$19M in grants available to improve job opportunities for older adults

The Department of Labor announced last week the availability of approximately $19 million in grants for current national recipients in the Senior Community Service Employment Program to apply for additional funding in a demonstration project for sector-based training for older workers.

Clif Porter, senior vice president of government relations at the American Health Care Association / National Center for Assisted Living, told the McKnight’s Business Daily that the groups were pleased to see more funding being made available for the program.

“Every day, long-term and post-acute care providers across the country see the vitality of America’s seniors. We know, perhaps more acutely than other professions, the importance of developing a sense of community and belonging in the overall health of seniors,” he said.

SCSEP is a community service and work-based job training program for older Americans. Authorized by the Older Americans Act, the program provides subsidized, part-time community service training for unemployed, low-income adults aged 55 or more years who have low employment prospects. Participants also have access to employment assistance through American Job Centers.

The Labor Department’s Employment and Training Administration will award up to six grants, ranging from $2 million to $5 million each, to current grantees operating programs awarded under the 2020 SCSEP national grant competition. To be considered to receive one of the optional grants, entities also be awarded funding through the 2024 SCSEP national grant competition that the department announced March 7.

The demonstration projects, according to the Labor Department, will allow grant recipients to supplement the program by providing “a combination of enhanced career navigation services, occupational training and on-the-job training.” Successful applicants, the DOL said, “will build and expand partnerships with employers, training providers and the public workforce system to inform and support the projects.”

The Labor Department said it will use data from the grant recipients’ use of the funding “to support its evidence-building agenda and help develop strategies related to training and employment programs for older workers.”