I called them and asked them what they did - well they give you information on how to find a job, and who to call. They dont ACTUALLY help you find a job. (ok so whats the point?)

Then I asked "how many disabled people do you actually have working in your agency? The answer -none. So I asked "If your mandate is to help disabled people become employed why dont you employ qualified albeit disabled persons yourself?" The answer "Good question, I dont know why .."

So there it is in a nut shell, even agencies who allegedly assist the disabled become employed dont hire disabled people.

Nice huh? And THIS is what our tax dollars are going towards?

However she had this cheery note to add, that the govt is throwing big money into basic education of the disabled "to assist them in becoming employable" - and what does that consist of? Upgrading to grade 12. So the assumption is that disabled people are under-educated - read "ignorant". I asked her and what programs are there for disabled people with university degrees, years of experience in say management who become disabled after they have all that?

Her answer, again, "Good question I dont know."

I am GLAD the government is putting my tax dollars to good use in assisting "disabled" people, or should I qualify that to read "uneducated disabled people"? (why is this assumption always made?)

There is always that assumption that we lack basic education, or skills, or basic requirements and these are the barriers to employment, not the disability. or that our lack of education somehow resulted in us being disabled ?

I really want someone to explain that logic to me.

Most of the agencies do work around helping you fix up your resume, handle job interviews, job search techniques and that sort of thing.

As Seinfeld would say "not that there's anything wrong with that". Canada has always had relatively high unemployment rates. There's never been any real committment to a full employment strategy.

The feds used to define "full employment" as 3% then 5%, then 7% and who knows what now.

Our local "agency" for this has a low-cost clothing depot, access to computers for resumes and job searches, a bulletin board and that's about it. They don't even know which businesses are fully accessible. One thing you can do through them is apply for computer training. Otherwise not much is offered to further your education that you can't learn about anywhere else.

It makes me very angry that all of these agencies assume because you are disabled you lack working skills or education. There are a lot of us who have held very good jobs, have lots of experience or higher education. What are we told at places like this? Open your own business! Blah!!!!

[ 21 June 2003: Message edited by: Trisha ]

If all they provide is job search training, basic computer training and high school equivalency or literacy/ESL its because that's what federal and provincial governments have funded them to do.

You can't blame the agencies for this.

You know, there are people out there who actually believe that people with disabilities are funded by the government to go back to school. If such a program exists, I don't know anyone who qualified for it. All the people with disabilities I know that went for higher education are trying to pay back student loans with low-paying or no jobs. I know of people who have been ousted from university because there are no facilities for their specific needs and some people with disabilities who cannot live without their pension supports who have had to give up the idea because they are expected to be able to cover their needs on the small amount of living allowance provided by the student loan, which in many cases is $18 a month.

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Originally posted by Trisha:
You know, there are people out there who actually believe that people with disabilities are funded by the government to go back to school.

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I actually was eligible for such a program in the early 1990s, called Vocational Rehabilitation Services.

In the old days it took a simple app, and a personal evaluation by the interviewing officer to get a sign-off on an all-expenses-paid education. That's how I got my technical school diploma.

When I decided I wanted to upgrade my education I went back and talked to the people involved and the paperwork had grown to monstrous proportions. They wanted a 30-page booklet filled out plus all sorts of supplemental stuff, and the whole thing was clearly designed to turn away as many people as possible, and of course now that the Liberals are in, forget it.

I know if I was working in such an agency and noticed such a contradiction, I'd be asking why.

Shouldn't they lead by example?

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How in the hell will a grade 12 education help a disabled person find employment when an able bodied person cant find employment with just a grade 12 education?

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Isn't it time these agencies stopped kidding themselves and stood ready to answer a question such as this?

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It's not being hard on the agencies to tell the truth about what is lacking. If they share the information that their policies are government mandated, I wouldn't have a problem adding that to an article or opinion piece.

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While speaking with this woman I asked her "Do you attend any of these planning meetings?" She said she did, I said

"then how about if you bring up the fact that there is NOTHING available to assist people such as myself, who do not need education, who have university educations, years of experience, excellent references coming out of their ears BUT are now disabled - ask them where I go? Where the educated disabled are supposed to find employment. What about the people who were disabled while employed in high paying jobs?"

She made the appropriate noises but I dont think she will even bring it up ..

I think what is needed here is to expose the Govt programs for the waste of tax payers money that they really are - as well as expose the fact that there are NO programs that have a mandate to find work for the disabled. None that I have found, I have an appt with one called Theo - I will see what they actually do. Access does nothing, I already know that.

It is damn insulting to phone them and have them tell you their mandate is to teach the disabled how to use the phone book to find employment agencies - NOT agencies that actually assist the disabled in finding jobs. Just your usual run of the mill agencies. They will teachthe disabled how to find the college and the office for upgrading information - How to answer ads in the newspaper and on the HRDC site. arrrrghhhh Perpetuating the myth -- They will give you a RAH RAH talk to get you off your lazy butt --

[ 21 June 2003: Message edited by: Kindred ]

Our Government has been pushing this same snake oil for a long time now. Recently the Public Service Commission of Canada ran an interesting ad deliberately aimed at Disabled applicants, however it turned out they werent really hiring any - just "resourcing"

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The Management Trainee Program is committed to employment equity objectives and aims to recruit a pool of future managers that reflects the Canadian labour market. We believe that diversity is a strength and through it we can gain fresh perspectives and new ideas. Therefore, Employment Equity is an integral part of our recruitment activities, including marketing and outreach. Special attention is given to attracting members of employment equity groups because of their under- representation in management. These groups are women, Aboriginal peoples, persons with disabilities and members of visible minority groups.

