St. Albert agencies dedicated to matching people with disabilities with employment have bucked a national trend by either finding them suitable work or creating it.
Statistics Canada recently released a study with data from the Canadian Survey on Disability showing that in 2011, the employment rate of Canadians aged 25 to 64 with disabilities was 49 per cent. For Canadians without a disability, the employment rate was 79 per cent.
Disabilities include those with a physical or mental disability related to seeing, hearing, mobility, flexibility, dexterity, pain, learning, development, psychological/mental disorders or memory.
Employment rates were highest among those with a mild disability (68 per cent), compared with a moderate disability (54 per cent), severe disability (42 per cent) or very severe disability (26 per cent).
The study found that university graduates with a mild or moderate disability had employment rates similar to their non-disabled counterparts.
Many factors play into the challenges of employing a person with disabilities, explains Paul Fujishige, executive director of Transitions.
Taking into account the severity of the disability, employee skill level, education, behaviour issues, availability and what the employer needs – it can take time to find the right match.
"You would like to have it fit exactly right, where the hours and work are exactly what the person wants to do and what the employer needs," he says.
Transitions has matched the people it supports with jobs or volunteer positions at 49 businesses in St. Albert and the surrounding area. All employees earn at least minimum wage.
St. Albert solutions
Of those with disabilities eligible for employment in St. Albert, 77 per cent of people at Transitions are employed, while more than 90 per cent of those at Lo-Se-Ca Foundation are.
One reason Lo-Se-Ca has been so successful matching the people it supports with jobs is due to the creation of its own small businesses.
With an influx of younger men and women in the last year, it became obvious what needed to happen, says Marie Renaud, executive director of Lo-Se-Ca.
"We needed to find them a job where they could burn off some steam and develop some skills … and since we've had to contract out handyman services, snow removal and landscaping – where the cost and the quality wasn't great – I thought we could do a better job." From there, Lo-Se-Ca created the Four Seasons Yard Care business last December, a pizza truck in the spring and most recently the day home group, Little Lo-Se-Ca.
The organization can also use support staff more efficiently with the creation of its own small businesses.
Fourteen people working at different jobs would require at least 10 support staff, compared to two staff supervising two crews of people doing snow removal, explains Renaud.
By working with other agencies, Lo-Se-Ca has also been able to open jobs for people who are traditionally harder to place or marked as 'unemployable' (due to behaviour issues), she adds.
Discrimination
Albertans with disabilities have a 15 per cent lower workforce participation rate than average, states the Alberta Employment First Strategy, a provincial framework and grant program created this spring to encourage supportive work environments and inclusive hiring.
Transportation and public perceptions are challenges people with disabilities face.
Among Canadians with disabilities who were employed at some point in the five previous years, 12 per cent reported having been refused a job as a result of their condition, states Statistics Canada.
Perceptions of discrimination were higher among younger individuals with disabilities, especially if they had a severe or very severe disability.
There have been issues with discrimination by employers in St. Albert, says Renaud, but overall the experience with workplaces has been positive. However often times those working in sales are the first to be let go or have their hours cut after the holiday rush.
The Statistics Canada study also found that significant income disparity was evident between employees with disabilities compared to their non-disabled counterparts.
Some employers are hesitant to employ people with disabilities because of the workplace accommodations that need to be made as well as the associated cost, say both Renaud and Fujishige.
