To someone who already has a job, it can be very rewarding.
But to people who may have trouble finding work because of a disability, a job can mean so much more.
City council on Sept. 14 saw guests from Humboldt and District Community Services (HDCS) make a presentation on Disability Employment Awareness Month and why it is important for so many people in Humboldt.
Through the HDCS Supported Employment Program, people can get a hand finding work.
One guest got to tell council what she got from her many jobs, including working at the Uniplex.
Trudy Linka works four jobs around Humboldt and receives a lot from working, including money, self-esteem and a feeling of community.
These are things we all get, said Niamh Menz with Humboldt and District Community Services.
“It’s no different for someone who has a disability than myself going out to work,” she said. “We want to be part of the community; we want to contribute.”
This program helps people like Trudy who may need help getting over some barriers that may get in the way of keeping a job, both as citizens with disabilities or citizens who many have other reasons they have trouble with not only finding jobs but maintaining their jobs.
Juanine Korte with HDCS said they received a lot of support from board members who attended council and council members were very receptive to the presentation.
Having Linka there to tell council about her work gave a new perspective on disabled employment.
“Because she works with the city of Humboldt as an employee...(it was) for city council to see that they are being diverse in their hiring practices,” said Menz.
Menz said there are many benefits to hiring someone with a disability, including high retention rates, morale boosting, and supporting the community.
“Hiring people with a disability makes good business sense, because you are mirroring the community, just like when you are hiring older people to work,” she said.
Part of ensuring that high retention rate is working with the person to make sure they are finding work that fits with them. Finding a job is easy but keeping one is the hard part and it is easier to keep a job you enjoy.
“People with disabilities will be long-term employees,” said Korte. “They take pride in their jobs and they are there for the long term.”
Menz said fear is the biggest stigma when it comes to working with citizens with disabilities.
“It’s like anything, if we don’t know enough about it, we’re scared. We’re scared of how do we help that person, what if this happens,” she said.
Part of Menz and Korte’s jobs is making sure the job fits with the person. It’s not about how fast they can find a job for a person, because that will not mean they get a job they like or one they will stay at. The process is really fun for them as they get to know their client - their hobbies, their families and what they like to do. After that, they try to find them a job that they will enjoy and want to stay at.
If a business is not directly signed up for the program, Menz said they do customized employment.
“We might think, where does this employee need help and then we might go in and ask where do you struggle finding employment,” she said.
They then work with a potential employer to find work that could be done for shorter shifts by someone from the program who would enjoy the work.
Next is communicating with their client and the employer.
“I don’t do all the work for them,” said Menz. “I step in as they need me. Build those skills, look for those natural supports, and then I’m constantly going backwards.”
Korte said they’re there for the employer as well, educating them on what their employee needs. Sometimes that is to not be so nice.
“We don’t want charity work, we want people doing real jobs for real pay and being treated as an employee in the work place,” she said.
Menz is needed less and less as people get more comfortable in their jobs and employers get more comfortable with their employee.
The end goal is for people to be self suffient and independent in their jobs.
HDCS wants person first language to catch on
Language can be a powerful thing. Especially when it comes to hurting or marginalizing people.
For Nicole Kinzel of Humboldt and District Community Services, it is an ever-evolving tool to empower people she works with on a daily basis.
“With us, we are the role models in the community in terms of how we treat people and how we describe people,” she said. “We’re the people who need to set the tone on what is politically correct or uplifting and upholding the rights of people with disabilities.”
Naimh Menz, who also works with Humboldt and District Community Services, works directly with citizens with disabilities and wants people to realize that these are people first.
“They are taxpayers just like everyone else and contributing to our community at the same time and have the right to vote,” she said. “Sometime people forget that. It’s like (they) are a different subgroup.”
Making society more inclusive is part of their job, said Menz.
Putting the citizen first is an important part of the language of disability and is what they try to get across to people in their day to day lives.
“What we call that is person first language, meaning that they are a person before their disabilities,” Kinzel said. “That’s where we want to put the emphasis upon all, despite their challenges or barriers.”
Kinzel said there are people who use handicapped, special needs, disabled to label someone and that objectifies them.
“I feel it’s more like a label when people use disabled versus a person with a disability. We limit their identity to that description of disabled, so we want to look above that,” she said.
When Menz meets with a person with a disability to help them find work within the community, she doesn’t ask about their disability first. She talks about many different things before she gets talking about any limitations they might face on the job.
“I don’t get to know their disability,” she said. “I get to know who they are as a person.”
When it comes to the discussion on the overuse of politically correct language in society, Kinzel wants to turn the tide back on people who do wonder if it has gone too far.
“Looking at how you’d feel if someone labeled you as just one thing, and just taking in that perspective...We want to look beyond a disability; looking at more of the ability of someone,” she said.
Labeling someone groups them into one singular group but Menz said that everyone she works with is an individual with their own personality.
