ROSS RIVER │ A RESILIENT COMMUNITY AND OPPORTUNITY TO GROW

Ross River has a vision for the future and is seeking solutions and strategies to overcome key barriers for people with disabilities and contributing social conditions.

KEY CONCEPTS: change through education and training; inter-generational social deprivation and disabilities; coordinated strategic planning; links to Whitehorse agencies

Ross River might be small and tucked away in the heart of Yukon, but it has access to an array of economic and community development opportunities, including natural resources exploration and extraction, tourism, and infrastructure development.

With a number of mines operating in the area, accessible by road and fly-in only, Ross River is prospectively the hub for services for a wide range of business enterprises, not least the Dena Council and the ambitions of its development corporation.

Neighbouring Faro, a short 1 hour drive in the direction of Carmacks and the main highway north and south, is a full service town, providing additional services and human resources in support of innovative social and business enterprise.  

Like other Yukon towns of similar size and distance from Whitehorse, Ross River has significant disabilities issues that remain unresolved and continue to limit the community’s and First Nation’s plans for growth and development.

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), drug and alcohol additions, mental health issues, and learning disabilities were identified as the predominant disabilities within the community. The social conditions associated with risk for FASD has resulted in inter-generational disabilities issues; a cause for concern that is by no means unique to Ross River, but one that the leadership of this community are committed to tackling, head-on.

The Dena Council is recognizably the leading employer of people with disabilities in the community. Like other First Nations, there is a commitment to support friends, family, and neighbours as both a responsible employer and government. To this end, significant efforts are made to hire and retain people with disabilities. Making progress is difficult, however, without a coordinated support network and direct links to key disabilities agencies based in Whitehorse.

Our meetings in Ross River helped us to understand the specific needs of this community and its ambitions to make important progress. Essential in piecing together a sustainable solution for the community are quality, sustained  employment-skills-education-training services. This could include everything from life-skills workshops, readiness-to-work supports, job coaching and on-the-job mentoring through to provision of fully accessible foundation skills courses in reading, writing and math, and education/career programs that lead to qualifications from everything from trades to business administration and leadership.

We were inspired by the resiliency of Ross River and its people, made possible, in part, by the ongoing efforts of the education and health providers, working to bring essential services and enable efforts to support pathways to employment for people with disabilities.

We look forward to extending and expanding disability support services through a Yukon Disability Employment Strategy, maximizing the benefits of opportunities for progressive change ahead. 

FARO │ FORMULATING SUCCESS FOR DISABILITY EMPLOYMENT STRATEGIES

Innovations  arise from an honest identification of problems and articulate, targeted solutions, backed by plan to achieve results through understanding and effort.

KEY CONCEPTS: community development; communication; responsibility; effort; understanding

Continuing from our previous blog, here we explore some of the best practice, needs and suggested innovations that key stakeholders in Faro shared with us during our visit back in November 2011.

Assuming a starting-point that Faro is a mature community – that is, a community that recognizes the importance and value in looking after its citizens for the betterment of all – stakeholders identified features of the employment landscape that would benefit from a careful review regarding the principles of universal design, accessibility and equity.

Keeping this in mind, the following is a selection of the headline disability employment issues identified by residents of Faro:

