SALEM, Ore. – Members of the Oregon National Guard have stepped up to help their fellow citizens, helping the Oregon Employment Department (OED) process record numbers of unemployment insurance (UI) claims.
"It's a combination of factors that have us supporting this mission and has evolved over time," said 2nd Lt. Joshua Osborn, assigned to Bravo Troop, 1st Squadron, 82nd Cavalry Regiment, and the officer in charge of more than a dozen Guard members on the UI support team. "We are now in a '5th phase,' as this group has shown that they can take on more tasks."
The national UI program was created 85 years ago this month when the country struggled to recover from the Great Depression. Funded by state and federal taxes, it created a safety net to safeguard individuals against economic distress for short periods. Fast-forward to the present, and the need for this program has never been more crucial with persistent job losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
An estimated 350,000 Oregonians have been pushed out of the workforce as the COVID-19 outbreak has placed added stains on a system that was last redesigned in the 1990s.
As their unemployment claims piled up, the Oregon National Guard was called in to help.
"We got started when the Oregon Employment Department (OED) was identifying people that needed to be contacted – whether it was letting them know the status of their application or find something that was missing in their application that was holding it up," said Osborn. "We have now gained system access to processing those applications and can take them all the way through to payment."
Osborn said the team was working through nearly 5,900 applications. "The biggest issue(s) we work on are seeing which claims go to pandemic assistance or whether they go to another program."
Melanni Rosales, OED communications director, applauded the "creativity and innovation" of Guard members for suggesting ways to improve processes.
"They've been a great addition, eager to adapt to new types of work and very flexible with continuing missions and changing priorities and duties," said Rosales.
Oregon Air National Guard Tech. Sgt. Isabell Borrego, assigned to the 142nd Wing Mission Support Group, was brought on initially to support OED then had to complete training in case she was needed for fire support later in the summer.
"I just recently was 'red card' recertified for wildland firefighting, so in between days I came off from one set of orders here (at UI), took a pause, then took the refresher course over the weekend only to then restart the next week with the unemployment insurance team again," she said.
"The camaraderie is great, and that's what I like the most about working on these distinctive types of short-term projects," said Borrego, who has 20 years of military experience and is a third-grade teacher in her civilian job. "With this work for OED, I've actually learned a great deal about accounting and working with a variety of electronic spreadsheets."
She said it's important to listen to people's struggles both to diagnose their situation and to offer confidence the problem will be solved.
"There is a great sense of gratification. We get to help people with their claims by understanding their stories and where the complications are," she said.
The mission lasts through the end of September.