In honour of Disability Employment Awareness Month, Humboldt’s Chamber of Commerces luncheon on Oct. 15 featured Joy McKinnon from the Support Employment Transition Initiative to celebrate the launch of the new Employlink website.
The website provides online care for employees and employers finding work for people with disabilities.
McKinnon is very proud that this initiative started in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
The website will be based in Saskatchewan and with most communities having high-speed internet, everyone from one end of the province to the other should have access to this website.
McKinnon developed helpful sections for job seekers who may be considering why they want to work, where to get started, and different supports in the community.
“A lot of our individuals in our community may not have a social insurance card. They don’t know how to get one. They may not be connected to supports yet. This will give them all kinds of links that will help them,” she said.
The website has sections dedicated to job seekers and employers but also have sections for educators and employment specialists as well.
Educators and parents are provided with a guide for where students should be at a certain grade. The guide meshes what the parents wants for their child and what the child may want for themselves.
“It really helps parents understand where their child should be,” she said.
McKinnon said most educators are focused on today and not the student’s future. This leads to educators keeping students in school until they’re 22 - not because they are learning new skills but because there is no plan for after they are done school.
McKinnon said working in school makes students more prepared for finding work after school. She quoted a recent study of both disabled and non-disabled students that showed an 85 per cent employment rate no matter how significant their disability.
“Just having our students engaged and employed while they’re still in school will increase their ability to connect to the labour force by 85 per cent,” she said.
The current launch has been focused on job seekers but the next phase of the website, which will be launched in January or February, will be directed to employers who are looking for supported employees.
McKinnon has presented Employlink to both the minister of education and the minister of the economy. Both were “off the charts” excited, said McKinnon.
“Obviously the government is onboard with what we’re doing. We didn’t have government funding for this; we did it completely independently,” she said.
The members page will be expanded to include all member businesses and organizations in the area. Right now, there is a direct link to McKinnon’s email address to help members and job seekers find what they are looking for on the website.
One member with Employlink is Humboldt and District Community Services. Job seekers and employers will have a direct contact to them when they are in need of support.
The luncheon was a good opportunity for the community to see the work that community services does with supported employment and the funding they get through Supported Employment Transition Initiative, said Humboldt and District Community Services (HDCS) executive director Juanine Korte.
“When it’s all said and done and they have everything up and running, it’s going to be very useful tool and we’re looking forward to sharing that with employers, especially when they launch the employer section next year,” Korte said.”
Naimh Menz with HDCS said it will definitely going to be a human resources tool for employers. She added that it will also encourage supported employment with the many businesses that were at the luncheon and may prompt businesses who had not considered supported employment to do so.
Humboldt also plays a large role in the website itself with many of its initial photos being taken right in the Humboldt.
