November 4, 2009 – As part of an effort to show their students what opportunities are available to them upon obtaining their GEDs, the staff and volunteers at the Safer Foundation’s Youth Empowerment Program West Loop Learning Center (YEP) hosted a career fair today.

A few dozens students and other Safer clients showed up for the event, which featured a number of representatives promoting educational institutions and professional training programs.

“This event is important because it allows students the opportunity to see the different programs that are available to them,” said Dominique Horton, a YEP facilitator. “When the companies and schools come to them on their turf, the students are not as intimidated. They’re a little apprehensive at first, but they warm up when they see that the people aren’t looking at them because of their backgrounds, they’re there to try to help.”

One of the classrooms featured a circle of tables, each featuring a different opportunity for students to gather more information.

At one table was Oliver’s Kitchen, a free culinary program on the West Side named after the title character from the Charles Dickens novel, Oliver Twist. Donna Greer attended the event on behalf of Oliver’s Kitchen and spoke with students about the possibility of a culinary career.

“This event is good because it lets people know what kind of free programs are out there,” Greer said. “We do a lot of work with Safer Foundation. They send some of their clients to us and we send people that need services over to them. It’s a good relationship.”

While YEP focuses on helping students succeed in the classroom as they strive for their GEDs, career fairs can help teach the students valuable lessons on how to transfer what they have learned to the real world.

“We did a lot of training with three job-readiness sessions before today,” Horton said. “Sheldon (Smith, the resource room manager at Safer’s headquarters) brought suits over and the students put them on today. A lot had no clue what they were going to do after they got their GED. At this point, they’re beginning to have some insight into what they want to do.”

--David Dexter

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