Bellevue Career Fair 3/4 and Hiring Our Heroes Job Fair 3/5

If you or someone you know are looking for work. I want to let you know about two job fairs next week. The Bellevue Career Fair on Monday the 4th and the Hiring Our Heroes veterans job fair on Tuesday the 5th.

The Bellevue Career Fair is next Monday March 4th from 11:00a.m. to 2:00p.m. at the Red Lion Hotel Bellevue. Meet face to face with top local employers. This event will showcase companies hiring in the following industries:

Accounting/Auditing, Administrative and Support Services, Advertising/Marketing/Public Relations, Banking, Consumer Products, Customer Service and Call Center, Finance, Financial Services, Hospitality/Tourism, Insurance, Real Estate, Restaurant and Food Service, Retail/Wholesale, Sales and Many More...

That’s the Bellevue Career Fair next Monday the 4th at Red Lion Hotel Bellevue at 11211 Main St., Bellevue, WA 98004.

They recommend you pre-register at nationalcareerfairs.com/Bellevue to ensure that your resume is included in the database provided to recruiters after the event, too see the Full list of companies that will be hiring at the career fair, to get a Career fair guide to print out and bring to the event, and for reminders and tips to help you succeed at the career fair. For questions call 702-614-9537.

The Hiring our Heroes Career Fair is for veterans, active duty military members, guard and reserve members, and military spouses. On Tuesday March 5th At Bell Harbor International Conference Center in Seattle from 9 to noon. They recommend Pre-Registration to allow employers to view your resume in advance of the fair at hoh.greatjob.net. Walk-ins welcome but space not guaranteed.

Also, Hiring Our Heroes has launched an online partnership with Military.com to compliment their face to face hiring fair efforts across the country. Veterans can get help writing resumes and interview tips; translating military skills, experience, and training into related civilian careers; and finding current lists of employment opportunities with military-friendly employers. Go to military.com/hiringourheroes to get the tools you need to find your next career.
That’s the Hiring our Heroes Career Fair next Tuesday March 5th, 9:00a.m.-12:00p.m. at Bell Harbor International Conference Center at 2211 Alaskan Way, Seattle, 98121. If you need assistance registering, please email hiringourheroes@uschamber.com or call 888-772-4422.

America Saves Week

This week, February 25th-March 2nd, is America Saves week, so we thought we'd let you know about opportunities to save, like saving bonds.

America Saves is a national campaign involving more than 1,000 non-profit, government, and corporate groups that encourages individuals and families to save money and build personal wealth. The theme of America Saves Week 2013 is “Set a Goal. Make a Plan. Save Automatically.” America Saves Week is coordinated by America Saves and the American Savings Education Council. Started in 2007, the Week is an annual opportunity for organizations to promote good savings behavior and a chance for individuals to assess their own saving status. America saves week is a great time to explore opportunities to save such as saving for emergencies, paying off high interest debt, trimming your expenses, saving automatically, saving for retirement, or saving for a large purchase.

Here are 10 Ways to Save $100 This Week.

If you are receiving a refund from your 2012 taxes, did you know you could use part of your refund for a savings bond, even if you don't have a bank account? Savings bonds are an investment. They are low-risk bonds that grow in value for up to 30 years. While you own them they earn interest and protect you from inflation. If you are having your taxes done at any of the free tax sites across the country ask a tax preparer about savings bonds and they can help you purchase one with a portion of your refund.

Are you ready to set your savings goal and make a plan to achieve it? Take the America Saves Pledge today!

You might want to check out the America Save’s website and see other ideas for saving, including information on credit card debt and avoiding payday loans. Visit americasavesweek.org.

Thanks and take good care.

Youth Education, Career & Resource Fair - Fri 2/15

If you, your children, or someone you know are a youth between, ages 14 and 21 and live in Seattle, I want to let you know about the annual Youth Education, Career & Resource Fair this Friday, February 15th from 10 to 2 at the Rainier Community Center.

