“What the community was telling us is that they want opportunities to work, they want opportunities for higher wages, they want education opportunities, so I think that’s where we had a direct connection to the Spanish-speaking community in Evanston.” said Rebeca Mendoza, executive director of Evanston Latinos, and Director of Community Engagement at the @evanstonecc. An EECC Job fair took place on October 5th in collaboration with partners to offer opportunities for the cohort members to apply their skills and secure interviews with some of Evanston’s Early Childhood Centers, hopefully leading to some fantastic new hires.

 All16 pilot cohort members not only graduated from the Oakton College gateway level one course, but had successful follow up interviews with our partnering Early Childhood Center at the Job Fair. With a successful pilot, we plan to expand this program, and create other cohorts in partnership with students from Evanston Township High school, Second Baptist Church and others to encourage new and aspiring Early Childhood Educators to be enrolled in the Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity (ECACE) Scholarship Program, and gain the credentials for immediate hiring opportunities!