Giving Back How older Ohioans overcame age—and poverty—to serve their communities: The story of SCSEP
New study predicts more seniors will need to work to survive
The need for SCSEP is expected to rise sharply nationwide as Baby Boomers age. According to the Northeastern University study for Senior Service America, the nation’s population of people 55-plus is expected to increase by 30 percent in the decade ending in 2012. Those “leading-edge Boomers” include about 9 million individuals who did not finish high school. Nationwide, the number of “poor and near poor” older adults is projected to increase 41 percent from about 6.2 million in 2004 to 8.7 million in 2015, an increase of more than 2.5 million, according to Andrew Sum, professor of economics and director of Northeastern’s Center for Labor Management Studies, who conducted the study.
Many very likely will need assistance entering or re-entering the workforce.
“Funding for job training will be more and more important as seniors continue working past the traditional retirement age,” says Merle Grace Kearns, director of the Ohio Department of Aging. Ted Strickland, a Democratic Congressman whose district includes Marietta, says SCSEP gives “older Americans a chance to perform public service, earn an income and live in dignity.
“It is an excellent way to help communities while also helping individual citizens.”
Strickland says he “will work to see” that SCSEP “receives the support it needs in the federal budget in order to remain a viable, effective resource for America’s seniors.”
Adds Kearns: “Reauthorization presents an important opportunity to revitalize the (Older Americans) Act to reflect and respond to the needs of our changing and aging workforce.”
The great value of SCSEP may be in terms of spirit, not just in terms of dollars. If the program is ever looking for an appropriate theme song, Marietta might be able to provide it.
At the Lafayette Hotel on Front Street beside the Ohio River, Jimmy Durante repeatedly sings “Young at Heart” over the public address system.
In three Ohio cities, through a dozen interviews, everyone used that expression at least once.