Santa Clarita Veteran Services Collaborative hosted its inaugural free veterans’ job fair at College of the Canyons on Friday.
Attendees had the opportunity to connect with local companies looking to hire veterans, additional resources available to them, and government representatives.
“We’re trying to get the community closer in touch with the veteran community. They have a lot of job fairs around here, but we wanted one specifically for veterans and their families,” said Jeffrey Stabile, director of business development for Santa Clarita Veteran Services Collaborative. Stabile is also a veteran who served with the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War era.
Santa Clarita Veteran Services Collaborative partnered with the COC Veterans Resource Center and Curtiss Wright Corp. to make the fair possible. It took a total of two years to reach out to local companies interested in hiring veterans, scouting locations, and seeking donors.
“We have a lot of veterans in our company. We have a lot of just regular everyday people,” said Curtiss Wright Corp. representative Irene Maldonado. “There’s a lot of veterans and their families that are in need … and we wanted to help.”
“COC has been just … very supportive, helpful and everything,” Stabile said. “A great group of volunteers at COC from Curtiss Wright and from the collaborative put together, it’s just a fulfillment of something that we wanted to try and start years ago.”
Organizers of the event hope that this is the first veterans job fair of many, with hopes to host one every year if possible.
“It’s the first one… so hopefully we can continue. I would love to do this annually. It’d be great to do,” said Jaime Brumfield, human resource manager at Curtiss Wright.
There were a total of 45 tables representing different companies and organizations filling up the COC East Gymnasium for attendees to network with.
