After working for Northeast Washington Housing Solutions, formerly Spokane Housing Authority, for two years and seven months, Jeannie Barber just became a permanent full-time employee. Before then, her employment outlook wasnt as rosy.


In December of 2005, at age 55 and just recovering from two bouts with cancer, including three surgeries and chemotherapy, Barber faced what was yet another challengefinding a new jobin what she now calls the year from hell.


Barber had been a telemarketer for 20 some years, but had to leave her job during her illness, and dreaded the thought of returning to the same line of work. Though she holds a bachelors degree in business administration, when she had tried previously to translate her education into a job, she had difficulty breaking out of her employment-history mold.


Its one of those catch-22 situations, where you have this piece of paper but no skills, Barber says.


Then, a friend mentioned the Senior Community Service Employment Program, which assists people age 55 and over to re-enter the work force by subsidizing on-the-job training at public or private nonprofit agencies while assisting recipients in their search for permanent employment. The federal program is offered through local AARP offices around the country.


Barber applied here and was found eligible. She went to work at the housing authority, which administers affordable housing programs here and which is a host agency for the AARP program.


Barber is just one of hundreds of seniors who have used the program as a stepping stone to permanent employment.


AARP paid her minimum wage until six months ago, when Barber was hired on a six-month, non-subsidized contract at the same organization. Recently, Barber learned she had been hired on a permanent basis, with benefits, as an eligibility specialist support technician.


As for the job itself, she still uses the telephone, but her tasks are much more varied than just telephone work.


Theres always something new to learnand Im not trying to sell anything, she says. Her experience in the communications industry has paid off, too, as she helps process the information for about 300 eligibility reviews each month at the agency. I did develop the knack for explaining what could be a potentially complicated issue in easily understandable terms.


The types of work AARP clients do at their host agencies vary, but, as in Barbers case, are often clerical in nature. Ron Tarbutton, director of the Social Security Hearings and Appeals Office here, says his office does such a voluminous amount of photocopying of documents that the AARP workers the agency uses have been a tremendous help.


Its a huge benefit for our agency, says Tarbutton, who says the agency has used AARP workers for about 10 years. It frees our other employees to perform more technical or experienced-type tasks.


Tarbutton says the office usually has just one AARP temporary employee, but sometimes has had up to four. They fit in well with the other employees, Tarbutton says, as the agencys employees span a number of age groups, including college students and 30-year agency veterans.


About 140 people will participate in the Senior Community Service Employment Program in Eastern Washington this year. Most will go through AARP, which administers the program.


To qualify, participants income cant exceed more than 125 percent of the federal poverty level.


AARP receives about $800,000 annually in federal dollars to provide the program in Eastern Washington, says Steve Reiter, Spokane-based project director for the program here, and the program serves a little over 100 seniors at a time. Although its main office on this side of the state is here, the organization has satellite offices with employment specialists in Wenatchee, Moses Lake, and Walla Walla, and soon will have an office in Richland as well.


Participants work 20 hours a week on average and receive the state minimum wage, currently $7.93 an hour.


Our goal, however, is to move our participants into unsubsidized positions to increase their earnings, Reiter says. In addition to the on-the-job training, the program provides a monthly job search seminar, covering topics from writing rsums to interviewing, to help people learn how to locate and obtain jobs.


Barber says she found the seminars useful.


When I first looked for a job the way to do it was to look in the newspaper, she says.


Though there is no defined limit to how long an individual can receive the subsidy, Reiter says most people find a job within six to eight months of entering the program.


While AARP is a federal grantee, additional program funding goes directly to the states, and some is disbursed through other community agencies.


Aging and Long Term Care of Eastern Washington, for example, receives about $130,000 in state funding each year, allowing it to serve another 35 seniors in Spokane, Pend Oreille, Ferry, Stevens, and Whitman counties, says Kristine Glasgow, Title V coordinator for that agency. That program pays the minimum wage, plus 5 percent to cover Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax withholding.


Don Cowles, a project manager at Arcost-Agbayani, Airway Heights, a building repair and maintenance company that has a contract to do maintenance work on Fairchild Air Force Base housing, says he learned about the program when he became an AARP member himself. Cowles, who is responsible for hiring at the company, decided to give the program a try when one of his former supervisors suggested that he do so, he says. Cowles has been recruiting employees for Arcosts housing maintenance work at Fairchild through AARP for several years, and says the results have been positive.


Cowles asserts that senior workers often are more reliable than other, younger employment candidates found through other recruiting avenues, such as the state Department of Employment Security.


The folks I get want to work, want a job, Cowles says.


Cowles said hes hired at least four people hes found through the AARP program in the past year. Arcosts work is somewhat seasonal, so Cowles often is hiring in the spring. One of his AARP hires from last year is back again this season.


Outside the AARP program, seniors often return to the work force to fill niche positions traditionally thought of as entry jobs for youth.


Locally, up to 10 percent of McDonalds work force is over 55, says Tom Korth, director of operations at Spokane Food Service Inc., operator of 23 McDonalds restaurants here. Probably around four out of 40 employees at each of the companys Spokane and Couer dAlene area stores are age 55 or over, Korth says. Most of them began their jobs with the company as older people, he says. The age of employees in the franchise is increasing overall, Korth says, in part since Washington passed laws limiting the number of hours and times that teens under age 18 can work.


Korth says that for the company, the major benefit of employing seniors is their maturity. The 55-and-over set tends to be very dependable.


A lot of times its nice because you know theyre going to be there every day, Korth says.


A lot of what draws some seniors to a second career at McDonalds may be familiarity, Korth says.


Probably theyve been coming and eating at our establishments over the years, Korth says. Every restaurant has regular customers, you see them every daysometimes we may ask them if theyre interested in working for us.


Some other employees are empty nesters, or people who retired from another career but prefer to stay busy during the day by working, Korth says. For those who did frequent the restaurant before they became employees, the half-price meals they can purchase as employees are a perk, he says.


Korth says the flexible scheduling in the food-service industry often is helpful to seniors, who might not want to work full time, or who must limit their income from employment to avoid reducing other benefits.


For people on the younger end of the spectrum, like Barber, who will celebrate her 57th birthday July 14, getting access to health benefits years before she can qualify for Social Security and Medicare is a critical quality-of-life issue.


I found out Ive been made permanentwhich is a relief because Ill have health insurance, she says. After beating the odds twice, Barber is happy to go to work every day.


Contact Jeanne Gustafson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at jeanneg@spokanejournal.com.