DEARBORN — The official start time for the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services’ job fair was 9 a.m., but that didn’t stop eager job-seekers from lining up as early as 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

Job seekers engage employers and fill out forms at an ACCESS job fair in Dearborn on Wednesday.

ACCESS Operations Manager Najwa Hadous said that the fair was the biggest turnout they’ve seen, but local employers came ready to hire as 40 companies came looking to fill positions.
“Even in this depressed economy, we were surprised to see so many companies and all of them were hiring,” said Hadous.

“Our mission is to make possibilities happen for the community.”

ACCESS holds three job fairs each year with the next one coming in July. Hadous also was quick to remind people about the various programs ACCESS has available to assist people in their searches for jobs.

The No Worker Left Behind program allows people who qualify (usually from lower income brackets) the chance to get up to $5,000 a year to go to college. English as a Second Language programs are also popular.

Another large need has also arisen in the community as an increase in refugees from the Middle East to metro Detroit has taken place.

Kamal Kareem is one such refugee ACCESS has helped in his search for work. Kareem is an electrical engineer who moved from Iraq to Jordan before coming to America. He also plays the saxophone as well as the organ, flute, and piano, playing both English and Arabic oldies songs among other more modern tunes. Kareem performed at the job fair along with his partner Basil Ahmed, delighting lines of people entering the job fair, including a large contingent who had to wait in the rain.

Kareem hasn’t worked for the last year since coming to Dearborn with his wife and two kids but ACCESS has encouraged him in his music career and given him some leads for gigs. Kareem passed out business cards at the job fair and plans to make a CD while also exploring engineering possibilities with the help of ACCESS. His engineering credentials have to be translated before he can look for work in that area but ACCESS has encouraged him not to give up on his dream of playing music.

“Our goal is to help incoming people find jobs,” said AbdilKhalik Thabit, the refugee case manager for ACCESS.

“We are getting doctors, actors, engineers, these are gifted people and it’s up to us to help them find work.”

ACCESS expects between 10,000 and 15,000 new refugees from the Middle East to enter America until 2010, after gauging the number from the beginning of 2008.

Adding them to the current unemployed worker pool shifts the burden further to community organizations like ACCESS.

But while jobs are hard to come by, ACCESS staff knows that finding the right fit for each person and being resourceful are two big keys to keeping communities strong in the face of the current recession.

Go to www.accesscommunity.org or call 313.945.8380 for more information about career assistance.