SSAI leader testifies on value of SCSEP

Senior Service America was honored by the invitation to our president and executive director, Anthony R. (Tony) Sarmiento, to testify about SCSEP before a Senate subcommittee.

He was one of three leaders of national grantees to address the panel Tuesday considering Title V of the Older Americans Act. The session was the third one held by the Senate Subcommittee on Retirement, Security and Aging considering reauthorization of the Older American Act.

Mason M. Bishop, deputy assistant secretary for employment and training, presented changes the Department of Labor has proposed for SCSEP.

Also testifying were Kent Kahn, regional communications specialist for Experience Works in Ohio, and Ignacio Salazar, president and CEO of SER- Jobs for Progress National Inc.

After the hearing, Sarmiento thanked representatives of SCSEP who had accompanied him to the hearing, including two SCSEP participants from Baltimore, and expressed satisfaction. “From where I sat, I thought the hearing helped promote a better understanding about SCSEP.”

Highlights of Sarmiento Testimony

Dual mission: Senior Service America’s executive director Tony Sarmiento appealed to Congress to continue the dual mission of SCSEP, continuing the requirement for paid community service while participants pursue unsubsidized jobs.

While supporting DoL’s proposal to increase classroom training, he emphasized that that can be accomplished without taking funds from SCSEP wages and fringe benefits. Instead, it can happen by strengthening relationships and cooperation with other entities, including WIA and community colleges. By leveraging existing resources and applying ingenuity, it is possible to add meaningful training opportunities without reducing resources for SCSEP, he said. In Baltimore, for example, SCSEP participants are working on their GEDs, in addition to maintaining community service commitments. In addition, revising or eliminating Section 502 (e), as the Department of Labor as proposed, also could yield resources for classroom training, he said.

He said he supports DoL’s aim to increase the capacity of the larger public workforce system to serve older workers and job-seeker, and noted older workers in such states as Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin will comprise all the growth in the labor force . He urged stronger coordination between the existing public workforce system and other public systems, such as state and local area agencies on aging, vocational rehabilitation and the public library system. “We will need a more robust public workforce system that knows how to assess, train, counsel, and assist older persons in addition to youth and displaced workers,” he said. “We must find a way in which more of the resources of the public workforce system are spent on older workers of all backgrounds and incomes, including SCSEP participants.”

View from subgrantees: About half of SSAI’s subgrantees responded to a recent survey about the Department of Labor’s proposals, he testified. They unanimously support:          

In addition, subgrantees believe that the capacity of their host agencies would be “greatly diminished” if paid community service were reduced. Among agencies that would be affected are  Meals on Wheels, senior centers and elder-care services, as well as rural libraries and One-Stop Career Centers “where SCSEP participants often serve as specialists for all older job seekers.”

Value of national grantees: National grantees provide ongoing training and technical assistance, developing partnerships with employers and other nonprofit organizations that can enhance SCSEP on a national level. They share best practices and innovations across a network. And they bring in new organizations to the SCSEP network. Running SCSEP through national grantees is a "proven strategy."

Performance. Each year since the 2000 reauthorization, SSAI’s diverse network of subgrantees has surpassed the contractual goals of its grant. Last year, SSAI’s SCSEP program enrolled 11,000 participants, who provided nearly 5.5 million hours of paid community service at more than 2,800 local nonprofit and public agencies.

Future need: Continuation of SCSEP is validated by research, which projects 9 million seniors  will be eligible for SCSEP in 10 years, according to current guidelines. “If SCSEP had not been established over 40 years ago, experts on aging today most likely would be calling for creating a new program just like SCSEP as part of a larger, comprehensive national response to our aging society.”