Monthly Archives: June 2017

Second Chance Job Fair

Employment, , ,

Triton College recently put together its Second Chance Job Fair that was attended by 70 employers and 150 applicants.  The aim of this event was to literally, give people a second chance in building a solid future for themselves.  The reason the college hosted the job fair, was, according to Director of Career Services at Triton Rich Williams, because they “saw a real need for this type of job fair. There are a lot of people who are facing some tough barriers in terms of finding employment. At the same time, there are a lot of employers who want to help. We’re linking the two.”

This kind of fair is so important given the current economic climate.  Very few people are able to get a second chance; but this is the perfect opportunity for it.  And it’s great for employees as PeopleReady employment agency rep Diego Irizarry said that they are often looking for “diverse candidates to meet the staffing needs of local businesses.”

This represents a real networking opportunity for the community and the college, filling a gap that is often remained empty.   And Triton College is perfect as it understands how important it is to connect jobs/careers with education.  And some jobs are even designed for such “second chance employees.”

So take a leaf out of Chicago’s book and start training those who need it and for those companies, find those seeking employment who really want to work and keep getting pushed back.

Taste of Chicago

Restaurants, ,

From July 5 to 9, Taste of Chicago (featuring 67 local food vendors) will take place at Grant Park.  While this is 2 less of the 2016 event, there are various new vendors including: Lawrence’s Fish & Shrimp and El Patron.

This year – for the first time – Taste of Chicago is collaborating with Humana (an insurance company).  The main goal of this partnership is to be able to provide vendors with the option of offering healthier foods, as opposed to the traditional heavy-calorific items.

This year there are six new food trucks at the festival also which is somewhat political since many owners of these trucks have taken up issue with the restaurant association and the city authorities feeling that they are being forced out of Chicago.

Advancing Affordable Housing in Chicago

Infrastructure, ,

Earlier this month there was significant advancement in the plan to develop affordable housing units in the same building as Chicago’s public libraries with the Mayor’s announcement as to which architects and developers won the bid for the project.  The Irving Park, Little Italy and West Rogers Park facilities will all have access to ground floor libraries which will give community members and tenants services such as: early childhood learning programs, homework assistance, and teen digital tools among others.

The project first began in October of last year. A collaborative effort was developed by the Chicago Housing Authority in conjunction with the Chicago Public Library.  The designs will – according to a statement – “break from the standard, cookie-cutter designs that are common to government buildings.”

In a report put out by the National Low Income Housing Coalition earlier this year Chicago was ranked at Number 37 for affordable housing availability.  Hopefully it’ll go up on the list with these upcoming projects.

Business Expansions in Chicago

Employment, ,

There have been various movements with expansions, buyouts, M&As, etc. in the last few weeks in Chicago. Here we take a brief look at three of them: Trustwave, Amita Health and Periscope.

Trustwave – the firm that works in the cybersecurity industry – is about to hire around 100 new people for its Chicago office. In addition, an announcement was made about the upcoming internship program being developed alongside the City Colleges of Chicago. And this is just the start; by the end of 2017 Robert McCullen, company CEO anticipates a further 300 people to join the company headquarters in Chicago once construction is finished and the space is ready for this expansion. With around 400 employees in Chicago currently (and 1,700 globally) this is really a doubling of Chicago staff members.

Amita Health – Chicago’s third largest hospital system – is interested in putting up two medical office buildings (with a joint $55.3 million price tag) right near rival ones. This is at the same time that hospital systems throughout America are seeking to bolster the way they attract additional patients. One of the new facilities will be in Bartlett and the other in Woodridge and they would be the largest of the company’s nine hospitals.

And then there is Periscope – based in Minneapolis – is expanding to Chicago. One of America’s five biggest independent creative networks purchased Anthem Marketing Solutions, the Chicago-headquartered analytics and strategy firm. Anthem has been in the business for two decades already and focuses on both (diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive) analytics and (database marketing and consumer journey) mapping services. This new office in Chicago will become the fifth for Periscope. As company CEO Elizabeth Ross explained the company really is hoping to “help [its] clients spend less on paid media and the best way to do that is to expand analytics and prove you can deliver results through channels and methods that are less reliant on [traditional ad buys].”