Charm City Live festival combines food, fun, and employment opportunities
BALTIMORE – Charm City Live Festival will unfold for the first time at the Lawn at War Memorial Plaza in front of Baltimore City Hall Saturday.
The event will bring art, entertainment and local cuisine to one place. Plus, it provides people with an opportunity to job hunt or look into an apprenticeship.
"What we're doing is hoping to think outside the box about how we recruit and how we reach those historically underserved communities in our city," City of Baltimore Director of Human Resources Quinton Herbert said.
There are vacancies across the board, including jobs for people who hold commercial driver's licenses, nurses, and water treatment facility workers, Herbert said.
"We have just over 14,000 positions and we have a little over 2,800 vacancy rate is tracking right now at about 20 percent," he said.
The city's goal is to have the vacancy rate below 10 percent.
"We're even going to have our background check vendor to do some live scans for fingerprints on site for those candidates who have the skill, expertise and background for some of these vacancies," Herbert said. "So, we're trying to do everything that we can to reduce the time in the pipeline to get people into employment."
People who intend to apply for a job should bring their identification with them, Herbert said. They should bring a paper or electronic copy of their resume too, he said.
"Whenever there's an event that has food and entertainment, people will show up. It's an added bonus if there's also opportunities and resources made available. We don't always see those paired together," Baltimore resident Mia Campbell said.
WJZ is the proud media sponsor of Charm City Live.
You can check out the event from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday
For a look at current openings through the City of Baltimore, click here.
