The Senior Community Service Employment Program places senior citizens in paid temporary positions in order to provide job skills to be used in the private sector.

Established in 1965 through Title 5 of the Older Americans Act, the program is administered through the U.S. Department of Labor, which provides bloc grant funding to individual states.

The funding is then allocated to counties according to the number of residents age 55 and older whose incomes are no more than 125 percent of the poverty level.

In Butler County, the program is administered by the Lutheran Services Society through a contract with the Butler County Area Agency on Aging.

As part of the program, host agencies — usually nonprofit — agree to train seniors whose wages are paid through the program.

With funding for eight positions in Butler County, one goal is for the trainees to find permanent employment in less than two years so the training opportunity will be available to at least 12 seniors per year.

In recent years the state began to implement other mandatory goals for factors such as rate of employee placement and retention, rate of service to those most in need, and employer satisfaction.

When agencies fall short of meeting these goals for a period of time, the funding is revoked and then administered in the same community through Experience Works, a private company. Some county AAAs voluntarily opt out, allowing Experience Works to run the program.

A similar senior employment program, also funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, is offered at the Butler County Career Link through Senior Service America.