Our commitment to serve the City of Baltimore’s citizens and stimulate the City’s economic growth ignited our imaginations --Big Challenges Require Big Ideas. We asked ourselves: What can we do, as a City, to aid thousands of unemployed residents in securing employment opportunities? What can we do to assist in closing skill gaps? What can we do to assist organizations headquartered or operating in our City find applicants with the skills and qualifications they need within our City?  Our answer, orchestrate an exceptional opportunity that will bring together a cross-section of stakeholders in the same place, at the same time to receive or provide employment opportunities and job readiness and resource assistance. Our outcome: the conceptualization of WorkBaltimore: Empowerment to Employment Convention!

Our Ultimate Goal:

WorkBaltimore:  Empowerment to Employment Convention is a City-Wide Employment and Job Readiness Convention designed to connect current Baltimore City residents with employment opportunities, within Baltimore City.  The Convention will facilitate the connection between active, passive, and exploratory job seekers and Baltimore City employers; provide job seekers with job readiness workshops, seminars and webinars to assist them with effectively preparing for seeking, securing and retaining employment; and provide employers with a viable pool of qualified applications who are poised to meet their current and future business demands.

Our Program Elements Defined:

• WorkBaltimore:  Empowerment to Employment Convention will feature an array of job-readiness workshops, seminars, and webinars throughout the month of September, 2017 designed to attract participation from the full spectrum of job-seekers including the under-skilled, early career, mid-level, and highly-skilled.  It is intended to prepare and connect current Baltimore City residents with employment opportunities.

Pre-convention and concurrent convention workshops, seminars, webinars and job readiness assistance and  resources which will include resume preparation/critique; interviewing skills; career transition; recovering from involuntary employment separation; re-entering the workforce; addressing employment gaps; applying for positions; professional conduct; customer service, effective communication; problem solving and critical thinking; non degreed job opportunities; and other applicable resources.

• Connect Baltimore City Residents with a high volume of local and diverse employers across multiple industries.

From nationally ranked medical facilities and institutions of higher learning to hospitality and athletic apparel manufacturing, as well as national retailers, Baltimore City is the home to a broad variety of employers. The WorkBaltimore: Empowerment to Employment Convention will provide our City employers with an opportunity to recruit and hire from the local talent pool.