Elder Services of Cape Cod Receives $320,000 Grant

DENNIS – Elder Services of Cape Cod and the Islands will be awarded a grant of $319,853 from Senior Services America, Inc.

About 90 percent of this grant will go towards providing employment for at least 38 low-income older residents of Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket Counties as part of the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP).

“We’re always excited to get the money, because the majority of this grant goes to underwrite the wages of the older workers who are placed with us,” said Laura Roskos, SCSEP Director.

The program is dedicated exclusively to employing seniors and describes itself as helping “promote personal dignity and self-sufficiency through work”.

“The deal is this; people who are low income unemployed job seekers who need to refresh their skills, we’re able to place them into part time jobs with local nonprofits or government agencies where they work 20 hours a week and we pay them to work there,” Roskos said.

“What the host agency does is they create a structured environment and provide training opportunities in technologies and skills that are marketable here in our really unique area of the world. It’s a program that benefits our nonprofit sector and it benefits our older population.”

Roskos said the program is one of very few that provides workforce training for older adults.

For Cape Cod and its large elderly population, Roskos says the program has an important role to fill.

“It’s a critical niche because most of us will not be able or not choose to continue to work in one career throughout our whole lifespan, because our lifespans are getting so much longer. Maybe I loved being a teacher for 30 years, but I’m looking at another 40 years of life. Maybe I want to do something else—So how do I get the skills, how do I build the networks that enable me to make that transition,” she said.

The program plans to bring in 16 more participants this year.

“This program is really a great opportunity for unemployed, low income individuals who are maybe feeling discouraged about their prospects in terms of finding really gratifying employment,” said Director Roskos.

About Grady Culhane

Grady Culhane is a Cape Cod native from Eastham. He studied media communications at Cape Cod Community College and joined the CapeCod.com News Center in 2019.



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