The Tribune

SIX hundred job seekers from Bain and Grant’s Town and surrounding communities filed through the doors of the Grants Town Wesley Church Hall over a four-hour period Wednesday for the first Bain and Grant’s Town Urban Renewal Project job creation fair.

The job seekers began lining up as early as 8am, even though fliers indicated the fair was not scheduled to begin until 10am.

Held under the theme “Each One Help One,” the event gave hundreds of unemployed residents an opportunity to meet with small, medium and large-scale business owners from across New Providence who are seeking to expand their workforce.

Eleven privately-owned companies participated in the fair, including Frank Hanna Cleaning Company, the MailBoat Service, Commando Security Services Limited, Family Guardian Insurance, Bahamas Food Services, Tri-Point, Island Gas, Bay Street Garage, Travel Express, Game Galaxy and WEMCO Security Services.

“Finding employment for as many of the residents of the area as we possibly can is one of the key areas for us Urban Renewal officials because the unemployment level in the Bain and Grant’s Town constituency is one of the highest in the country,” said Inspector Anthony Rolle, officer-in-charge of the Bain and Grant’s Town West Urban Renewal Project Office.

“We also have a number of persons in the community who have been discouraged by the job-seeking experience and so we thought that if we brought the businesses into the area; that if we brought the opportunity for residents to meet with these business persons into the area, and fill out application forms, it would be time well spent for everybody involved.

“This approach has worked very well for us today as we can see from the large numbers of persons from the community and even those outside of the community who were passing by on the way to other activities, heard what we were doing and went home and got all of their paperwork and came back looking to take advantage of this opportunity,” Inspector Rolle said.

He said Urban Renewal met with companies that were hiring or had expressed an interest in hiring additional personnel, in order to give the residents of the community “first crack” at those job opportunities.

“The companies that showed up here today are not just here for show, they are here because they are prepared to hire persons from the community once they qualify for any job opportunities that may be available,” Inspector Rolle said.

“The theme of the fair is ‘Each One, Help One’, so if we can get each company here today to hire at least one person, our mission would have been accomplished,” he said.

The officer said they tried to match companies represented at the fair with the skill sets found in the area.

“What we tried to do was to bring a mixture of companies to the fair to match the diversity of skills in the community. If you look around we have personnel from security companies, an insurance company, travel agency, and on and on, so that we can match the diversity of the skills within the community.

“I think we have done an extremely great job here today in trying to help the people and that’s another part of the Urban Renewal story, people coming together to help people and uplift communities one at a time.”