The Youth Education, Career & Resource Fair will feature workshops, hands-on learning experiences, and lunch will be provided. This is also a great opportunity for youth to connect with employers, college reps, and other community resources. The fair will feature over 60 vendors (including Community Voice Mail) and workshops that focus on resume writing, interviewing, and applying for schools and employment.

This year, many of the vendors will have hands-on/interactive displays to engage and encourage youth. Including: 
-A real airplane/jet engine brought by Boeing
-YouthCare’s YouthTech program will provide technology that participants can experience for themselves
-The Discovery Corps at the Pacific Science Center will be bringing real live Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches
All vendors will also have information about their programs and industries.

The fair is sponsored by Seattle Youth Employment Consortium (SYEC), Seattle Human Services Department's Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP) and Upward Bound program, Seattle Parks and Recreation, Sea Mar Community Health Centers, MetroCenter YMCA, and YouthCare.

The Schedule is:
9:45am-12:00pm: Youth orientations, every 20 minutes (encouraged for ALL participants to attend)
10:30am-11:30am: Morning workshops (60 second commercial, Seattle Education Access on college planning)
11:30 – 12pm: the main gym will be closed for vendors to eat lunch
11:30am – 12:30pm: Lunch for youth (Vietnamese sandwiches, chips, and a drink)
12:30pm – 1:30pm: Afternoon workshops
On-going until 1:30ish: Resume writing

There will be an on-going raffle as youth turn in their fair passports. Prizes include an iPod Shuffle, 2 $25 gift cards to Target, tickets to The Music Man, and others!

That’s the Youth Education, Career and Resource Fair, this Friday, February 15th, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Rainier Community Center, at 4600 38th Ave. S. in Seattle.

For more information contact the Seattle Youth Employment Program at 684-0293 or email tina.inay@seattle.gov.

Navos Health Fair 2/13

If you or someone you know want free health services and information, I want to let you know about the Navos Health Fair, Wednesday February 13th from 10am-2pm at Navos Center in Burien.

Join the fun at The Navos Annual Health Fair. There will be presentations, information booths, healthy freebies and a healthy lunch! There will be free screenings for hepatitis, hearing, body composition, blood pressure, HIV tests, a mammography van and more! There will be representatives from DSHS, Public Health, Genoa Pharmacy and information about housing assistance, legal help, diabetes, smoking cessation, hygiene station, healthy meals, and book signing by local authors. Plus guest speaker Bob Rivers from the Bob Rivers show on 95.7 KJR will be sharing his personal journey of recovery. The schedule is as follows:

10:00 - 2:00 Free Hepatitis Screening
11:30 - 12:00 Cooking Demonstration
12:30 - 2:00 Free Hearing Tests
9:00 - 5:00 Mammography Van (call for appointment 206-257-6600)

There were also be the following presentations:

10:30 - 11 Getting the Most from Your Meds
11 – 11:30 Diabetes Prevention & Treatment
11:30 – 12 Healthy Cooking on a Budget & Cooking Demonstration
12 – 12:30 What Medication Can and Cannot Do for You
12:30 – 1:30 Lunch and Featured Presentation: My Twisted Road to Recovery
1:30 – 2 We did it—so can you! A Panel of Navos Peer Support Specialists Share Their Stories

That’s the Navos Health Fair, Wednesday February 13th 10am-2pm at Navos Community Center, Revelle Hall, at 1210 SW 136th Street, Burien. Metro bus routes 120 and 560.

For more information please call 206-257-6600. You may learn more about Navos at navos.org.

Stay Healthy!

Seattle Housing Authority Section 8 Wait List Lottery NOW OPEN & Notification of Scam Sites

Hi, if you or someone you know need subsidized housing: Seattle Housing Authority has opened a new waitlist this week through February 22nd for the Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) Program using a lottery system with registration available online-only.

Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) has just issued an alert about two websites phishing for personal and financial information from people interested in signing up for the Section 8 Waitlist Lottery. See notification from SHA below:

Notification of Section 8 Scam Sites

We were alerted early this morning about two websites that are phishing for personal and financial information from people who are interested in signing up for our Section 8 Waitlist Lottery. We wanted to let you know what to look out for on your clients' behalf and what steps we are taking to stop these sites from targeting low-income individuals in our community.

Two sites — housing-voucher.com and housingvoucher.org — have purchased Google ad keywords in order to display their sites directly above ours in search results. These are the two sites we know of, but there may be others. The sites claim to be a proxy for regional housing authorities and indicate that people can apply for Section 8 housing through their website. They then take financial advantage by convincing households that they need to pay for a credit report through their site in order to apply for housing assistance. They also offer high-interest loans for those in desperate financial situations.

In this screenshot, you can see how easy it would be to believe the first link is a legitimate way to apply for Section 8 vouchers:

How people find the scam websites:

We have already taken action to start getting these sites removed. The sites have been reported to Google and we are in the process of reporting this to the appropriate federal agencies to get the sites taken down for good.

Despite the attempts of these corrupt sites, we have had a very successful first two days of registration with over 9,500 households already registered.

If you have any questions about this or information you would like to provide to help us stop these scams, please contact Nancie White at NWhite@seattlehousing.org, her office phone at (206) 239-1523 or her mobile number at (206) 399-1642.

The correct website to register for the Seattle Housing Authority Section 8 Waitlist is seattlehousing.org/waitlist.

Here is some more information about registering for the Seattle Section 8 Lottery:

• Section 8 vouchers allow participating tenants to choose and rent units from private landlords. The Housing Authority pays a fixed amount of the rent to the owner each month, and the tenant pays the difference between this subsidy and the total rent, in addition to any utilities not included in the rent. In general, tenants pay between 30 and 40 percent of their monthly income for rent & utilities.

• Registration opened on Monday February 4th and will remain open (for two and half more weeks) until Friday February 22nd at 5 p.m. and a lottery will be held to determine who is placed on this new waitlist. 

• The registration period will not close early; it will remain open through February 22nd at 5 pm. There is no limit to the number of registrations that will be accepted. After the registration period closes on February 22nd, 2000 households will be selected by random drawing to receive spots on the new waitlist.

• Everyone who registers for the lottery will receive a letter by March 31st to notify them whether they have been selected in the lottery or not.

• Only one person per household may register. Households may only register once.

• Registering for the lottery, does NOT mean you are applying for housing.

• This is not a first-come, first-served process, so there is no need to rush to register. But don’t leave registration until the last minute in case you experience technical difficulties.

• The registration form asks you to provide the name, birthdate, social security number, race and gender of all members of your household. Since it is not possible to save an unfinished registration, it is best to have this information on-hand before beginning registration.

• A link to the online-only registration form is now available on seattlehousing.org/waitlist

• To access the most up-to-date information about this lottery and the waitlist process, visit their website at www.seattlehousing.org/waitlist and check back for updates. You can also call the waitlist hotline at (206) 239-1674. For technical problems with registration, call the waitlist hotline at (206) 239-1674 for help or submit an email using their contact form at www.seattlehousing.org/waitlist. If you do not have access to a computer, call the waitlist hotline at (206) 239-1674 for a list of locations that can serve you. Good luck!

• If you do not have access to a computer, call the waitlist hotline at (206) 239-1674 for a list of locations that can serve you, or visit one of their Computer Access Points.

• For a preview of the registration process, watch an online video tutorial. Spread the word, by posting a Section 8 Waitlist Lottery flyer (more flyers available in multiple languages at seattlehousing.org/waitlist).

For a preview of the registration process, watch an online video tutorial. Spread the word, by posting a Section 8 Waitlist Lottery flyer (more flyers available in multiple languages at seattlehousing.org/waitlist).

Good luck!