• Employers are open to hiring and accommodating disabilities in the workplace, as both a matter of civic responsibility but also as a function of effective business development through retention of qualified, experience staff.
• Physical barriers to people with disabilities limit more than simply access, they affect employee perceptions regarding the accessibility of management and the sustainability of the business itself.
• Small communities like Faro work together to resolve community issues; failing to do so jeopardizes community unity, placing strains on familial and business relationships.
• Small business in rural Yukon don’t tend to look to government departments in Whitehorse for supports or solutions to problems. Rather employers get on with the business of enabling their employees, each day, every day. Layers of bureaucracy to resolve problems in the workplace are associated with impersonal businesses and employment in the city, not Faro. Even the employees of the mines feel they are part of a community, in part because their co-workers are permanent or regular residents of the community.
• The key to establishing an accessible and equitable working environment is a flexible management style that promotes the principles of mutual respect and a willingness of all parties to work together to identify and implement solutions.
• An ageing population in Faro requires specific accommodations in order to retain this valuable, experienced workforce. Adjusting schedules, particularly during cold winter months for those working outdoors can provide welcome relief and reduce the likelihood of injury and leaving the labour force for good.
• Snow and winter present specific challenges to people with disabilities – including getting to and from work.
• There is no overarching community development plan for creating universally accessible public and private sector facilities/spaces. The community is interested in the principles of universal design and recognises the benefits for all citizens. A town that subscribes to the principles of universal design is a town that recognises that every person will eventually benefit from accessible spaces and places.
• Accommodating disabilities in the workplace requires effective communications between employees and employers. But in order to have effective communications, trust must be established through a mutually respectful working relationship, where neither party feels they might be at risk for addressing what has historically been viewed as a potentially conflict-based (even litigious) issue.  
• Establishing effective communications between employees and employers requires a hard and fast policy with a clear and readily implemented procedure. The procedure might include regular (daily) employee-employer meetings/check-ins to confirm that all members of the business team have the resources and information they require to effective in the workplace.
• Costs of establishing effective policies and procedures for creating an inclusive workplace can be a barrier to small to medium size enterprises. A Yukon Disability Employment Strategy will need to effectively coordinate existing services and resource for employers such that solutions to existing barriers to employment are not impeded by a lack of essential supports.
• Coordination of employment strategies with neighbouring towns (such as Ross River) will benefit the wider area, and bring a further benefit to Faro and its citizens. A strong mining sector demands a scalable, healthy, and ready-to-work labour force – made more likely by tapping in to area labour markets and raising the standards of care and opportunity across the whole region.

Our conversations with key stakeholders in Faro energized this initiative by demonstrating the communities are not only adept at identifying problems, but they are also just as willing and ready to innovate solutions – on the spot – with a view to making changes immediately and for the longer term.

The insights of Faro residents could perhaps be summarized by a rather ingeniously simple impromptu mathematical formulation (derived by a class of students on the Faro campus of Yukon College) regarding a solution to the disability employment problem – a social policy 'proof', as it were. The formula is…

R = U + E

Results = Understanding + Effort

The Results are reliant of the two variables Understanding and Effort. Breaking this formula down a bit further, we can see that Understanding and Effort alone will provide results…only, individually, they produce a smaller factor R, than when added together. As Understanding and Effort are increased,  Results increase incrementally. We could explore this further, breaking down the factors that comprise Understanding and Effort – working to maximize all those factors that feed in to this formula. But, that is for another day – and with the help of the originators themselves.

I like this algorithm, almost as much as I like the people of Faro, as it is a clear and direct articulation of what it takes to achieve a goal. In this case, our goal is to increase the representation of people with disabilities in the workplace: a goal that has benefits for the wider community of Faro, and the whole of Yukon. 

FARO │ MEETING COMMUNITY NEEDS ONE PERSON AT A TIME

Community planning and vision for the future = Universal access and a niche market

Faro is how you might imagine all great cities begin: established on a high point of land, overlooking the river valley below, from east to the western and northern mountain ranges, a history and culture with equal parts business enterprise and artistic spirit, and tenacity to stay ahead of change through progressive education and community planning.

Faro’s resident population stands at 420, spiking to 800+ in spring and summer months with seasonal area mineral exploration. The town itself has an infrastructure to support a much larger population of up 2000 residents – a function of its initial design to support this globally significant mining town when it was established in the late 1960’s. The extensive infrastructure includes a fully developed municipal administration and services with a vested interest in ensuring a sustainable community development plan reflects the current and emerging needs of residents.

Faro is unique in Yukon, in that it boasts the highest proportion of seniors amongst its resident population. A new senior’s facility was recently opened, in part as a response to the growing demand for residential facilities sufficiently modern to extend opportunities for independent living.

Faro is in fact a mature town all manners of speaking, in spite of the fact that it is perhaps one of the youngest municipalities in Yukon. Accommodating the needs of individuals with disabilities is considered the norm – adapting buildings, providing programs as needs be. Much like other rural Yukon communities, there is no overarching strategic plan to deliver a universally accessible community and working environment, but there is an underlying commitment to respond to specific issues and needs as they arise.

