Beacon of H.O.P.E. helping people find jobs
The Beacon of H.O.P.E., 5465 Pine Island Road, introduced a new program Wednesday aimed at assisting Pine Island residents to find employment.
Tami Margerison and Angela Jackson will be on hand each Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. by appointment. The introductory session saw about a dozen participants.
Margerison and Jackson work for Job-Links, which is part of Career Development Services, a division of Goodwill Industries of Southwest Florida, Inc.
They will be teaching residents how to write resumes and search for jobs on line. They also will provide e-mail lists of job openings. Besides instruction in job-related skills, the women will call on local businesses to see what opportunities are available and to ask them to become partners in this endeavor.
“We act as a second set of eyes to help people search for jobs,” Margerison said.
Margerison said that people often think of Goodwill as working only with the disabled. This is not the case. She sees many highly qualified people who for many reasons are in the job market.
“For businesses, the advantage is that we can present pre-screened candidates for employment. We have already assessed their skills.”
Pattie Scott, director of Community Programs for the Beacon, was able to arrange the new program through Mike Sell, director of Career Development Services for Goodwill.
“We are a United Way partner site so we have access to this service,” Scott said. “We had a room and laptop computers available.”
There are several other such sites throughout Lee County and surrounding counties.
The Beacon is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. During those hours residents can use computers, printers, and faxes at no cost to conduct their job search. Each weekly session with Margerison and Jackson counts as five job searches required under the regulations that went into effect on Aug. 1 for those collecting unemployment benefits.
People who wish to make an appointment or businesses with jobs to be filled may call 823-7927.