About Us
For Jeannie Rubero, working with older adults is more than a job. It’s a calling.
Jeannie, 61, tended to both her grandfather and her mother until the end of their lives. “My mother was bedridden for 24 years. I was by her side and treated her like a queen, like she deserved,” Jeannie says proudly.
She also saw, up close, that aging isn’t easy — a truth that became even clearer when Jeannie landed a job as director of operations at ACLAMO (Acción Comunal Latino Americano de Montgomery County). She saw firsthand the loneliness older clients felt, how much help they needed, and how limited their options were for services. She counseled them when she could and referred them to other agencies, but she knew they needed more.
After seven years at ACLAMO, Jeannie joined Centro Hispano Daniel Torres as an in-home caseworker. Her work helped families in distress in and around Reading, Pennsylvania, a former manufacturing town that was one of the poorest cities in America. When the manager of Centro Hispano’s Casa de la Amistad senior center decided to move on, the position went to Jeannie.
“It was put in my path,” she says. “My dream came true.”
From Family Caregiver to Community Leader
Jeannie has now been Casa de la Amistad’s director of operations of senior services for 24 years. Her days are packed, spent supervising 39 bilingual staff — half of whom came through AARP Foundation SCSEP (Senior Community Service and Employment Program), which places unemployed older adults in paid training opportunities at nonprofits and public agencies. Centro Hispano is one of those nonprofits, and five of its SCSEP participants have become permanent employees.
“I'm proud of that,” says Jeannie. “They're good, hard workers. We noticed it and we grabbed them!”
Jeannie plans and manages the senior center’s rich schedule of events and services: nutrition and fitness classes, motivation classes, support groups, and a seemingly endless variety of social activities. It isn’t all fun and games, though. Caseworkers guide people through applying for benefits such as SNAP, housing assistance and Medicare, and they help with administrative tasks like making appointments and writing checks to pay bills.
Delivering Hope, and So Much More
To many of the people Jeannie serves, Casa de la Amistad is a home away from home. “It's not only a safe haven, it's like an extended family. For some people, it’s their only family,” she says, her voice tinged with sadness. “It can feel so lonely locked up in your little apartment by yourself, but this is a place where you feel loved and cared for. You can socialize, have breakfast and lunch, do activities and learn.”
After a long day on the job, Jeannie can be found delivering food, supplies or donated clothing to people who can’t come to the center themselves. She is an ordained pastor and chaplain and will often stop at parishioners’ homes to pray with them and offer comfort. All of this might exhaust a different type of person, but not Jeannie.
“I'm just doing what I love. Since I was a child, I’ve always wanted to help. It’s fulfilling,” she says. “We have to show people that there's hope. We have to let them know that they're not alone.”
Learn more about AARP Foundation SCSEP and how to apply.
Read more stories about how our programs have helped people find hope, and about the volunteers who give so much of themselves to help others.