In our next blog instalment we will explore some of the insights shared with us when we met with key stakeholders in the community regarding best practice, needs, and suggested innovations for the Yukon Disability Employment Strategy.

WATSON LAKE │ BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT INHIBITED BY LACK OF AVAILABLE EMPLOYEES

An opportunity exists in Watson Lake to redress the employment equity issues through a coordinated strategy between business and service agencies working with people with disabilities.

KEY CONCEPTS: barriers to employment; labour market shortage; education and training; learning disabilities, mental health, FASD.

All employers in Watson Lake relayed a similar message to the Yukon Disability Employment Strategy team: there is a labour market shortage and employers are looking for ways of getting people ready-to-work and overcoming barrier to employment because of disabilities.

In fact, employers were consistently concerned about the future of business development in Watson Lake over the near and longer terms, given issues regarding staff shortages and a lack of an available skilled workforce.

How does this relate to disability employment issues directly? Learning disabilities, addictions, and the social, emotional and intellectual difficulties associated with FASD were identified as key barrier to employment. The agencies in Watson Lake were in agreement; there are significant community problems that underpin the development of an effective labour market strategy – most of which are rooted in disabilities issues.

Here are some of the things employers are saying:

• There is a high turnover of employees due to disabilities and/or the ability to do the job for which someone is hired. 
• There are few physical disabilities. Most disabilities are related to learning disabilities, addictions, mental health, and issues arising as a result of FASD. 
• Many employees become part-time staff due to personal and social difficulties, some of which are related to addictions and mental health problems. 
• Employers take a practical view when accommodating disabilities such as those related to FASD and addictions, remaining flexible around employee work schedules in order to allow for un-scheduled time away from work. 
• Employees with learning disabilities would benefit from training materials that are not text-based, but rather via video-based training modules. Employers don’t presently have access to these types of materials to given to their employees. 
• Employers do not utilize, nor are then generally aware of the disabilities agencies and their services based in Whitehorse. Businesses delay expansion plans given the labour market shortage. 
• Many businesses are operating below capacity for lack of sufficient staff. At least one business is delaying plans for expansion given what is described as a lack of interest by the local community to apply for available positions. 
• Employers are concerned about hiring people with disabilities, given the prospective short and longer term cost associated with ensuring accommodations are sufficient to maintain expected job performance. 
• Social Assistance can be a barrier to people pursuing gainful employment, as it is seen to be relatively lucrative by comparison to entry-level jobs and for un-skilled labour. 
• Employers are concerned the next generation is not ready to enter the labour market – in part because of lack of education and motivation. There is shared worry amongst employers that this is linked to learning disabilities and disabilities associated with FASD that are not being addressed at school-age, and as a feature of school-to-work transition planning. 

This is a foreboding list of concerns by the employers and businesses of Watson Lake.

What employers seem to be saying is, it is not that there isn’t a sufficient number of people in Watson Lake to develop a skilled and growing labour force. Rather, the barrier to employment appears to be located at the entry-point to securing work, namely, a readiness-to-work given the right combination of education, skills, and motivation.

Learning disabilities, mental health issues and disabilities arising as a result of the deleterious effects of FASD are not identified as barriers to employment as such. Rather, it seems employers are suggesting the pathways for enabling people to seek and secure work are unclear – and are presenting the first barrier which needs to be overcome in order to increase access to the workplace by people with disabilities such as those identified here.

In our next blog, we will explore some of the solutions put forward by Watson Lake agencies and service providers – linking the gaps identified by employers with proposed innovations in teaching and learning and health and social services to ensure everyone has access to employment for the benefits of businesses and community alike.

BEAVER CREEK │ Business is About Community

Healthy Communities =  Community Economic Growth │ Community Economic Growth = Healthy Communities

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KEY CONCEPTS: holistic business-community development, economic development, healthy communities, mental health

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Employers in this region of rural Yukon identify the shared dilemma of finding and retaining reliable, skilled employees. The crux of the dilemma according to this employer are core personal and community issues that present barriers to the children and young people achieving the education and social skills they need to pursue employment and life goals.

