ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9601260020
SECTION: ECONOMY PAGE: 19 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
The League of Older Americans, the official seniors agency for the nine localities in Virginia's Fifth Planning District, offers four programs aimed at helping older people find or train for a job.
Roughly two-thirds of the people seeking the agency's services are women, said Ron Boyd, director of personnel and training at the league's office on Campbell Avenue in downtown Roanoke.
Della Milner of Roanoke, a cafeteria worker at Preston Park School, and Mary Markham of Troutville, a part-time employee of Family Service of Roanoke Valley, are two women who found work with the league's help.
Milner recommends the agency's programs. ``They really did help me,'' she said. Milner, who worked more than 20 years for Elizabeth Arden Co. in Roanoke and had worked for another local manufacturer, came to the agency for help in finding another job after seeing an advertisement in the newspaper.
With funds provided by the federal Job Training Partnership Act's Older Worker Program, the league contracted with Job Shop, a Lexington firm, to provide Milner with the training she needed to find a new job. ``They told me how to act on the job ... what to say,'' she said.
Over the past several years, the league has helped an average of 20 to 30 older workers a year through the JTPA program, Boyd said. The program is aimed primarily at providing short-term training and helping workers with their job search, he said. The training, which also may be conducted at community colleges or in the continuing education programs of local school systems, is tailored specifically for each individual and can focus on, among other jobs, those in customer-service, clerical, telemarketing and computers, he said.
Milner said she worked as a ``floater'' for a while, traveling to whichever city school cafeteria needed help on a particular day. But for two months she has been assigned to the Preston Park school and ``loves it.''
``I like the little children ... seeing the little children,'' she said.
The part-time job doesn't provide her with any benefits, but she has insurance through Arden and gets Medicare benefits, too, Milner said.
Milner is divorced, and her former husband is dead. She needed to work, but not full time, and she didn't want to do volunteer work, she said.
``A body just can't get used to this sitting around,'' she said.
Mary Markham is someone else who can't get used to sitting around. ``If I ever quit and give up, that will be the end of me,'' she said.
Before coming to the league for help, Markham, 63, widowed and divorced, had worked in a nursing home until she slipped on some water and fell, cracking a kneecap and seriously injuring her right arm.
After recovering from her injuries, she looked for other full-time work but couldn't find any. She said she sent out 150 applications and got only five responses, even though she has a two-year business management degree and experience in retail sales and telemarketing.
Markham saw a league notice at the Virginia Employment Commission office offering help to those who had been unable to find jobs. The agency enrolled her in its Senior Community Service Employment Program, also known as Title V. The program provides people 55 and older with on-the-job training in local community service organizations and later with help in finding private-sector jobs.
As a participant in the program, Markham works 20 hours a week in a community service agency for which she is paid the minimum wage but receives no health or retirement benefits. Her first job, in 1992, was with the Meals on Wheels program at Melrose Tower, a city-run apartment building for seniors.
She then took a part-time job with Hills Department Store. Hills wanted her to go full-time, but she couldn't handle it physically. So, in May 1993 she returned to the league for help and has been working in the Title V program since, for the most part at Family Service. She hasn't been able to find any work outside the program, she said.
Besides her paycheck, Markham draws widow's benefits under social security and workers compensation. But Markham, who has arthritis and a mild form of diabetes, doesn't have any health benefits and won't until she's 65 and old enough to qualify for Medicare. ``It's very, very discouraging,'' she said.
Roughly 50 to 60 older workers like Markham get help each year through the Title V program, Boyd said. The part-time, minimum-wage jobs are intended only as transitional employment until a worker finds a nonsubsidized job.
But it's not unusual for someone to be in the Title V program for several years, he said.
The program also helps workers obtain things needed on their jobs, such as physicals, eyeglasses and uniforms, Boyd said.
Overall, the league spends about $200,000 a year on its various job-training programs, Boyd said. Besides the programs in which Milner and Markham are enrolled, the league has an incentive program that reimburses employers for all the time they spend training older workers, and job information and referral services, some of which are available to seniors regardless of economic need.
Workers have to be on a regular job for a month before they are terminated from any of the league's programs. They receive follow-up counseling for three months.
LENGTH: Medium: 91 linesby CNB