NEW YORK—A line of hundreds curled around the James Weldon Johnson Community Center Wednesday morning. An unusual hush pervaded the neatly dressed crowd as they waited in line to enter the Jobs & Careers Fair in East Harlem.
The line spanned three blocks by 9:30 a.m.; the job fair did not begin until 10 a.m. As the morning wore on, more joined; and the line kept being replenished right through noon.
“There’s all this nonsense that blacks and Latinos don’t want to work,” said Lewis Zuchman, executive director of the Supportive Children’s Advocacy Network (SCAN). “It’s sad to see how many people here want work. These are clean-cut, well-dressed people.”
SCAN is a nonprofit that provides for struggling children and families in East Harlem and South Bronx. Working with the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce, and with the sponsorship of Assemblyman Keith Wright, Wednesday marked the first of SCAN’s quarterly job fairs.
The organization used to hold one job fair a year in Harlem. “It was a hit and miss,” Zuchman recalled. “We wanted to do something to address the unemployment in the community in a holistic way.”
Hence, the commitment to hold job fairs every three months in the agency’s four community centers in East Harlem.
Roughly 17 percent of East Harlem’s adult population is unemployed, higher than the citywide rate of 10 percent. About 38 percent of East Harlem residents’ income is below the poverty line, according to AmeriCorps.
Job Seeking