This employer provides a range of employment and social supports for employees in an effort to ensure employees who are struggling with personal challenges such as drug and alcohol abuse, mental health problems, so social-emotional-behavioural issues. This pro-active approach is not only a feature of this employer’s community responsibilities as an organization but also its strategic approach to develop business services.  Simply put, economic stability and growth is at the core of healthy, sustainable communities – and healthy communities are a key factor in supporting economic development. This employer recognizes that both factors must be addressed to support progress both the people and businesses of rural Yukon. This two-pronged approach is part of a comprehensive plan to address many of the issues shared by employers we’ve encountered on this consultation.

This employer talked about the importance of addressing mental health issues, for the whole of the community – noting that most people encounter personal social-emotional challenges at some point in their life. This employer believes that it is important to work towards removing the negative perceptions and stigma associated with mental health and addictions problems. A Yukon Disability Employment Strategy that addresses mental health will support employers efforts to increase communication and, as a result, support for employees and the wider community – aiding efforts to promote healthy communities and community economic development all at once. 

HAINES JUNCTION │ EDUCATION · EDUCATION · EDUCATION

Education as the panacea for disability employment?

KEY CONCEPTS: job satisfaction; relevancy in learning

Continuing from our last post on Haines Junction, we thought it important to highlight the importance of education for reducing the barriers to work and productivity. In fact, knowledge and skills development is not a disability employment issue, but rather it is just good business sense. Most employers agree, retaining quality employees and motivating staff to work for the wider benefit of the business, day in day out, people need to find meaning in their work. Sometimes, meaning in the work comes through pursuing a career and professional development path – to advance personal skills and expand earning potential and employment opportunities. In short, job satisfaction is key. And a big part of job satisfaction comes through feeling meaningful progress in work.

Professional development, training, and creating readiness-to-work is the business of our education providers (In addition to learning for learning sake, of course).

When we talked about education and the job of supporting individuals, businesses, and communities in  identifying learning needs and ways to increase access and upward mobility within the workplace, education providers highlighted the importance of relevancy: relevancy of the course material and instructional methods for both the learner and prospective employers.

Providing education and training in the communities, like Haines Junction, Destruction Bay, Burwash Landing and Beaver Creek is very different than in the big city of Whitehorse. Communities with populations of as little as 50 has vastly different education and employment needs than larger centres like Whitehorse. Even the larger communities like Haines Junction itself, with a population this year of 822, require a specialized learning and professional development offer: one that is responsive and agile, and can adapt quickly to the changing employment demands. Changes in the employment landscape are effected by seasonal fluctuations as well as the boom and bust cycles of the natural resources and energy sectors. A relatively small change in the wider economic outlook for the region has significant implications for smaller communities, particularly when the population of the town changes with these cycles.

With this in mind, education providers strive to work closely with employers and individual learners in an effort to maximise the relevancy of the curriculum offer, with both the short and longer term employment demands in mind.

But, while this model of adaptable education services is at the core of successful provision, the education establishment can find it difficult to ensure the course get to the candidate in a timely way. Simply put, as with other issues regarding disability employment supports, employers and job-seekers/employees are not always aware of the educational opportunities that are available – and to no fault of their own. The education providers recognize this barrier, and are engaged in a continuous process of awareness raising, marketing and community consultation in order to ensure employers remain informed about professional development opportunities to help raise existing and prospective staff performance and, by effective, productivity.

One education provider discussed a model of community and business consultation which has helped support the development of sector specific training courses for anticipating staffing needs. This model of education providers working closely with business on the wider project of sustainable community development appears to be the key for increasing accessibility and equity in the workplace.  By identifying ongoing labour market demands, employers and people with disabilities can respond to needs and deficits early, and on a continuous cycle of professional development which might help to reduce dips in productivity arising from goodness-of-fit of employee and workplace demands.

We like to believe that if there was such a thing as a panacea to resolve the disability employment problems in the workplace, then education would be the fix-all. And while this is perhaps an idealize view of the powers of education, what we can say for certain is learning always open more doors, more opportunities, for everyone. 

