Louisiana Hosts Rehabilitation Services Job Fair for Disabled Citizens

On Thursday, October 4, Louisiana Rehabilitation Services hosted a job fair for people with disabilities. The main goal was to help these people obtain jobs where they would be able to work and still have an equal chance of being employed.

The job fair was held in the Buccaneer Room of the Lake Charles Civic Center. Unfortunately, nothing was well marked. In fact, if you did not seen an ad or know anything about the Civic Center, it is most likely that you never would have found the job fair.

The Buccaneer Room is located on the second floor of the Civic Center and the only way to tell where it was once on the second floor was that there was a table set up outside the doors to welcome people to the job fair. After that, the job fair was not much.

There were tables set up around the room. Most of these tables had a company set up at them. Sometimes the company had business cards and employment applications. The companies that were at the job fair included Jeff Davis Bank, Calcasieu Parish Police Jury, Goodwill, Christus St. Patrick Hospital, L'auberge du Lac Casino, and First Federal Bank of Louisiana. Noticeably missing was Stine Lumber. There was a table marked for the company, but nothing was there.

There was also a representative from McNeese State University who specializes in helping people start small businesses. A few of the visitors talked to her, but she usually just referred them back to Louisiana Rehabilitation Services.

Before visitors left, they were asked to fill out a survey. The "how did you hear about the job fair" section was complete with an "other" option. However, the "How did you do today?" section had only four choices: "I got a follow up appointment.", "I got an interview.", "I got a job.", "I had no luck today." Most of the visitors marked "I had no luck today." There was not a single space for "other." Parents could not write that they were there with children. Teachers of special education classes could not write, "I took my class here today."

However, they did ask everybody to fill out an exit survey and to write names, addresses, and phone numbers as there were door prizes to be given.