The 17th Annual MLK Day of Service, Monday January 16, will feature more than just volunteer service projects. For the first time, an on-site and Internet-based job fair will be included in an effort to empower Philadelphia residents economically.  Global Citizen is sponsoring a registration-required job fair at Girard College, located at 21st St. and Girard Avenue. On-site registration has now closed. For those who did not register, KEYSPOT Powered by Freedom Rings Partnership will be hosting a digital job fair at the same site. 

Nearly 20 employers – including Target Corp., Comcast Corp., Home Depot Inc., and Brown’s Shoprite – will recruit for positions on-site in Founders Hall from 9 am to 1 pm.  KEYSPOT will set up a digital job fair, with computer and Internet access – in the Library building, immediately adjacent to Founders Hall, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.  An additional KEYSPOT digital job fair site will be hosted by People’s Emergency Center at the Families First building, 3939 Warren St., from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. 

At the KEYSPOT locations, residents will be able to create an email address, access an online resume builder, and search for jobs on the websites of the employers participating in the on-site job fair. The public can learn more at www.phillykeyspots.org.

Launched at last year’s MLK Day of Service, Freedom Rings Partnership recently re-branded to become KEYSPOT Powered by Freedom Rings Partnership, a citywide initiative to bring Internet access, training, and technology to all Philadelphia communities.  KEYSPOT is a citywide collaboration of civic, community, and nonprofit organizations including Drexel University, Urban Affairs Coalition, and the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Innovation and Technology.  More than 41 percent of Philadelphians are without Internet or computer access, impeding access to job opportunities, health care and education information, and government and social services.  The Freedom Rings Partnership will establish 77 public computer centers – or KEYSPOTS – citywide to address this need.

The Freedom Rings Partnership is funded by a two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program under the Federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.