Judith Rautine: Helping Seniors Earn CDAs

Judith gives seniors the chance to invest in the lives of future generations. “Our seniors offer a wealth of talent,” she says. “They have worked in many fields, volunteered in their communities and raised successful children. Our seniors have also lived through wars and recessions that have taught them the value of patience and resilience. They have a strong work ethic, and many want to remain in the workforce, but they’ve been displaced, especially since the pandemic. And they find it hard to get another job since most companies are looking to hire younger folks.” So how can these seniors stay active and continue to contribute?

Porter-Leath, a nonprofit in Memphis, Tennessee, provides these seniors with an answer as part of its mission to help children and families have healthy, independent lives. Porter-Leath achieves this goal through a wide range of community-based programs, including Head Start, Books from Birth, Teacher Excellence and Generations, a program that Judith has managed since 2012. “Generations is an AmeriCorps Seniors program,” Judith explains, “and it provides two ways to bring seniors and children together for the benefit of both.”

AmeriCorps Seniors serving as Foster Grandparents are role models, mentors and friends to children with exceptional needs. The program provides a way for volunteers aged 55 and up to stay active by serving children in preschools and elementary schools throughout Memphis. “The foster grandparents earn a tax-free income of $4.00 an hour, which isn’t a lot,” Judith admits. “But they do it because they need the money, or they just aren’t ready to sit at home.”

Other seniors want to stay employed, and Porter-Leath offers them a chance to do so through its AmeriCorps Workforce Development Program, which began in 2023. The program supports 25 seniors a year in earning a Child Development Associate® (CDA) Credential™, so they can explore a new career in the early learning field. “Our candidates have come out of fields that include banking, nursing and finance,” Judith says. “We also have some retired elementary school teachers in the program who want to change their focus to younger children and use their CDA® to work in preschools.”

One goal of the workforce development program is for the seniors to serve as extra hands in Porter-Leath classrooms during their CDA training, Judith says. “The seniors are welcome to assist the lead teacher in any way they can. But their focus is on child and parent engagement. They’re going to interact with the parents and encourage them to come to parent meetings, join in other activities and volunteer in the classroom, all steps that will foster the children’s growth. And while the seniors are building engagement, they’ll be earning their 480 CDA experience hours and taking their 120 hours of coursework with an instructor who comes to Porter-Leath.”

Judith is providing a one-stop shop for the seniors to get their CDAs and overcome any roadblocks to their success. “We provide the seniors with mentor teachers who have a sincere desire to impart new skills and share their knowledge of best practices in the classroom,” Judith says. “We have workforce development coordinators who assess the seniors during their first few weeks to see where they are and plan additional training in areas like computers and conflict resolution. Then when the seniors earn their CDAs, we hold job fairs to assist them in finding positions at Porter-Leath or other centers. We also follow up with them once they are employed, and our coordinator does job coaching for six months to make sure the seniors are comfortable in their new roles.”

Porter-Leath wants the seniors to succeed on the job because they’re needed, as Judith points out. “There’s such a big teacher shortage, especially in early childhood education. And we feel we’re fulfilling a need because the seniors have a work ethic that leads them to stay in a job instead of hopping from one place to the next.” And the CDA gives them the skills to fill the community’s pressing need for competent early childhood teachers.

“Preschools want teachers to have a CDA,” Judith says, “so we considered that when we applied for an AmeriCorps grant and designed the program. The CDA prepares the seniors to overcome challenges that might differ from those they have already encountered. Granted, you may have dealt with some tough issues after working in the medical field all your life, as some of our seniors have. But going into the classroom to work with two-year-olds is different than going to work in a hospital ward. So, the CDA is an efficient, time-effective way for the seniors to get prepared to embark on a new career.”

Judith has some experience switching fields because she began her career by working in therapeutic recreation. “As a young woman,” she recalls, “I worked with seniors in the rehab area and long-term care. But it became a hard job to stay in because insurance didn’t want to pay for that type of therapy. So, I began doing volunteer management in an adult day care center, and I was there when I learned about the opportunity to come to Porter-Leath. It seemed like a match made in heaven since I love working with both seniors and children. I began 25 years ago as coordinator for the foster grandparent program, and I’ve since been promoted to coordinator of the entire Generations program.”

In that role, she oversees program operations and aids in problem solving. She establishes and maintains partnerships to meet community needs, prepares grant proposals and monitors quality performance to meet outcomes. In addition, she serves as a spokesperson for Porter-Leath. And the heavy load she carries shows that age doesn’t matter, making her a poster child for the Generations program.

Judith is a grandmom and a senior, so people have begun asking her when she’s going to retire. But that’s not in her plans. Besides her job, she volunteers for the Boy Scouts, American Heritage Girls and her church. “I want to keep going because I love having a sense of purpose and a chance to give back,” she says. “I especially love the idea of workforce development for seniors, and I love seeing their faces light up when they see how they can make a difference for children and for teachers, too.”

Judith has seen how many of the younger teachers at Porter-Leath gravitate to the seniors. “The teachers find that the seniors bring a sense of calm to the classroom and offer coping tips that the younger teachers might not yet know.” And the seniors also have a positive impact on the children, as Judith has seen during her many years running the foster grandparent program for volunteers.

“A volunteer named Betty made a wonderful breakthrough with a young girl who was nonverbal,” as Judith recalls. “The girl wouldn’t talk to anybody until Betty helped her break out of her shell. It turned out that the child was Hispanic, struggled with the language barrier and felt closed off. But as Betty worked with the child, she began to blossom. By the end of the school year, she was answering questions in class and had begun to make friends, thanks to Betty’s loving care.”

Another senior was so skilled in the classroom that Porter-Leath decided to offer her a job as an assistant teacher in its Head Start program. “She went from being a volunteer to being fully employed,” Judith says, “and her example inspired me to reach out for funding to start our CDA program for seniors. I realized there were a lot more seniors like her, and Porter-Leath is ensuring that these seniors have the opportunities they need.”

“Last fall,” as Judith recalls, “16 seniors completed their CDAs and secured employment, a milestone for seniors who have put aside the idea of relaxing in retirement and instead have chosen to return to the workforce. They have made a commitment to use their twilight years to give back to their community and to future generations by improving the lives of preschool children, as one of our new CDAs pointed out. ‘I realized that I am not too old for anything that God has chosen for me to do,’ she told me. ‘He is not yet finished with me, so thank you for the opportunity to make a difference where it counts in the lives of young children.’”

Working with the children also gives the seniors a lot of joy, as Judith has seen. “I just love being around the seniors in the classroom and seeing how much they get out of working with the children,” she says. “The seniors are just like kids themselves when they’re in an early childhood classroom. You’d never think they were in their sixties and seventies when they get down on the floor and play with the children,” Judith says. And watching both generations bloom is the “biggest reward” of Judith’s job, as she explains. She knows that investing in both our youngest and oldest learners yields great returns and helps Porter-Leath to build stronger communities for all.