Area worforce board receives $1 million for senior pilot program

Our area’s workforce development board has been chosen to provide services to help seniors find employment, the only such board in the country to receive the funding for seniors.

According to the Southeast Indiana Workforce Investment Board, the U.S. Department of Labor recently announced the award of just over $1 million in funding through the Senior Community Service Employment Program to the local board to provide training and career services to low-income, older individuals who are seeking to enter or re-enter the workforce.

The Indiana board was one of 19 national nonprofit organizations awarded this funding. The local program will serve only areas throughout Indiana. The hope is that the Labor Department will eventually expand this program model throughout Indiana and beyond.

According to Kurt Kegerreis, Executive Director of  the local board, it “has long demonstrated the importance of advocacy on behalf of under-served populations,” said . “By awarding this grant to a Workforce Development Board, the United States Department of Labor  is allowing (us) to demonstrate how the program might operate with true integration of the services provided by (the senior program) with those already available at WorkOne career centers.”

Area counties served by the board include Bartholomew, Decatur, Jackson and Jennings along with Dearborn, Franklin, Jefferson, Ohio, Ripley, and Switzerland counties