Looking For Work Is Isolating – How The Job Forum Helps
The Job Forum is a non-profit which promotes economic security for all in the SF Bay Area region. This is accomplished entirely with volunteers who are managers from leading local companies who support job hunters by helping them to conduct a modern job search.
Job search information, referrals into companies, advice, are what is provided in Job Forum weekly sessions. The isolation and time wasting efforts of job hunters trying to find work is addressed with clear goals, advice and referrals and informational interview opportunities.
By now after more than 70 years of The Job Forum service, approximately 76,000 job hunters have been helped.
What does the Job Forum offer
Here is the link to The Job Forum Eventbrite so you can keep up with events offered by the volunteers:
https://www.eventbrite.com/o/the-job-forum-sponsored-by-sf-chamber-of-commerce-3906848837
Job search advice and assistance with contacts and tactics is provided via The Job Forum original service, job search forums offered for free every Wednesday. Now there also are evening sessions offered on Thursdays where there are expert speaker panel discussions focused on growing industries, job roles and job search skills. These are all now on zoom. On Tuesdays The Job Forum also offers job hunters 1 to 1 advising sessions. These can be in person, zoom or via phone.
The Job Forum has a program for young people, ages 15-25,
opportunity and vocational awareness and to teach job search skills and build a network of adults to assist young people as they define educational and career goals.
The Job Forum has a program for job-hunting Veterans (called Business Veteran Career Advising program) that uses business volunteers who also are veterans and skilled with Veterans to volunteer and support and refer job hunting veterans, supporting them in their job search efforts.
What is accomplished:
The Job Forum process is designed and is successful in its goal to equip job seekers with tools they need to conduct a modern job search now and for their futures- The focus is – so to speak – is for all to learn “to fish” rather than “giving them a fish.”
All job hunters are welcome: Current Bay Area Region residents, recent immigrants to the USA, unemployed, those unfamiliar with the SF Bay Area companies as well as citizens of the Bay Area Region who need to find jobs.
Job hunters regularly attend who are recent arrivals from 27 countries and 16 US cities as well as those who are already living in the Bay Area region and need to find a new job or career role.
At The Job Forum all job hunters are advised with specifics for their particular unique employment circumstance and are shown how to succeed in this job search and how equip themselves now and for the next time they need a job. The Job Forum assists underserved groups, with tailored job search input, and advises job seekers and supports them with information and contacts for them to achieve a faster return to work. The value delivered is very high quality.
Both Job Seeker and Funding Needs Have Grown:
Over the recent years, demand for Job Forum services from job seekers has swelled to its highest level ever.
Recent Bay Area layoffs in the tech sector and in financial companies are an important, but not the only, factor.
The Covid-19 pandemic has also led many employees to reexamine their work lives and career trajectories, especially where they are employed in rapidly changing industries that promise job instability. The financial factors in the US economy are a big factor as well, as many companies cut back on hiring and lay people off. The cost for delivering job search services and assistance is kept to a minimum by the generous volunteers who run and the organization and provide all its services.
At the same time, The Job Forum has experienced increasing expenses to deliver no-cost services to a growing participant population. In the past, these were largely covered by the 100 percent volunteers who plan, manage, operate, and counsel, who simply gave more of their time.
More recently, necessary digital communications, web services, more outreach communications requirements and necessary participation in more software platforms take more time and add significantly more cost for the organization on top of the added time that is necessary.
The expanded the number of volunteers from all corners of the Bay Area and a dramatic increase in the number of job hunters accessing Job Forum services has added to the programs management complexity and cost. The shift to largely online Zoom program delivery means technology expenses have risen, including the costs for software, social media, delivering programs, a newsletter, technical support, and other online communications.
The Job Forum needs more support:
More support is needed from more Bay Area businesses and more community and foundation sources and from all individuals who believe in helping job hunters be more successful.
Support is crucially needed to cover the operating costs and ensure the continuity of The Job Forum organization into the future. This high value “community good” offers economic support program for all levels of the working population of the Bay Area and is unique in its effectiveness and longevity here in the Bay Area Region.
Here is what recent job hunters had to say:
“Great events with amazing valuable information and I made connections with an astonishingly high level of managers willing to be help me. Thank you Job Forum “
“After 5 months of making little progress, I was getting very scared, was kind of desperate and discouraged and had some confusion about what to try next. The Job Forum helped me to clarify what I should do next and the volunteers made some introductions for me to get going on a better career and job search path, with confidence and that is how I found a great job.”
“I literally knew nobody, and this Job Forum started me towards building my professional network here. Thank you, Job Forum.”
The Job Forum is run by volunteers and fiscally sponsored as a 501C3, since 1952 when founded by an immigrant, under the umbrella of the SF Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
If you know companies and foundations and individuals who want to get involved, volunteering and financially supporting The Job Forum, please contact Job Forum’s Executive Director, Janet Beach (janet@thejobforum.org)
For more information visit the website: https://thejobforum.org