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Seriously they didnt do any actual hiring, just another "message of false hope" cast out there for the disabled to make us think someone was actually taking an interest.

There is also no real employment equity legislation with any teeth in it. In some European countries, the law actually requires employers to employ a certain number of disabled people.

The unemployment insurance system has been hacked to pieces...it started with the Mulroney government and the cuts went into overdrive under the Liberals.

Benefits have been slashed, the number of weeks you can collect for have been cut, the qualification rules were cut so that folks don't qualify and training funding has been severely slashed as well.

The feds have built up a huge surplus in the "EI fund" and of course all the right-wingers in the Canadian Alliance, business groups, right-wing think tanks and the media are calling for cuts to the premiums that employers pay into the sytem.

The Liberals laid-off all of their employment counselling staff and contracted all of the work out to under-resourced community agencies.

They have then piled tons of paperwork onto the community agencies such that they spend as much or more time doing government paperwork as they do helping the unemployed.

Also, most of the agencies are only funded a year at a time so that they spend a good amount of their time putting grant proposals together to try to keep their limited services alive for another year.

Most agency staff would be as critical of the system as any babbler would be. If not more so.
However if they speak out, their funding doesn't get renewed...so most community employment centres are afraid to.

Most folks aren't all that concerned about services for people who are unemployed until they become unemployed. Then they find that all the help and programmes that they thought existed...either don't exist at all, have highly restrictive eligibility requirements and provide very limited services.

Being unemployed sucks. Being unemployed and disabled really sucks.

Some community employment agencies are better than others...and yes...they should be staffed by representatives of the target groups they are supposed to be servicing.

In terms of accessiblity to services, not all people are in wheel chairs, some just have problems walking - some with mental disabilities would not have the ability to even figure what where the hell the office was. No store front signs. Just a name of the brass directory inside the doors - and the office was on the 6th floor. So it meant a person in a wheel chair had the elevator challenge to over come -

How many cities actually have a "Handy Dart" transportation system for the disabled? Not enough. Regina hasnt got one - can you believe that? Or it didnt have when I lived there. Public transit is not accessible to a lot of people. They are prisoners in their own homes.

How many cities have an organization such as The Lions who come out and shovel snow for the disabled and the elderly so they can get out of their homes in the winter months? Not enough, Regina doesnt have any such organization - not when I lived there.

How many churches are accessible? How many public buildings? How many stores?

How many people park in handicapped parking because they "are only going to be a minute" running in and out of the mall? How many disabled people manage to get as far as the mall and have to turn around and do back home because an able bodied person parked in the handicapped parking spots? How many malls police these spots and do something about this abuse?

I see too many buildings that are inaccessible. While living in Northern Alberta I fought tooth and nail to force them to make their school wheelchair accessible - one little girl living there was unable to attend school until they put in the ramp ! And the shocking thing is NO ONE seemed to CARE or even think about it until I moved there and said "This isnt right". Then a few other buildings realized they should do something - City Hall was another - one grocery store put in a ramp -

One voice can make a difference, a lot of voices can make a BIG difference - but first people have to wake up and smell the coffee ..

BC has centralized its government, and for most of the offices there are no longer toll free numbers to call - people on low incomes do not have the funds to make those calls.

IF you know how to work the system you will call a toll free number for "Information BC" in the blue pages and ask to be connected to the office you want to call. BUT on 2 occassions I have encoutered people answering these phones who are reluctant to do so - they just want to give you the number instead.

I appreciate that there are able bodied people out of work, but the cards are still stacked in their favour.

When I go looking for work I have "limitations" that dictate what is acceptable - An administration position involves filing, cant take that - repetitive arm movements and arm extensions are out of the question - long hours spend at a computer terminal, I need an ergonomic chair, (expense for the employer) the key board must be at the proper height - and I cant sit for long periods working at a key board because of the repetitive arm movements. Retail sales, I cant stand for more than about 20 minutes, thats out - Accounting - I USED to be an accountant, I cant remember most of the stuff now, I just screwed up ANOTHER employment application by putting info in the wrong fields - head injuries are incideous -

I can hide my disability, its termed an "invisible" one and then mention it when it does become an issue - how pleased will an empoyer be with that?

I once challenged my Rehab guy at WCB to tell me what I could do - what job would Work for me? He thought about it and said I was going to say hooker, but repetitive arm movements are out - and laughed - I said "seriously, you have seen the reports from your own doctors, what can I do?" He couldnt think of anything but I am still only "partially disabled". Only entitled to a partial disability pension of $444.00 a month.

I have managed to find my niche - advertising sales, and writing. I can write - I can sell - but even then I have to be able to take breaks when I need to. Employers dont like that.

Dsiabilities can by "cyclical" and this means I cannot promise an employer I will give 100% effort 100% of the time. My spirit is willing, my heart and head say GO because but my body says "no way in hell lady". Employers dont like that.