Anna Claire Vollers, stateline.org
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – 66-year-old Mike Leslie sits at a desk under the fluorescence office lights, his fingers floating above his new laptop keyboard. He smiles, his eyes wrinkled under his worn-out baseball cap. It’s a place he never imagined to be sitting.
He never used a computer before last year.
For most of his life, Leslie didn’t need it. He spent 36 years manufacturing pipes near his hometown in North Alabama, working in welding, driving forklifts, mixing concrete and crew as a runner. The job was hard and physical, but he didn’t care.
Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit. The layoffs continued.
Leslie finds herself looking for a job to achieve her goals at an age when a wealthier man might consider retirement. He was no longer suitable for manufacturing operations. However, he also lacks experience in technology that enhances even the most basic tasks in almost every modern workplace, including the Internet, email, and Microsoft offices.
“A lot of people think that old people are outdated, but that’s not,” he said. “There’s a lot of knowledge in your head. They need the opportunity to bring it out and learn something new.”
The unexpected second act of his life began in late 2023 thanks to an obscure state and federal initiative called the Senior Community Service Employment Program. For those over 55 with low incomes, they offer part-time jobs at local nonprofit organizations and government agencies such as libraries, advanced centres and Red Cross. The on-the-job training is intended to prepare participants for the transition to permanent work.
But 700 miles away in Washington, D.C., Congress is considering paying for the very program that made this new chapter in Leslie’s life possible. In next year’s budget, President Donald Trump recommended that this and several other programs falling under the Elderly American Act. The US House also proposed to eliminate funding for the employment program, and the Senate proposed to maintain it.
At this point, experts say anything is possible.
Advocates fear that the loss of the program, which serves around 50,000 seniors across the country, could extend further to participants like Leslie, as well as to the community, eliminating tens of thousands of employees from local libraries, urban recreational facilities and senior centers.
Not isolated
Sitting at home after the layoff, Leslie felt isolated and unsure of what to do next. A friend told him about the Job program and he finally decided to apply. He went in.
Now he helps manage a fleet of vehicles at the top of the Alabama Regional Government Council, a Huntsville-based multi-county agency that provides support services to older Americans and people with disabilities. As part of the program, he enrolled in a digital certification program offering laptops, prepaid Internet access, and a 10-week educational course that taught the basics of Microsoft office suites, email, internet, social media and other skills.
For Leslie, it was a foothold into the workforce and felt like he had moved without him.
“You have a purpose,” he says. “I wake up every morning and come to work I love.”
He is a favorite around the office and everyone calls him “Mr. Mike.”
In April, he wore a three-piece suit to celebrate the entire office, where he received his graduation certificate to expand his digital skills course. He made his colleagues cry because he told them how the program gave him confidence.
“Lost in DC”
A recent Wednesday afternoon in a meeting room not too far from Leslie’s desk, some of his managers at the top of the Alabama Regional Government Council, known as Talkag, sat around a table discussing what to do.
It was confusing for several months. Tarcog is responsible for managing many services aimed at the elderly, from wheel diet to transportation to support caregivers to services that prevent abuse and exploitation.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration began to dismantle federal agencies responsible for overseeing such services, but his proposed federal budget recommended reducing or freezing their spending, including employment programs.
Tarcog executive director Michelle Jordan had asked a question from a shady local leader about the possibility that Wheel’s meals could be cancelled. All over the country, national and local supporters of similar agencies have issued warnings. In some states, local groups like Tarcog have reported delays in receiving the promised federal funds.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration overturned the course and recommended that most senior programs continue under new federal agencies.
“These are people who worked hard for life. But they can’t pay for the heating bill. They have to decide between medicine and groceries.” – Nancy Robertson, former executive director of the Alabama Regional Council of Governments.
However, some older American law programs remain unfunded. One of the biggest is the Advanced Employment Program.
“I think these are real people and they’re lost in DC,” said Sheila Dessau-Ivey, who leads the aging program at Tarcog. “They just look at the program and the dollar and say, ‘Well, we don’t need these.’ But those dollars actually come with human life. ”
The Senior Community Services Employment Program is a small portion of the size of budget giants such as Medicaid and Medicare. Its budget is around $400 million and serves around 50,000 seniors each year. The 86 slots, including Leslie, are located in the five-county strip of North Alabama, provided by Talkag.
