WATSON LAKE │ THE POSSIBILITY OF A UNIVERSALLY ACCESSIBLE COMMUNITY

Watson Lake has the services, businesses, and political and organizational structures to enable significant change in support of people with disabilities in the workplace.

KEY CONCEPTS: universal design; readiness-to-work; public and private partnerships; project planning

Watson Lake employers identified specific gaps in the readiness-to-work of prospective employees – namely, the lack of education, skills and motivation that are essential to succeed in the labour force.

This so-called gap in readiness-to-work is, in part, a result of disabilities issues: learning disabilities, mental health, and issues arising as a consequence of FASD.

One provider suggested that area educators of school-aged children and youth are reporting that 60% of students in school have a learning disability of some kind or another. This estimate might seem high at first, but when considered within the context of a reported 50%+ occurrence of FASD in rural Yukon communities, a 60% learning disabilities rate seems highly likely.

The high rate of learning disabilities is itself only a problem for employers and employment when it prevents individuals from being able to achieve career and life goals. Aside from the absolute necessity to reduce the risk factors for learning disabilities, notably alcohol and drug use during pregnancy and alcohol and drug abuse at points throughout life, there is an immediate need to coordinate efforts to ensure people with disabilities are able to access the education and training needed in order improve readiness-to-work and associated career and life choices.

The agencies and service providers in the Watson Lake suggested ways of addressing this problem, breaking the cycle through improved access to learning and supports.

Here is what some of them had to say.

• The first step in bringing about full and open access for people with disabilities across the wider Watson Lake community, including employment, is for the public sector to model best practice in terms of the necessity and benefits of universal design in progressive modern towns and cities. Some of the exiting public services infrastructure has limited access – including essential public services offices. In order for employers to take an initiative supporting disability employment seriously, the public (government) services must be seen to embrace the principles and apply them to positive effect. This appears to be a key initial step – or at the least, coordinated to roll out in-step with a prospective implementation of a Yukon Disability Employment Strategy in Watson Lake.
• Employers are willing to accept employees with disabilities, but only on the condition that they are able to complete the work as per job specifications. In other words, employers need supports in understanding the services and accommodations that are available in order to adapt a job and the workplace, enabling them to accommodate disabilities with risk of excessive cost to the business. Employers are pragmatic, to be sure. However, there is an opportunity to extend the scope of what is considered good business practice to include proactive responses to disability employment issues – reducing potential human resources problems and concerns in the workplace when employees experience difficulties associated with a disability of one kind or another over the course of their working life.
• The town of Watson Lake would benefit from a community-wide accessibility audit – encompassing the whole of the public and private sector, including services and agencies, businesses, and public infrastructure and conveniences. Undertaking both an annual audit, in addition to ensuring that all town and business project planning applications included an analysis of universal design principles in project and event planning would contribute to developing a culture of inclusiveness and progressive thinking regarding disabilities and the benefits of a fully accessible and equitable community development.
• Education has a significant role to play in supporting labour market development in Watson Lake. Existing services include a full service education system, from primary through tertiary education, and additional services through training providers such as Watson Lake Community Outreach. Providers recognize that a significant barrier to employment equity and workplace accessibility can be overcome by further education and skills development. Job seekers struggle to successfully complete education requirements and applications for employment given the complexity of the training and associated employment bureaucracy. Many job seekers with disabilities have low literacy and numeracy skills making it difficult to retain their employment if the job requires significant amounts of in-service training and independent coursework. Supports for people with learning disabilities and other barriers to learning require a support network of education and training providers to ensure they have the needed support to sustain their education and training requirements and remain in employment.

Service providers in Watson Lake represent an energetic and talented pool of community-minded people, ready and willing to work with the business community and political leaders to affect positive change. A Yukon Disability Employment Strategy needs to become a conduit for supporting networking and communication within communities – enabling grass-roots initiatives to take hold and drive progressive change.

The ideas, interest, and energy needed to increase the representation of people with disabilities in the workplace are already in place in Watson Lake. All that is needed is the means to coordinate positive change. The Yukon Disability Employment Strategy looks forward to returning to Watson Lake in the not too distant future to work towards achieving this goal.

Unit then… 

TESLIN │ EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES ENCOUNTER UNIQUE BARRIERS

A multi-agency model is essential to support both employers and employees to overcome the barriers surrounding disability employment.

KEY CONCEPTS: FASD; readiness-to-work; multi-agency support; education; self-awareness; motivation.

In our previous post regarding the disability employment issues in Teslin, we focussed on the significant concerns arising as a function of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), which is estimated to affect a significant portion of the working population.

Depending on the severity of FASD it has far reaching and lasting implications for people affected, including, cognitive and functional disabilities which can result in poor memory, attention deficits, impulsive behaviours, and poor cause-effect reasoning. Secondary disabilities include increased risk for mental health problems and drug and alcohol addictions.

