Thank you for your question.
It's a great opportunity to just point out to people that most Canadians remember the March of Dimes as an organization that raised money for research to prevent polio. We have not been doing that since 1957, when the mandate changed, because polio vaccine was discovered in 1955. Since that time, we have been delivering what we called community-based rehabilitation services. In the 1960s, we were the largest provider of what were then sheltered workshops, which began as services for disabled veterans and grew to be services for people with disabilities, no matter what the cause.
From the 1960s to now, we have grown into an $80-million organization in Ontario alone, with seventy offices and in that framework $22 million in employment services directly related to skill training, placement, job coaching, and helping employers to adapt their work environment. We do a lot of accessibility audits and we help employers to look at products, services, workplace attitudes, and a variety of things that will help accommodate people with disabilities.
In terms of the preparedness of people, you're quite right about the educational system having changed. I wanted to note in my presentation that we do see enormous change in our country. We're very happy about that, starting with, of course, employment equity legislation and the charter itself, so people have more rights.
What we have seen is that the success is there for people with moderate disabilities. They're increasing in numbers. Because of education legislation, they're in schools and they're in universities. In fact, if you have an education and you're able, you might even get a great job. But what's happening is that there is a greater schism between those who are able to succeed in the system and those with severe disabilities who are getting left, who are actually now not part of the great group of unemployed, but are in fact more marginalized because they will not get through the system the same way. They are not accommodated because of the severity of disability.
In fact, people who have severe disabilities are living longer. They're not in institutions. They're in the community. The family burden is unbelievable for people who have a severely disabled young person who is becoming an adult. We have a lot of people in their seventies and eighties calling us to ask what they do now for their 40-year-olds and 50-year-olds for whom they have been caring but can't lift anymore.
The workplace is not going to be the only solution. Although we very much respect that the standing committee is focused on employment, what we're concerned about is the lack of attention to those who are not going to be fully employed or competitively employed or meaningfully employed, but for whom being active, involved, and integrated is essential.