Tel-Hi, which has been giving back to needy San Franciscans since 1890.

“Tel-Hi was one of the original ‘settlement houses’ like Hull House in Chicago and Henry Street in New York. It is part of a great American legacy of socially concerned people using their own resources to aid the less fortunate.”

“However,” Doyle adds, “we know that it takes a village and an inclined government, and private/public partnerships to really help communities and individuals survive downturns in economies, bad luck, and other forces.”

Senior Jobs Threatened

SCSEP is the only major jobs program targeted specifically to helping older adults who need to remain in or return to the workforce to avoid financial crisis. Unfortunately, in the FY11 budget, Congress cut funding to SCSEP by $375 million, meaning more than 58,000 jobs will be lost.

Doyle worries about other older adults who need to work.

“I know that the job offer would not have come about without the job training from SCSEP. I hope the program doesn’t suffer any more cuts, but is able to find more funding from concerned Congressional members, who appreciate the plight of older workers, who really don’t have a chance to increase their income without programs like SCSEP.”

want to live in a country where

older adults don't have to choose between paying for medicine or food.