Seniors Job Bank

We spoke with Executive Director Robin Clare about how the organization helps people, regardless of age, contribute to the community and lead a fulfilling life. 


Seniors Job Bank is involved in the Travelers Championship Birdies for Charity program. Thanks to the support of Webster Bank, organizations have the opportunity to receive a 15% bonus on every donation through the program with no credit card or administration fees...so please donate! 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning. Thank you for listening to Community Access. My
guest this morning is Robin Clair. She's executive director of
the Senior's Job Bank.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good morning, Good morning Allison, thank you so much for
having me on today.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Oh, it's my pleasure. You're part of the Birdie's for Charity. Also,
why did you decide to become involved with this.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, we had read about Bertie's for Charity and we
thought it was just so exciting to be able to
have a platform where we could join with other important
nonprofits in the area to raise money for greater Hartford.
And we certainly appreciate that Webster Bank gives us fifteen
cents on every dollar that we raise. And also just

(00:44):
the team at Birdie's for Charity is so professional and
so much fun to work with.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
And again, their website is Seniors Job bankct dot org.
So go right to that website right now and you
could make a donation for people who don't know about
the Seniors Job Bank. How did it all begin? What
is your mission?

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, so we are now in our fifty first year.
We were started in nineteen seventy four when the insurance
industry was having what they called a risk of reduction
in forces, and there were some entrepreneurial folks here in
the town of West Harford who said, Hey, maybe these
folks would want to do handy person work or gardening.

(01:26):
And then over the years it's grown to include business,
missus jobs, municipal jobs, and volunteer jobs. So our mission
is to help folks that are fifty years and older
find meaningful work. And that work can be full time,
part time, temporary work, volunteer work. And as I said,

(01:47):
we work with businesses, municipalities, homeowners and individuals that and
nonprofit agencies that are all looking for what we call
mature workers. And we call them mature work because they're
not only of a certain age, but they're very mature.
They have a lot of tenacity, they have a lot

(02:08):
of commitment and loyalty, wisdom and knowledge, and they are
very helpful to businesses and to homeowners and individuals to
accomplish what their goals are.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
How great is the need to find work for mature
workers in Connecticut.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Well, there is something called agism in the workplace, and
the World Health Organization says that agism is the last
acceptable form of discrimination in our country. So the senior's
job Bank is ideally positioned to ensure that we are
not participating in agism and that our jobs. When Telam

(02:46):
puts a job in the Senior's Job Bank, they do
that with the intention of hiring mature workers. So we
can say that maybe we are anti agism because there
is a match between folks of a certain age and
employers that really value them.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
You just launched a new initiative. Would you like to
talk about it?

Speaker 2 (03:09):
I would, I would so because we're located in West Harford.
Fifty percent of everything that we do is in West Harford,
and so we are trying to expand out into the
towns that touch West Harford, and that would be Avon, Bloomfield, Harford, Simsbury, Newington,
and Farmington. And we want to bring this wonderful mission

(03:32):
to those towns in an even stronger way. So that's
what we're raising money for in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
And it's called bridging Communities, Expanding into your neighborhood. Yes, yes, so, Robin,
you yourself are a motivational speaker and podcaster.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yes, we have a podcast that we do with the
West Harford Senior Centers called Seniors Rule Age Like a
Warrior and it's on once a month, but you can
find it at any time on any of the major
podcast stations. And what we're trying to do there is
encourage seniors to stay active in their communities, active with
their families, stay healthy, find that work life balance if

(04:12):
they want to return to work, and just in general
have a healthier and wonderful, abundant mindset as they move
through retirement. And in addition, I love to speak in public,
and so I'm always looking for opportunities to speak to
chamber of commerce, seniors centers, rotary clubs, and corporations that

(04:36):
might want to determine how best to manage the work
life balance needs of mature workers in the workplace. Because
there's a phrase out there that I love. It's called
the senior tsunami, and there's just so many seniors now
moving into retirement, but they don't want to stop working
because they have so much to contribute. So I love

(05:00):
to speak to businesses and corporations that are looking to
determine how best to help the new segment of the
population that is working in a way they're new because
they're also somewhat retired, and how best to manage their
work life balance needs.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
I'm speaking with Robin Claire, executive director of the Seniors
Job Bank. Again that website Seniors job bankct dot org.
Go make your donation right now. Thank you so much
for being here, Robin, and for taking care of the
mature workers in our society.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Great. Thank you Allison for everything that you do as well.