To qualify under the national Senior Community Services Employment Program, you must be at least 55 years old, unemployed, and have a family income of less than 125% of federal poverty levels. For individuals, that’s now $19,562 per year. Veterans are given priority in the program, as are people with disabilities, rural residents, people over the age of 65, and those experiencing homelessness. Funds come primarily through the US Department of Labor.
“When we first started this program, there were homeless workers,” Jordan said. Previous studies found approximately three participants out of five who reported a risk of homelessness or homelessness nationwide.
“There’s someone who lives with us, they’re sitting next to us in church, they go to the grocery store with us, they just don’t have those skills or confidence,” she said.
And it has a big impact on other vulnerable groups. According to the survey, in 2019, about two-thirds of participants were women, and about 44% were black. Most participants reported having a high school diploma or less.
“These are people who worked hard, but they can’t pay for heating,” said Nancy Robertson, Turcog’s retired former executive director.
“They have to make a decision between medicine and groceries.”
She said that participants in the program are not the only program injured by the loss of the program.
Participants can remain in the program for up to four years. While they are there, they provide over 40 million hours of work to public and non-profit institutions around the country. Institutions and community groups that hire participants with salaries paid by the program will lose those employees. For example, employees working in small town libraries may be the only reason why libraries can remain open for certain times.
In Huntsville, if the employment program is closed, local senior centres will lose 14 of their employees. Beyond the town of community record centres, the beloved 91-year-old receptionist will lose the job she trained.
Congressional confusion
The US population is aging rapidly. In 2003, about one in seven people in the US workforce was over 55 years old. By 2023, its share has reached nearly one in four. One of the looming challenges for lawmakers and community advocates is how to make older people healthy and prosperous.
As Republicans are considering adding work requirements to programs such as Medicaid, Marci Phillips, director of public policy and advocacy at the National Council, a nonprofit that focuses on issues affecting older adults if they don’t cut funding for work programs designed to support older adults.
“You have to show that people over 55 are working to qualify for Medicaid, but if (deputies) cut federal programs to help workers over 55, there’s an amputation there,” she said.
Some lawmakers have questioned the usefulness of the program. According to a 2022 survey, in 2019, only about 38% of participants who finished the program ended the program. That share was below the US Department of Labor’s 42% target. Median revenues were also below federal targets.
Phillips said the program should not be judged by the metrics used to measure whether traditional workforce development programs are successful.
“These are older people who have to work, but the reality of their health and care situation has not changed,” she said. “This is a standard that we don’t really recognize the population we are trying to serve.”
Programs funded under the old Americans Act are discretionary, and Congress is now in front of the Senate and cannot cut or eliminate them in a settlement bill that has created public protests against potential cuts in Medicaid and Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Programs, commonly known as food stamps.
Trump recommends removing funds for the employment program, but ultimately the fate is in the hands of Congress.
The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to win a budget bill that funds these programs on July 20th. The Senate plan is less certain as it focuses on one big beautiful bill law: the Trump settlement bill. And it is likely that Congress could instead pass on continuous solutions, temporary measures that continue to be funded at the current level to the government.
Leslie wants to travel to Washington to testify before Congress. If someone understands the needs of older Americans, he thinks it is them.
“Society thinks older people are not useful, but when you look at the people in Congress, they’re old too,” Leslie said. “If you’re old, why don’t you want to have something and learn something from another older person?”
Future possibilities
Leslie is studying to win a license as a private investigator. It was the job he always wanted, and now he feels he has the skills necessary to pursue that dream.
He is also looking to organize a workshop held at his church, the Beaver Dam Primitive Baptist. There, he and some of his turcog colleagues hope to be able to share about the services and programs available to help seniors.
“We have 26 churches in the association, so we reached out to all of them, saying there are these things you should know,” Leslie said. “If I had known about some of these things when my dad lived, he might have had a better quality of life.”
He doesn’t know if his own program will become one of the programs still available by then, but he has hope.
He believes the biggest payout is less specific than a modest salary or new computer skills, but it’s deeper.
“The older people have a purpose in this world. As they are old, we can’t imagine that we can abandon them,” Leslie said. “They still have knowledge. I think we should give them the opportunity to succeed at every opportunity.”
©2025 States Newsroom. Go to stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Original issue: June 26, 2025, 1:23pm EDT
