Mayor's Alliance Job Fair for veterans and People with Disabilities

The City of Tampa Mayor’s Alliance for Persons with Disabilities is planning a job fair for veterans and persons with disabilities in early 2015. Employers, colleges, nonprofits, Hillsborough County Schools, government agencies, and groups who work with persons with disabilities and veterans are on the planning committee.

The job fair will be held in a large venue starting with a one-hour job seeking skills training for the applicants from 9 am - 10 am, with the job fair taking place from 10 am-1 pm, followed afterwards by a networking luncheon for the employers and committee members. Several weeks before the job fair, a seminar for employers will be scheduled to talk about making reasonable accommodations and job modifications for employees with disabilities

We are seeking volunteers to serve on the following job fair sub committees.

  1. Employer recruitment - Recruiting employers to participate, organizing layout, requesting job fair and luncheon sponsorship.
  2. Registration and services to applicants - Recruiting applicants, soliciting copies of their resumes for review by the professional development committee, suggesting how they can prepare for the job fair, and registration.
  3. Marketing and publicity
  4. Budget - Establish sponsorship rates, and criteria and employer participation fees to cover costs including: security, janitorial services, coffee and bottled water for participants, employer luncheon, AV, and printed materials.
  5. Venue - Select venue, do layout, hire security and janitorial services, arrange for AV, refreshments, etc.
  6. Professional development - Review and critique applicant resumes several weeks before the job fair. Conduct classes on job seeking, networking, resume and interview skills on the day the job fair is held. Also set up employer training several weeks before the job fair.
  7. Volunteer committee - Recruit volunteers to work at the fair. Volunteers will help with registration, greet and direct participants, distribute water and materials with list of employers and their locations.
  8. Assessment committee - Follow up with employers and applicants to determine successes and failures of the job fair, solicit suggestions, and provide results for future events. Also will refer unsuccessful applicants to mentoring and coaching programs.

There are new affirmative action rules for federal contractors and subcontractors doing $10,000 worth or more of business with the federal government. These rules establish goals of seven percent (7%) of their employees being persons with disabilities and eight percent (8%) veterans.

All are invited to participate in the 2015 Job Fair Planning Committee by contacting Karen Sinnreich at 813-307-5595 or [email protected]. Please provide the name of the person or persons who will be attending, what committee or committees are of interest, and if there is a need for an accommodation.

Back to Articles