DAWSON CITY │ Disabilities on Ice

It is the apex of winter 2011-2012. We are in the Yukon Territory, the north-western most region of Canada to meet with business owners, agency representatives, government officials and people with disabilities to explore issues and ideas regarding disability and employment in this unique part of the world. We are about to drive across the recently opened ice-bridge across the wide, fast flowing Yukon River.

Three weeks ago temperatures dipped below 30C, but even this was not enough to stem the flow of the car-sized chunks of ice streaming past and onwards to the Bering  Sea, another 1000 miles in the journey of this timeless causeway.

Colm, our host and the local expert on learning disabilities, who singlehandedly provides disabilities education support services to an area of approximately 15,000 square miles, calmly suggests we unbuckle our seatbelts, but enjoy the ride as we venture out on this temporarily static ice flow.

This is the first time this season Colm, himself has made the trip across the ice to West Dawson, the other half of Dawson City that lies coldly disconnected from its better half twice a year: once as the residents wait for the ice flow to slow, slow, slow to become safe to cross in all manner of vehicles, as theory that water bears weight and ice is as strong as steel is put to the test once again, and a second time in the spring, as the last brave Dawsonite makes the final journey across the 200 meter bridge before ‘break-up’ and the eventual return of an equally precarious looking ferry. Colm wisely refrained from showing us the newspaper clipping of the front end of the truck firmly gripped in the racing sub-zero water with rest of the vehicle looking rather like a sad version of Titanic in her last moments.

My colleague Rick and I were temporarily warmed by the car heater, working hard against the -38 wind chill – a term that only really begins to make sense from about 20below in what otherwise would be a welcome breeze.

Half way across I found myself feeling a kind of bravery which is closer to bravado and trying to coax Rick to get out of the car with me when we reached the middle…and walk-wheel back. Rick was having none of it. But now, having made the fatal error (from the back seat, nonetheless) of taunting my colleague and companion into the wilds of this frozen flow, I had little choice but to follow-through as Colm pulled up and let me out. Out and alone on the ice in the middle of the Yukon River. Cold. Wind. Snow. Twilight daylight and the quiet as the car pulled away and disappeared behind the river frozen car-sized chunks of ice piled in one long crash.

The sensation of being on the ice, knowing the gazillion litres of water flowing just a few feet below the ice surface had been at pace for 2000 miles with a 1000 more to go before it would be slowed by the sea, made me shiver – or was it the cold. I spotted what appeared to be a path marked out with orange flagging tape, heading away from where I was dropped, but back in the direction to bank from which we’d come. This path seemed even more precarious than the car route that I can only imagine must have been created by some great machine that cleverly transforms icebergs into ice roads.  This narrower, less trampled route weaved around and over (thankfully not under) the ice flow for those who felt a car an unnecessary luxury to traverse the river in arctic temperatures to fetch milk, tea and bread.

At this point I was getting properly cold. I held my hands up over my ears, having foolishly left my hat behind, and turned my whole body – as you do when you are either stressed or half frozen – to see if Colm or Rick were anywhere in sight. They weren’t. So I decided to make a move, and head for the shore.

Now, given that I, myself, have been known to enjoy a laugh at the expense of some poor fool when I witness a bit of bravado-gone-wrong, I know what it looks like when someone is not having a great time when they are ‘having a go’ with a view to appearing adventuresome or undaunted. I can assure you that as I crossed the ice I was the source of much amusement to any onlooker from the offices and residences that overlooked the river that day. Indeed, by the time I reached the bank my face was bright red, my ears nearly white, my eyes squinted to slits and my body shook in my inadequately constructed London pea coat. Thankfully, as I waited, stock-still, showing the beginnings of desperation, Colm and Rick emerged from the river’s edge.

Colm, Rick and I headed back down main street to the hotel where we were to meet with our colleagues from the Yukon Council on Disability to begin our preparations for exploring disabilities and employment issues in this unique ex-goldrush wilderness frontier town.

Dawson City, as it would turn out, was a modern, forward-thinking city disguised as the Wild West circa 1898. Disabilities at high noon. Who would be left standing.