By Garth Webster
Creative Services-Kalihwisaks
The Bay Area Employment & Resource Fair was held Tuesday, April 11, 2023 at the Resch Expo on Armed Forces Drive in Green Bay was a culmination of the strategic partnership Oneida recently formed with the Brown County Job Center.
The free event, hosted by the Oneida Nation, was put together by the Oneida Economic Support Department, led by Director Delia Smith and her colleague, Sean Powless, who works as a Job Counselor in Oneida’s Economic Work-force Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Program.
Smith mentions she and Powless were able to utilize funds provided by the WIOA, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) programs as well as the Oneida Veterans Department. Smith mentions that her team partnered with Josh Bahr of the Department of Workforce Development and the Brown County Job Center to coordinate the event, “Josh has been our go-to because of his extensive experience with event-coordinating job fairs.”
The job fair featured over 100 participating employers doing on-site interviews along with 30 local community resource organizations. Although it was very hectic putting the event together, Smith says, “This is a dream-come-true for us. We’re both super-new at it. We’ve learned a lot and had to be patient. We were also fortunate enough to have the right people in the right places, such as our Intake-Coordinator, Kimberly Ninham who has done a lot of leg work to make sure everything was organized.”
All the Economic Support/Community Education Center employees and our leadership have been integral in making this event possible. In addition to the sup-port staff, Powless emphasized that Smith’s leadership was critical in making this event a reality, “Delia is the type of leader who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”
Smith also mentioned that another strategic initiative to their efforts was prioritizing veterans and thus, a large contingency of Indigenous veterans were present, a population not often served by these types of initiatives. Furthermore, Smith wanted to commend Kerry Metoxen of Oneida Veteran Affairs for helping them market the event.
Smith describes the event as not just a job fair, but a way to help individuals better themselves with either newfound employment or connecting them with community resources. Both Smith and Powless are optimistic that this year’s event will serve as foundation and model to hold a yearly event.
