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Where working lives begin again

An AARP program helps older job seekers rejoin the work force through skills assessments and part-time jobs.

By CAMILLE C. SPENCER
Published September 17, 2006

After spending 30 years as a nurse, Diane Tewksbury wanted out.

Her job had shifted from one-on-one patient contact to paperwork-related tasks, prompting Tewksbury to quit her job last June.

"I was emotionally and physically stressed out," she said. "I wasn't eating right. It didn't want to get up in the morning. I said I wasn't going to do nursing. Not this kind."

But Tewksbury, 57, who made about $40,000 last year, couldn't afford to retire.

Noticing an increase in computer-oriented nursing jobs, she started taking computer classes at Connections, a non-profit career development center in New Port Richey.

That's where she found a brochure about an AARP program designed to help job seekers age 55 and older re-enter the work force.

About 60 people in Pasco are participating in the Senior Community Service Employment Program, which assesses a person's job skills to provide short-term, part-time job placement.

Now, Tewksbury works 20 hours a week at the state Department of Revenue in New Port Richey. She earns minimum wage doing filing work while attending computer classes about eight hours a week and looking for something permanent.

"I'm transitioning. I'm going to computer school, and this allows me to look for a job," said the Hudson resident. "I can't afford to retire. There are jobs I can do to use my nursing skills, but they need computer literacy.

"I am at that point in my life where I really don't know what I want to be when I grow up."

Tewksbury is one of many Pasco seniors working as they near retirement age.

In Pasco, about 8.1 percent of the county's 60 and over population are low income, according to the Area Agency on Aging of Pasco-Pinellas Inc. In a two-person household, that's an income of $13,200 per year.

A recent Retirement Readiness Assessment study compiled by Americans for Secure Retirement found that many Pasco residents aren't ready for retirement. The study pointed to rising property values and inadequate education as factors contributing to the county's status as "very high retirement risk."

Barbara Albro, the AARP program's project director, said her program's existence should be a lesson to the younger generation entering the work force.

"It should send a message of pre-planning and financial planning for the future," she said. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Albro said seniors who come to the AARP are often unaware of their job skills.

"People come to us feeling they don't have any skills," she said. "It's amazing when we sit down and do an assessment ... even the displaced homemaker who hasn't worked in the past doesn't realize the financial, budget and organization skills she may have as a result of working with a family. They are transferable to the work force.

"Some of the fear is abated when we can sit down and show them what skills they have that can be used in the work force."

Meanwhile, Tewksbury is working her way back into the full-time job market. She's looking for jobs in the patient education field in hopes of becoming a liaison between patients and doctors.

"I hope for the future that I am going to find a place where I can use my skills and help people," she said.

Camille C. Spencer can be reached at 727 869-6229 or cspencer@sptimes.com.

[Last modified September 17, 2006, 06:36:00]