The Region of Waterloo has expanded on the aid it offers jobseekers by reaching out to rural communities through a new website.
“The Region of Waterloo has created a website that will assist our people seeking employment. It will assist by making it a lot easier to find various websites that will be useful for them in locating jobs,” said Woolwich Community Services (WCS) executive director Don Harloff.
The region had similar programs installed in Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge for quite some time, according to Harloff, but now it hopes to bridge the unemployment gap by reaching out to the townships as well.
The region’s employment services department has created this website with links to other useful job searching websites. The site consists of a desktop link to a one-stop-shop of various useful websites. It will also feature helpful tips for the development of résumés and cover letters.
“This website is really quite effective in that it is able to provide links to lots of different websites, not just the normal ones like Workopolis and the ones that you might think of, but also websites that may be a little unusual for people. Hopefully from that they’ll be able to find jobs that they may not normally find,” he added.
The site is not something residents can access at home. Instead it can be viewed through organizations such as WCS in Elmira where jobseekers can come in to use the digital resources available to search for positions, revamp their résumés and get information on apprenticeships.
Implementing the program in Woolwich is the first step of the outreach plan for the region. Eventually, Wellesley and New Hamburg will also be offering the same services through the program, Harloff stated.
The project is geared towards providing unemployment services across the region. Region of Waterloo representative Chris McEvoy said the efforts are not due to unemployment rates. In fact, unemployment rates in the region have decreases, according to October statistics, he said.
The outreach is an effort to enhance services that are already in place in rural communities and the WCS pilot project is going strong.
“We are currently working with sights in Wilmot and North Dumfries – it’s is the plan to go out to most if not all of the townships,” McEvoy said.
The Wellesley Community Health Centre will also be a receiving the service after it becomes established at the Wilmot Family Resource Centre and the New Dundee Community Centre.
