In a former computer lab on the third floor of the Evanston Public Library, a volunteer glances over a newly-finished résumé. He checks the number of workers its author once employed – was it two or four? “Don’t say ‘cab driver,’ say ‘transportation supervisor,'” he advises.
For the past three weeks, the Evanston branch of job service organization Illinois workNet has offered career coaching, résumé editing and computer literacy training from the library, 1703 Orrington Ave. It celebrated its new location at the library June 23 with an open house attended by Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl and Illinois state Sen. Jeff Schoenberg.
The partnership between Illinois workNet and the library arose unexpectedly, said Beverly Lindsey, the resource center coordinator for Illinois workNet in Evanston. Her office’s 20-year cohabitation with the Illinois Department of Employment Security came to an abrupt end in December when IDES announced it would close its Evanston location. Illinois workNet was left scrambling to find a new location.
“We weren’t aware that this would actually happen,” Lindsey said.
But the move has been “a blessing in disguise,” Lindsay said. The library provides resources Illinois workNet did not previously have, including books directed toward job seekers in specific fields such as health care.
The large number of computers available at the library also makes it an ideal place for a career center, said LIFT-Evanston site coordinator Allison Rosen, whose organization helps low-income families with employment, housing, public benefits and tax credits.
After learning the IDES office in Evanston would close, Illinois workNet held monthly meetings with partner groups including LIFT to determine how it could keep serving the community. Rosen said she attended the meetings and encouraged Illinois workNet to find a site where it could offer computer lessons.
In response to input from Rosen and others, the Illinois workNet center is offering basic computer and Internet classes on Friday mornings, Lindsey said.
From the library’s perspective, the career center is an opportunity to expand its interactions with Evanston residents, said Susan Newman, vice president of the library’s board of trustees. The space it now occupies was previously underused, she said.
“I think it’s an incredible partnership that sets the stage for the library working with the Evanston community as a whole,” Newman said.
Now that Illinois workNet has moved into the former computer lab, it averages about 100 visitors a week, and advertising via social media has helped increase that number, Lindsey said. With only one helper consistently volunteering on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons, the workload is hefty, she said.
But Lindsey is confident the number of both volunteers and visitors will continue to rise, she said.
“The word is getting out that we are here,” she said. “We can only grow.”
