My name is Tracy Williams. I'm the executive director of the Westman Coalition for Employment Opportunities in Brandon, Manitoba. I sit on the executive of the Manitoba Supported Employment Network, and currently I am the president of the Canadian Association for Supported Employment, CASE.
CASE is a national network of supported employment specialists and concerned citizens, including employers, who are committed to the full participation of persons with disabilities in the Canadian labour force.
An important topic that CASE is exploring this year is the development of a best practices framework for supported employment agencies. Currently, Canada does not host such a framework. Our best practices are borrowed from other countries, such as the U.K., the United States, Scotland, and Australia. Yet when we compare our level of practice, we are often exceeding the practices of those countries. The time has come for Canada to promote and ensure that supported employment best practices are recognized and adopted nationwide.
The results from the panel on labour market opportunities for persons with disabilities found that there were 795,000 people with disabilities, 340,000 of those having a post-secondary education and a disability that does not prevent them from working, yet they were still without employment. Like the report states, this is a significant talent pool that is currently being underutilized.
Many of the agencies that are part of the CASE membership service clients with very complex needs, and we are able to support them successfully, providing them with full inclusion within their own communities. Saying this, if these agencies can support individuals with complex needs, they are more than able to work with those whose disability does not prevent them from working, thus resolving some of the skills shortages within the Canadian economy.
In fall 2012, CASE circulated a survey to a wide audience from across Canada to ask their thoughts on best practices in supported employment. In the brief that I prepared for you today, which should have been distributed to everyone, I have broken down the results for you. It basically states that the majority of Canadians polled believe that everyone can be employed with the right job match and the right supports available to them.
We are hoping to implement an educational website this year that will be an interactive tutorial on best practices to assist individuals and their support networks to understand the processes and challenges of maintaining paid employment within their field of choice.
Because we are not a funded organization and operate solely on our revenues from past conferences, we are going to be exploring funding options to try to proceed with this tutorial.
Are you ready to cut me off now?