Several Rotary districts in Ontario, Canada, are helping to expand
employment opportunities for people with physical or developmental
disabilities by educating business leaders on the benefits of hiring
them.(click below to read more)
Districts 6290, 6400, 7070 and 7090 partnered with Community Living Ontario, a nonprofit association that advocates for people with disabilities, to create a vocational service project that provides resources and training for business owners interested in hiring people with disabilities.
By working with employment agencies, the project connects disabled
individuals with job openings. Since its launch in 2009, the program has
helped more than 130 disabled people find employment.
Project manager Joe Dale, a member of the Rotary Club of Whitby,
says about 16 percent of the province’s population has some kind of
mental or physical impairment; of those, 49 percent are unemployed. It’s
one of the largest minorities in the country and a significant labor
pool for businesses to tap into, he says.
“This project has helped a growing number of employers dispel the
myths about the disabled by connecting them to [potential] employees
with disabilities,” says Dale, executive director at Ontario Disability
Employment Network. “We go around the province encouraging Rotarians and
other businesses to hire those with disabilities and inform them of the
benefits that come with it.”
Studies conducted by Community Living Ontario and surveys of
employers have shown that employees who have a disability demonstrate
average or above average work performance, are willing and able to work
many different types of jobs, and improve staff morale.
Whitby club member Mark Wafer, who helped launch the project, says
hiring people with disabilities gives him a competitive edge. An owner
of six Tim Hortons, a Canadian-based coffee and baked goods chain, Wafer
has employed more than 80 people with disabilities over the last 16
years for positions ranging from customer service to management.
Wafer says the benefit is “substantial." People with disabilities
tend to stay with an employer longer, he says, because it has taken them
such a long time to find a job. That reduces the cost of having to
interview, hire, and train replacements. “Turnover is expensive.”
Wafer says his overall turnover rate remains low because all his
employees "want to be a part of something special, they feel good about
the inclusive workplace. It changes the nature of the work force.”
Expanding the project
Dale hopes to see Rotary clubs and districts across Canada take part in this vocational project.
Rotarians can use their influence in the community to demonstrate
leadership when it comes to hiring people who have a disability, he
says. “If business owners hear that this hiring won’t be a deterrent to
profitability, then that’s a strong message.”
Participating clubs can use connections in their community to
conduct informational sessions for business groups, chambers of
commerce, and trade and professions associations.
David Onley, Ontario's lieutenant governor, who contracted polio as
a child and remains partially paralyzed, says the project “reflects an
important partnership between Community Living Ontario and Rotarians to
assist Ontarians with disabilities find appropriate employment by
forging relationships with businesses.”
The hiring of people with disabilities is one of the last frontiers
of discrimination, says Wafer. “Rotarians, as business owners and
professionals are well positioned to break down this barrier and open
the doors to a more inclusive community.”
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