The Hall Job Fair Draws 100 Local Candidates, Community And Impromptu Visit From Mayor Lee

On Tuesday, August 9th, Cherry, a diminutive, determined 52-year old with a sharp smile stood outside The Hall at 1028 Market Street calling to passersby with a sheaf of flyers. “Anyone looking for jobs? We got jobs in here. Come get a job.” One-by-one she drew local job seekers to a sign-up table manned by volunteers from the tech sector.

As we mentioned earlier in the week, The Hall, in collaboration with Tenderloin Police Station’s captain Teresa Ewins, the Office of Economic and Workforce Development and several other community partners, including Code Tenderloin, held, for the second month in a row a job fair.

What makes The Hall job fair unique from other hiring events is it was born out of a direct response to challenges occurring daily on the street, right in front of The Hall’s doors, says Ilana Lipsett, community manager for The Hall who was largely responsible for initiating and organizing the event.

“He’s kind of the inspiration,” she said, pointing to DeAndre, a gregarious, heavy-set gentleman who at the moment was ushering in several teenagers who had been hanging out near Market and Jones Street. DeAndre had made Ilana’s acquaintance from days spent hanging out along Market Street in front of The Hall after his volunteer shifts with the Downtown Streets Team ended. Often, he would ask Ilana if The Hall had a job for him. At the time, they didn’t. It got Ilana thinking, why was it so hard to find jobs? She then put out a call on social media for potential employers and resources. With help from partners like the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, Code Tenderloin and other individuals, she came up with a list and shared it with Captain Ewins, suggesting that officers could hand out job listings instead of tickets. It got a conversation brewing, a conversation that encompasses many of the social challenges of the day: crime, choice, economic opportunity and income disparity amid rapid change in the City as well as the relationship between the police and the community.

“We wouldn’t be able to do our job without community,” said Captain Ewins. “We’ve had conversations with people that we know are dealing drugs or involved in a scene that will land them in jail. We changed the conversation from ‘You’re on probation, or, You’re on parole’ to ‘What can we do to make sure you’re not on the street any more?’ The answer is always jobs, jobs, jobs.”

She says most of the people she approaches look at her skeptically at first, citing criminal records as barriers to employment. She tells them about the Clean Slate Program and other resources like Code For America’s Clear My Record, both of which had a presence at the job fair. “These are people that want to be off the street, but just don’t know how. My people [officers] are the ones handing out flyers [for the job fair]. It’s about relationships.”

Captain Ewins is particularly interested in providing economic opportunity for young people in the Tenderloin neighborhood. Because many parents are working multiple jobs to provide for the family, they aren’t necessarily at home when the kids arrive home after school or during the summer months, she explained. This leads kids to join groups on the streets, where they often end up committing crime for quick money. Cell phone thefts have become increasingly popular, she says. “It’s almost become a game. It’s not necessarily about money, but status among their peers. We’ve become very good at catching them but then they’re in the system and have a record.”

Del Seymour, founder of Tenderloin Walking Tours and Code Tenderloin, an instrumental partner in organizing The Hall job fair was pleased with format of the event. “Here you’re bringing the opportunity to the community rather than the community having to search out and find the jobs and services.” He noted for many local job seekers having the chance to meet with potential employers amid the setting of a food hall was a lot less daunting than entering a towering glass building.

Inside, communal dining tables had been set up in a crescent shape, with the first half of the room lined by potential employers such as: Larkin Street Youth Force, Tenderloin Housing Clinic and Bon Apetit, a catering company which stocks Twitter’s food programs. Abigail Headrick, manager of Hospitality House’s Employment Resource Program, remarked on the successes of the previous job fair, noting that three people were on a list to attend Guard Card training, a certification program that qualifies job seekers to obtain security positions. Two others followed up with her and later attended a hiring event with a recruiter from a nearby hotel. She hoped for similar success this time around.

Once the visitors to the job fair reached the halfway point of the room, the tables were lined with resources/service-oriented providers as well as social enterprises like the Downtown Streets Team, which through hard work and commitment, provides cleaning services while creating opportunity for individuals navigating homelessness to get off the streets for good.

At the bar, a young man, Jaque, sat filling out an application. He said he was willing to do anything as long as it had plenty of hours. Robert, who had heard about the job fair as he was walking by, planned to apply with Bon Apetit because he’d worked in the food industry before.

