SCSEP stands for Senior Community Service Employment Program. Its mission is to provide job training and placement for people with limited financial resources who are age 55 or older, and to provide employers with trained, motivated workers.

The Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), funded under Title V of the Older Americans Act, serves persons with low income who are aged 55+ and have few employment prospects. The program has two purposes: to provide useful community services and to foster individual economic self-sufficiency through training and job placement in unsubsidized jobs. The above web-site link connects with the United State Department of Labor’s main page for SCSEP. It provides information on SCSEP contractors throughout the United States.

SCSEP participants are first placed in part-time training in a wide variety of community service positions at non-profit and public facilities, including day care centers, senior centers, governmental agencies, schools, hospitals, libraries and landscaping centers. These training assignments are designed to provide skills and experience to enable a participant to obtain an unsubsidized job. This arrangement gives the agency a dedicated worker and provides the participant with on-the-job experience and an opportunity to re-enter the workforce.

Other training may include classroom, lectures, seminars, individual instruction, and training through other employment and training programs or community colleges.

Participants train and work on average 20 hours a week and receive the highest federal minimum wage, state minimum wage or prevailing wage. The ultimate goal is to find a good job in the public or private sector.

Employers like older workers because they are talented, experienced, responsible and qualified, SCSEP participants possess a work ethic unmatched by most other employees. Hiring older workers brings stability to a workforce by reducing turnover.

For nearly 40 years, SCSEP has helped millions of Americans find jobs in community service and the private sector. Each year, more than 100,000 participants receive job training and over 20,000 are placed with employers through 69 grantees, including 13 national non-profit organizations and 56 units of state and territorial governments.