SCSEP - American Recovery Act (Stimulus)

Award Description: SCSEP-American Recovery Act - This program will provide part time community employment to individuals aged 55 and over, with poor employment prospects.

Project Name: SCSEP - American Recovery Act (Stimulus)

Quarterly Activities Description: No material activities occurred this reporting period. The subaward ended 6/30/10, and is fully liquidated. Maine American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Department of Labor Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) total expenditures of $104,293 were less than the total grant award of $147, 161 for two reasons. First, State approval of grant fund drawdown did not occur until the end of the first quarter of the grant period due to the State contracting process timeline, resulting in zero enrollments in the first quarter. Secondly, a special project planned with the Area Agencies on Aging to enroll 12-15 (the total number of slots allowed in the Recovery Act grant) participants did not materialize, further delaying enrollments in the program. As a result the first ARRA funded enrollments did not occur until mid-September 2009, with maximum enrollments not realized until November 2009, putting the program nearly five months behind schedule. To make up for the delayed start and resulting under-spent ARRA funds, the state took action working with the sub-grantee to over-enroll ARRA grant participants by adding seven (total of 22 participants) and increasing the number of hours worked per week per participant, as appropriate, from 20 to 25 hours. Action to increase hours rather than to continue to enroll more participants in the ARRA funded slots was taken because doing so would jeopardize the regular SCSEP program by program year-end because all Recovery Act participants that had not completed their plans would be required to be rolled into the regular SCSEP program effective July 1. With the regular SCSEP program running near capacity, the program would have been over enrolled to start a new program year which was not sustainable.