What Can I Do To Help My Dad Here?

My dad works in a low wage position as a kitchen supervisor at a major university making $12 an hour in spite of having 30 years of over all working experience. He works on a student/professor schedule meaning every time the school is closed he’s out of work without pay for example for Christmas break he’s off for an entire month and doesn’t get paid so it’s like he doesn’t even have a job the same is the case for Spring break and when the school lets out for the summer (which is really a bummer) he’s basically sitting home now unemployed until September, he’s filed for unemployment but has run into a snafu due to having only worked at his present position for 4 months and is a few weeks short of eligibility. He collected before when he was terminated from his last position for getting into a fight with a co-worker and we are trying to re-open his old claim as he still has money left. Me , my brother and my mother help pay some of the bills but dad’s really depressed and feels like less of a man. It’s sort of like he’s got a job 10 months out of the year so can’t really go looking for another job as he’ll end up leaving when he goes back in September so should we just keep working at trying to get his unemployment reinstated or find him a seasonal job for the summer?