East Texas Business

By GREG JUNEK
Business Editor

Calvin Heard thanks his supervisor and employer profusely. He reflects on his experiences since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, and he profusely thanks his supervisor again.

Heard was literally without money or food when he landed a job at Meals On Wheels in Tyler, and he said that without the help of the Experience Works program he would not have had a chance at getting a job.

"The Lord works in mysterious ways for people," he said.

Pointing to his graying hair, the 59-year-old Heard said he believes employers were unwilling to hire him because of his age.

But Experience Works, chartered in 1965 and originally called Green Thumb, aims to place qualified people 55 and older who need money back in the workforce. It helps older Americans, many with multiple barriers to employment, receive the training they need to land jobs in their communities at nonprofit agencies.

The program has an office in the East Texas Workforce Center.

Available in 38 states and Puerto Rico, the program served more than 23,000 people in 2005-2006 and provided services to more than 8,650 agencies, according to information from it

Heard, his mother and sister got out of New Orleans five days after Katrina hit. He had taken care of his 94-year-old mother in New Orleans, but they were separated in the evacuation.

He rode a bus to Tyler, and his mother was taken to Killeen. Heard said he used the Internet to locate his mother, but by the time he learned where she had been taken, she had already been transported back to New Orleans.

His mother died July 12, 2006, in New Orleans, and Heard did not get to go to the funeral. He said everything that happened, including the loss of his mother and his inability to make it back for her funeral weighed heavily on his mind, and he had to find a job to ease that pain and to get some much-needed money.

A house painter by trade in New Orleans, Heard said he could not convince anybody in Tyler to hire him. He and a friend from New Orleans were living together in Tyler, and their money was running out.

"I just wanted a job," he said. "I didn't care what I would do, I just wanted a job. ... I didn't have any money at all."

Connie Jackson, Experience Works education training agent, directed Heard to the program, which found him a job at Meals On Wheels.

"At that time on our program they work 20 hours a week," Ms. Jackson said. "It's $5.85 an hour and it's considered a training position."

During this time, a job-seeker works for, and receives a paycheck from, Experience Works. The host employer may decide to hire the person full time, at which time he or she would become part of the employer's payroll.

Heard apparently learned his job quickly. He started at Meals On Wheels on Nov. 5, and became a full-time employee with the agency a week later. Full-time employment at Meals On Wheels is 32-40 hours a week, depending on the menu.

Now, Heard, who did not even know where Tyler was when rescuers in New Orleans said his group would be transported there, said he loves the Rose City.

"I just love being down here in Texas," he said. "I never thought I'd be here."


LAST PENNY

Marilyn Cates, Experience Works employment and training coordinator, said most people who seek help through the program, governed by the U.S. Department of Labor, are nearly down to their last penny.

Many had good jobs at one time, but for many reasons they find themselves in their latter 50s or older short on money and without prospects.

"It has to be low-income (applicants)," she said, adding that unfortunate circumstances befall many people. Teachers, for example, do not pay in Social Security.

"They took a lump some in their retirement, and it's running out," Ms. Cates said.

Many applicants are retired, and technology over the past several years has passed them by. Ms. Cates said the program offers computer classes.

"We do an assessment of what we think they would qualify for and what they want to do," she said.

Applicants are referred to nonprofit host agencies for work. The program has about 40 host agencies in Smith County.

She said many applicants she sees believe younger supervisors see their age in a negative light. Although the only evidence she has is the word of the applicant, Ms. Cates said she agrees that some younger people are not as likely to hire people in their 50s and older.

She said one older person was down to her last rent payment when she visited the office.

"She was crying and she said, 'Please help me, because I've been everywhere and they won't even talk to me. They won't even look at me,'" Ms. Cates said.

She said she has about 49 people on the Experience Works program now out of the Workforce Center in Tyler. Applicants must show they are low-income people.

"For some people, it takes longer for training," Ms. Cates said. "You run across housewives whose spouses are deceased. They're starting over, and they have to have confidence."


CONFIDENCE

Susan Lucido said the program helped her gain the confidence needed to work with the public.

Ms. Lucido, who Experience Works placed at the Workforce Center to help people in their job-search activities, said she did not work much with other people in her earlier days of employment, which was in commission sales. She went from that job into marriage and then spent years as a stay-at-home mother.

But a divorce took away a stable future.

"There aren't any benefits, like unemployment benefits, for divorced women," Ms. Lucido said.

She took a job as a receptionist, but was laid off. She visited Experience Works, and was placed in a job working in the Bullard Municipal Court clerk's office.

But the travel was too far for her, and Experience Works placed her at the Workforce Center. She became a full-time center employee a month ago.

"This job has given me the confidence to start my own little business," said Ms. Lucido.

She recently started The Pet Nanny and The Granny Nanny, a pet-sitting business and an elder-sitting business, respectively, which she works in her off time.

HELPING HAND: Susan Lucido, left, assisted newly relocated Tonya Washington, formerly of Columbus, Ohio, at the East Texas Workforce Center. Ms. Lucido enlisted the help of Experience Works, an employment placement program for people 55 and older, to help her find a job.
((Staff Photo By Jaime R. Carrero))