Specialist disability and FASD supports are available through agencies based in Whitehorse and by way of health and social services centres in communities. However, the connections between these supports and employment services are less clearly defined. The Yukon Disability Employment Strategy is beginning to recognize that this is key area of focus for supporting sustainable community development that includes the increased representation of people with disabilities in the workplace.

Our discussions with employers and agencies in Teslin laid the ground work down for understanding where efforts need to be focussed , but also helped us in understanding  the best practice that is presently in place and supporting disabilities employment and community growth.

Firstly, and without taking our focus off the main issue for the community, namely FASD, we must also consider the other disability employment issues identified by stakeholders.

While FASD dominated discussions regarding barriers to employment, chronic illness and injuries were also a significant factor in limiting access to work. These issues tended to be addressed by way of the Yukon Workers Compensation Health and Safety Board (YWCHSB), through what might be considered more standardized methods for addressing identified disabilities issues in the workplace.

Employers identified that they were familiar with the procedures for responding to acquired disabilities in the workplace, inclusive of consultations with the local Health Centre to determine needs and prognosis.

In addition to YWCHSB referrals, one employer indicated they are innovating the human resources procedures to include consultation with medical professionals to advise on adjusting job descriptions in order to retain employees who might not otherwise be able to stay in work due to an acute or chronic disability/injury. The use of professional services to support the development of employment solutions seems an exemplar of how employers might utilize medical consultations for purposes other than simply determining if a given employee can or cannot continue in work as defined by a rigid job specification. This type of consultative model, where medical professionals work cooperatively with employers could extend to include a full range of services, including occupational, physiotherapy, social and mental health services to name a few. This was an exciting innovation, and one that is perhaps worth exploring further as a feature of a YDES.

Returning to the topic of the key disability employment issues for Teslin, which extend to workforce development and sustainable community development planning, employers worryingly identified that it is difficult to recruit staff from the local community in the first instance, partly because the barriers to employment begin with individual readiness-to-work. We have discussed this issue at length in other blog entries, as it appears to be an emerging concerning pattern for businesses. In some case, employers are forced to recruit from outside the local community, in spite of their efforts to find local area candidates to staff their businesses.

Education and training is perhaps as important, if not more important, than ensuring physical, social, emotional and mental health issues are full addressed prior to developing a return to work strategy. Effective education and training programs not only provide the skills and knowledge prospective employees require, but also the confident and self-awareness that enables one to map out ambitious yet realistic goals with a clear progression pathway to achieve personal targets.

Employers and agencies seem to be suggesting that overcoming barriers to employment can sometimes be as much about personal motivation and determination on the part of the employee as it is about the employer being open and responsive to accommodating individual needs over time. 

BEAVER CREEK │ BUSINESS Z

Business Growth in Rural Yukon is Limited by a Lack of Available, Ready-to-Work Employees

KEY CONCEPTS: business growth limits, work readiness, education gap, family and community

This small business highlighted the repeating theme for rural Yukon regarding drug and alcohol abuse and its implications for employers. However, this employer identified the major barrier to full employment for the community, for people with and without disabilities, was education and work readiness.

This employer identified that young people in rural Yukon struggle to complete their education given the standard route to complete high school requires they leave their community and live in Whitehorse as teenagers in their final years of school. This employer believes this break in the family and community lives of students is the reason students struggle at this critical stage in their education.

This employer also emphasised that there is plenty of work in the area during summer months and a good pool of potential employees. The problem for employers is getting the lack of motivated and skilled candidates. Again, this employer emphasised the main barrier to employment as appropriate levels of education and work-readiness as a part of this.

A positive story of perseverance and the power of the entrepreneurial spirit was shared in a story of a friend and business acquaintance of this employer, who, in his 90’s journeys hundreds of kilometres by car before making numerous flights into the backcountry to stock his lodge for his clients – making the return journey in a single day, and stopping only for a cup of coffee on the way. And while we can’t be certain that a man in his 90’s has necessarily acquired any level of disability as a natural function of his age, we can at least assume that in this case, any barriers to mobility and functional skills have been overcome to enable him to carry on with his work. An inspiring story that reminds us about what is possible.

This employer emphasised the importance of family and community for sustainable business and nurturing work-readiness and availability. Simply put, this employer identified that even staff who were recruited from outside Yukon for season work tended to find it difficult to stay on in employment and remain a reliable and committed part of the workforce. This employer suggested the problem could be pinned on lack of community and family support – which could result in the employee getting involved in drugs and alcohol and a culture of neglecting responsibilities at work.

As a final point of interest, this employer suggested that business development in the communities is in fact limited by the lack of available employees – and that business could expand if there was a solution to the deficit of qualified, motivated potential staff. This is an important issue that has implications for the whole of Yukon, and represents an opportunity for action to increase the economic activity in communities, and, as a result, increase opportunities for all.