International Workers’ Day, also known as Labor Day or May Day, is celebrated on May 1st each year. It honors the contributions and achievements of workers and the labor movement, advocating for workers’ rights and fair working conditions globally. As the largest workforce development nonprofit in North America, this day gives us a moment to celebrate the workers who have transformed their lives with support from Goodwill®.
One of these workers is Karen, whose career has had plenty of twists and turns over the years. She came to Goodwill to be part of the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) offered by Goodwill of the Olympics & Rainier Region (Tacoma, WA).
SCSEP is a community service and work-based job training program for older Americans. Authorized by the Older Americans Act, SCSEP provides training for low-income, unemployed seniors. Participants gain work experience in various community service activities at non-profit and public facilities, such as schools, hospitals, day-care centers and senior centers. The program aims to help participants transition to unsubsidized employment opportunities by providing them with valuable skills and experience.
Working at the Community Center
As part of the program, she started a job at the Mid-County Community Center, a senior citizen activity hub between Puyallup and Tacoma. In this role, Karen helps seniors with all aspects of their lives from exercise to finances, to serving as protector and encourager.
“I’m kind of a Jane-of-all-trades,” says Karen, who assists with everything from serving meals, doing paperwork and handling money, to checking people in at the front desk, and sweeping and cleaning. One of her favorite activities is to set up social functions, including exercise classes.
“A lot of our seniors are home alone, a lot,” says Karen. “And if they come in a couple of times a week, they keep their body in shape so they’re not quite so fragile.”
Along with the enjoyable exercise classes, Bingo has become a big hit.
“We started out with five people,” says Karen. “Now we’re up to 22 people. We’ve grown so much that we’ve had to move downstairs into the basement.”
Karen’s resourceful upbringing is reflected in the choices and values she demonstrates through her work. Her commitment to reuse gets to the heart of Goodwill’s values as well.
When the Bingo numbers were fading on the balls that were used to call the numbers, Karen took a felt marker and rewrote them instead of tossing them and ordering new ones. She uses leftover pitchers of drinking water in the flower garden instead of throwing the water down the drain.
“They’re my babies,” says Karen as she talks about the trillium, daffodils, hyacinth and tulips in the center’s garden. She recalls fond memories from her upbringing on a raspberry farm with a yard full of gladiolas.
Karen’s Background
Karen’s been helping seniors since she was a young girl. Her mother worked as a Licensed Practical Nurse, so Karen would tag along as a Candy Striper (i.e., a teenage hospital volunteer wearing a red-and-white pinstripe uniform) to nursing homes.
She also volunteered for Metro Parks, for 20-some years, alongside her sister who was employed there, assisting seniors.
Karen worked a variety of jobs, often in retail, but eventually needed several surgeries and her body could no longer handle the labor-intensive work in the retail sphere, unloading pallets of clothing and such. Karen left that position and spent another six months looking for employment before she came across a booklet (i.e., Where to Go), in the unemployment office, that listed SCSEP.
Since joining SCSEP, she took several computer classes in the Goodwill training center, then eventually landed at the Mid-County Community Center where she could learn and perform a wide variety of assignments and be physically active, which she loved to do. She’s pleased with her SCSEP experience.
“It’s given me an avenue of employment for something that I’ve really had a lot of experience in,” says Karen. “And it’s made me very happy because I’m in an environment that suits me in my personality and my knowledge.”
“I’ve always worked on the ‘front’ side of volunteering,” says Karen. “And since I started working here, I’ve been pulled into the ‘back’ side [too].”
Board members want the center to be fully accredited, so Karen is involved in the accreditation process, allowing her to use existing knowledge alongside research and computer skills.
She has also become a default volunteer coordinator, of sorts. Volunteers come to her when they’re not sure where to start or what to do. She just fills in the gaps.
“When I’m not there, I’ll think about what I’m going to do when I get there,” laughs Karen.
One thing is certain, the community center is where she’s living her ‘happily ever after’.
You can see if this program is available near you here.
