News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Van Buren and Fentress Counties are both set to host employment and education resource fairs within the next week.
Sky Arnold is the Press Secretary for the State Department of Human Services. He says the resource fairs could lead to opportunities for those struggling to find employment.
“Really the main reason that we’re focusing on these specific counties… is we’ve done some research and we’ve looked at evaluating a variety of things,” Arnold says. “We’re evaluating criteria like unemployment rates, poverty rates, per capita income… we’ve looked at a variety of factors like that and we really feel like counties like Fentress and Van Buren are areas where our resource fairs could have a positive impact.”
Arnold says the resource fair is similar yet different from a typical job fair, providing somewhat different opportunities to visitors.
“We add an educational component to it,” Arnold says. “We invite representatives from universities and various training programs across the state who might be offering some type of training program in that community to take part in the fair as well. We believe it’s not just important to connect people to jobs. Sometimes it’s also important to also connect people to educational and training opportunities that might help them get a job that they really want down the line.”
Arnold says the Fentress County Resource Fair will be the first for the community, while Van Buren representatives have participated in others within neighboring communities in the past.
Van Buren County will host their resource fair tomorrow at the Van Buren Public Library in Spencer. The resource fair begins at 10 a.m. and lasts through 2 p.m. Fentress County will host theirs on Jan. 22 at the Jamestown Community Center.
