Various District community leaders convened at the Martin Luther King Jr, Memorial Library in Northwest on Sept. 15 to encourage 50 young adults to aggressively seek employment opportunities to better their lives at the Jobs Not Guns DC Youth Career Building Workshop: “A Roadmap to a Career.”
“When I was a young person, my fight was not on the streets but for jobs,” said Dottie Wade, who served as the event coordinator. “Decent, well-paying jobs. If you look at all of the problems our communities are having, it gets right back down to jobs. Jobs make you feel human. Jobs make you feel confident. Jobs give you a direction. Jobs help you to build a better life.”
Wade is part of the Jobs Not Guns Initiative, an outgrowth of the DC Business Gun Violence Prevention Coalition. Rosalind Styles, who serves as the president of National Association of Minority Contractors-Washington, D.C. Chapter, also serves as the manager for the Jobs Not Guns Initiative.
The Initiative is designed to show young adults a better way of life through employment instead of the streets. There have been other Jobs Not Guns fairs, with one held at the Entertainment & Sports Arena in Ward 8.
The fairs feature employers, educational institutions, social service organizations and government agencies for the participants to interact and network with. There are also panel discussions on life skills needed to succeed in the workforce.
Advice to Young Adults
Many of the young adults attending the job fair were Potomac Job Corps Center participants. They distinguished themselves by wearing blue T-shirts with white emblems on the front and back. Job Corps students participate in a two-year program that teaches trades and life skills.
“In order to qualify for Job Corps, a person must be 16-24 and must be a high school graduate or have a GED,” said Marilyn Toran, the center’s business community liaison and workplace development coordinator. “We encourage students to pick one of our offered trades. We are a work-based learning program. After they finish the trade program, we help them find a job.”
Toran noted that students are paid while being educated. She noted that a student’s housing, employment while training and benefits such as health and dental are provided. Toran said students go straight into the workforce or the military after completing the Job Corps program.
Among the panelists offering advice to the participants was Andy Shallal, the president and CEO of Busboys & Poets, a chain of restaurants in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Shallal said he makes it a point to hire people from challenging backgrounds, but they must prove their worth.
“The easy part is getting the job, the hardest part is keeping the job,” said Shallal, 68, said. “You will go a long way in keeping a job by showing up to work on time, having a good attitude and smiling.”
Andre Wright is an assistant police chief in the District’s Metropolitan Police Department leading the Youth and Family Engagement Bureau. Wright pitched a career in law enforcement to the participants.
“It is important that someone looks like us in those squad cars,” Wright said. “People who join our cadet program make $35,000 a year and get a free education of up to 60 hours in college. You should choose this honorable profession and be excited about your next step.”
Roach Brown, a commentator for WPFW and a consultant on incarceration strategies, said earlier in life he graduated from the “UDC.”
“I came out of the University of the Department of Corrections,” said Brown, who served years for convicted murder before being pardoned by President Gerald Ford. “Young people, follow your inner voice. It’s never wrong and you will be strong.”
Jewel Henley is a participant in the Job Corps program. She said the employment fair was beneficial.
“I liked being here,” Henley, 21, said. “The speakers were talking about things that were important. The program made me want to know more about the workforce.”