Taking pictures for the event was Kiki, who like DeAndre, had been one of the people hanging out on Market Street who is now employed by The Hall. “I’d rather be in here than out there.”

After DeAndre had escorted the teenagers into the job fair, Epicenter-sf asked him how he convinced them to check it out. He said, “When I was a troubled youth nobody tried to stop me from what I was doing. So I root for these young dudes. I ask them, ‘You want to be a crook and end up cooking in jail next to your uncle or your cousin or even your brother?’” Asked what has been the biggest surprise for him about working at The Hall, he said, “Just working here. I went from asking could I use the bathroom to working here.”

As for Cherry, she had graduated from Code Tenderloin the day before. Afterwards, she’d sent out 49 job applications through the Career Builder website. Though she’d gotten some responses, they came from palces like Pleasanton or Fremont, which she feels she can’t afford to commute to. While serving a prison sentence, Cherry honed a passion for helping others and providing education. For nine years, she worked to educate youth through a drug and gang diversion program. She’d also earned a teaching certificate from the CDC to provide health education on communicable diseases. Currently, she is a member of a coalition for women prisoners in California, which advocates for health clinics. Today, Cherry struggles with homelessness after losing her housing ‘overnight’. That doesn’t stop her from approaching each day with cheerful tenacity and caring for others. On August 20th, she’ll participate in a training session with Concrn, the response team that seeks to provide an alternative to 911 for people struggling with mental illness on the street. With a stipend from Code Tenderloin, Cherry provided outreach for the job fair to young people and others struggling with homelessness. Asked how she found the drive to do so when she herself was looking for work, she said, “I have a passion for reaching out to the younger generation because they have choices. I’m looking for full time work so I can get housing, making sure I’m safe. I just need that opportunity.”

Among the 100 job seekers, service providers and potential employers, the event garnered an impromptu visit from Mayor Edwin Lee. Asked what he thought of the event, Mayor Lee had this to say:

“I think this is evolving particularly because of Captain Ewins and the organizers. It’s a strong reminder that we don’t want to leave anybody behind. I think it’s evidence that while transformation is happening in the Mid-Market, Tenderloin and South of Market, we want that prosperity to be felt by everyone.”

Epicenter-sf asked what would it take to have a truly successful transformation.

Mayor Lee raised and answered some questions in response:

“When we say change is good, what do we mean by it? When we change people’s lives how are we defining it as an improvement? For me, it’s always been if people get a sense of their own skill set and being offered the ability to stand up on their own and be able to contribute. Usually that means a job, but it also means job readiness, it also means clearing up the obstacles and barriers that prevented them from contributing. All this has to happen, this is why we associate with all these different agencies that are doing all these things. It’s to allow people to present themselves in the best way possible as opposed to being a victim of their own barriers, or whatever they can’t recover from. I think that’s part of the transition. It shouldn’t just be about brick and mortar going up. It should be about people also moving ahead with their lives. We can’t do that unless we offer that support for them. This is what I really think is the best value of San Francisco.”

We asked Ilana Lipsett what it would take for her to feel like the job fair was a success. She said, “I’d consider it a success if more and more businesses realized there was a whole pool of eager talent right outside their doorsteps, and also if police departments in other neighborhoods and cities saw this as a means for community building: offering opportunity instead of punishment.” She added that if ten percent of the attendees would achieve gainful employment, that would be a great success. With Tuesday’s turn out, that amount comes to ten people. If that doesn’t seem like a big impact, Del Seymour has a suggestion for you. He says, “Ask that person’s family.”

If you’d like to get involved with the next job fair, whether as a volunteer, potential employer, service provider or any other way, please email Ilana@thehallsf.com.

A full list of organizations and employers from the job fair is posted below:

Homebridge

Bon Appetit (Twitter cafeteria)

St. Anthony’s

Code for America // Clear my record

Larkin St. Youth Force

Hospitality House

Tenderloin Housing Clinic

Vietnamese Youth Development Corp

JVS // Jewish Vocational Services

Mission Hiring Hall

Downtown Streets Team

Code Tenderloin

America Works

OEWD

Jobs NOW!

Chinatown Neighborhood Access Point

Solutions SF / Community Housing Partnership