People in community benefiting from project
By SHARON KERR Staff Writer

Newsboy photo/Sharon Kerr GINGER STUDENSKY, left, compares notes with Sandy Smith of the ExperienceWorks program. Studensky is one of the major success stories of the program, whichs helps senior workers transition to new jobs.

Many times government programs are seen as "handouts" rather than a hand up, and people who could benefit from them won't apply.

The Senior Community Service Employment program (SCSEP) helps older Americans who haven't worked in awhile or need to transition to a different kind of work, learn the skills to get them good jobs, and it pays them while they train (see "senior work experience" story).

The best way to understand how the program works is to look at two people in the community who have benefited from it.

Mary Bean

Mary Bean is known to many who use the Burke Center in Kirbyville simply as "Apple." They know she keeps candy in her drawer but they really come in for the hugs.

Bean worked 18 ? years at the Kirbyville plywood plant, hard work and late hours. "I laid core from 3 to 11 p.m. in all kinds of weather," Bean said.

After the plant closed, she commuted to Beaumont for five years. "The pay was good, and I liked the work, but the company closed down," Bean said.

With gas prices rising, Bean felt she needed to find work closer to home. She also needed a flexible schedule so she could work around doctor's appointments and treatment schedules for family members who needed her help.

She found what she needed working 20 hours a week for New Directions Industries, a division of the Burke Center in Kirbyville.

Sally Navarre is manager of Kirbyville center that helps people with disabilities, including mental health and mental retardation (MHMR). She needed help in the front office to answer phones and greet people.

Burke Center qualifies for a senior workforce employee because they are a nonprofit under contract with the state of Texas to provide training and vocational assistance to MHMR and the disabled. Navarre said it's important to have someone with Bean's maturity because their clients often have behavioral problems.

"I love to spoil them, love to help people," Bean said. "I just love my job, and they're so good to work around my schedule when I need to help my family."

Ginger Studensky

Ginger Studensky is now director of the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), but she started in the SCSEP program.

"Ginger is the perfect local example of how the program works," according to Sandy Smith, employment and training coordinator of Senior Workforce Solutions.

Studensky explained, "After 38 years of marriage and five children, my husband decided he didn't want to be married any more. I didn't know what I would do. At 17 I went from being Daddy's girl to someone's wife."

Somehow, 38 years of being a chicken farmer's wife wasn't particularly helpful in finding a paying job. Self-taught and with no real credentials, Studensky said she was "scared and wondering how to keep the lights on."

"I prayed," Studensky said, "and prayed some more."

It's a long story, but prayer led to an ad in the paper, which led to a host agency didn't quite work out, but it finally led Studensky to a position with RSVP at the Deep East Texas Council of Governments (DETCOG).

RSVP was struggling, perhaps on the verge of failure. RSVP matches volunteers with local projects, but unlike SCSEP, this is not a training program- volunteers with skills donate time to help their community.

Mostly it is retired people who want to work a few hours, to give back and stay involved with life. Some of her volunteers, like those in the auxiliary at Christus Jasper Memorial Hospital, look forward to the friends they've made, and the social activities and fund raisers that help purchase needed items for the hospital.

The RSVP program was limping along with few volunteers and fewer agencies requesting them, until Studensky was thrown into the mix.

"I was scared," Studensky said. "I couldn't even sharpen a pencil correctly, but I love people and I've always been a hostess."

She set about finding more volunteers, publicizing the program, finding out who needed help, learning what skills and interests her volunteers had. The program flourished.

Studensky describes herself as super shy to the point of being timid, hard to believe when she recently organized an appreciation luncheon for more than 75 RSVP volunteers, with several prominent local politicians and businesspeople as guest speakers.

Studensky says, "The truth is, I have lived here three years and did not meet anyone outside my church. Now I know people everywhere. It's been such a blessing to me. Now I am not just so-and-so's wife - oh, I'm still grandma and mom - but it feels good to have a professional identity."

Smith was so impressed with Studensky's work that she tried to hire her as a fulltime assistant to cover Jasper and Newton Counties. When DETCOG got wind of that, they countered with their own job offer.

The farmer's wife had gone from no prospects to having to make a decision between two good jobs. Studensky said, "I prayed about it over the weekend. I told Him, I want to do your perfect will, Lord. Show me the way."

Monday morning, DETCOG made the first move, and Studensky accepted that the RSVP program is where she belongs.

Sandy Smith

Smith may have lost that race, but she's still in the game. She works out of the Livingston office for ExperienceWorks, Senior Workforce Solutions. She is looking for an assistant who can spend 75 percent of their time in the field, signing up qualified seniors and host agencies on both counties.

In the few months she's worked for the program, Smith can rattle off a dozens of success stories, like the nurse who didn't want to work on her feet any more and thought she'd like to be a receptionist. She was placed where she could learn to answer a multi-line telephone system, handle customer service, posting and scheduling, and she "graduated" to working at a dentist's office.

Smith can place about 30 seniors into training positions like these, but only about half those slots are filled. It's a double-edged problem. She needs to first find the seniors whose income qualifies them for paid training, then find out what they are looking for in the way of training, and lastly, find a host agency that can provide that training.

"There's a lot we can do for them," Smith said. "We pay them while they train, we can even help them go back and get a GED."

To qualify, a person must be at least 55, a resident of the state where they enroll, and eligible to work in the United States. They must also be currently unemployed and meet income eligibility.

For more information on senior training leave a message for Smith at 936-566- 4797 or visit www.experienceworks. org

For more information on the RSVP program, contact Studensky at 384-5704 ext. 271.