Golden Mile Hiring Fair connects residents with local opportunities 

Job seekers had opportunities to participate in career workshops to polish their resumes and interview skills. Employers were looking to fill about 50 positions altogether.

United Way Greater Toronto, ACCES Employment and the Centre for Inclusive Economic Opportunity, Golden Mile (CIEO) organized the fair with support from Centennial College.

“We created this hiring fair in partnership with ACCES Employment and Centennial College because we wanted to begin connecting residents to the employers that are going to be here over the next 20 years,” said Tasleem Thawar, Director of Strategic Initiatives for United Way Greater Toronto.

The fair was an example of how the community and private sector are working together to provide residents with employment opportunities.

The Daniels Corporation, one of the participating companies, presented two opportunities: a project co-ordinator role and a warranty ambassador role. The company is one of the developers of the Greater Golden Mile redevelopment and a signatory to the Inclusive Local Economic Opportunity (ILEO) Corporate Charter.

“As part of our development, we’ve made a commitment to create opportunities for local economic development for Greater Golden Mile residents,” said Fatima Saya, Senior Manager of Social Impact at The Daniels Corporation.

Saya explained that job seekers from the Greater Golden Mile area can benefit from the hiring fair by meeting with recruiters and potential employers directly.

It was also a chance “for job seekers in the Golden Mile to become aware that the ILEO initiative exists and that a number of companies have made commitments to creating economic opportunities in the Golden Mile,” she said.

BMO Financial Group, co-convenor of the ILEO Initiative with United Way Greater Toronto, also presented several employment opportunities at the hiring fair.

ACCES Employment, a partner agency of United Way Greater Toronto and a member of the ILEO Leadership Table, also played a crucial role.

“Our role today was really to bring together the job seekers and the employers in collaboration with several community partners and agencies in the Greater Golden Mile, and we helped to set people up for successful interviews,” said Anita Carroll, Senior Vice-President of Corporate & Stakeholder Engagement for ACCES Employment.

ACCES received resumes from job seekers and job openings from companies, then pre-screened the resumes prior to the hiring fair to “make sure that people were well-aligned for interviews and to be successful.”

On top of that, Carroll explained that ACCES also prepared employers to approach the interviews with an open mind and provide support to clients who might lack work experience in Canada and face various barriers.

United Way Greater Toronto and more than 30 multi-sector partners have been focusing on the Greater Golden Mile community for the past five years because of the large-scale redevelopment that is coming to this area.

So far, more than 150 residents have been connected to new jobs in insurance, construction, office administration, concierge services, accounting, property management, project management, consulting, and finance as part of the ILEO Initiative.

“We want to make sure existing residents really can participate in that and they share in the wealth and opportunities that are coming,” Thawar said.

The ILEO Initiative has been active in the neighbourhood for some time, but this was the first in-person job fair organized by United Way and its partners. United Way will likely organize more in the future, Thawar said.

This story was produced as part of a partnership between Centennial College journalism students and United Way Greater Toronto.

The ILEO Initiative brings together the private, public, and community sectors to find innovative ways to reduce gaps in economic prosperity at the neighbourhood level. ILEO is convened by United Way Greater Toronto and BMO Financial Group.