Work Again

 

     Our daughter and our whole family hoped that her summer of self-employment at "Hayley's Garden" would turn into an employment opportunity and it has! With the support and help of Sources Community Centre, WorkBC and her employer, she now has a great job and we could not be happier for her. Our daughter did benefit from the resume, skills assessment and interview assistance given her. And the fact of her disability meant that she qualified for a wage subsidy for the period of her training and probation which probably made her a more attractive candidate as far as her employer was concerned. The employer was amenable to the hours that our daughter wanted to work and that flexibility was crucial. The end result is that she has a place to go every day where she can work hard, feel valued and get paid as well. What a blessing!

     It is a fact that it is hard for a disabled person to find regular, steady, paying employment. I know many mothers and fathers of special needs kids who would love to see their adult children find work. An employer does have to be able and willing to support an additional needs employee, especially initially and that might mean a longer training period but the payoff is well worth it. It is commonly known that disabled employees are loyal and tend to stay with their employers, saving on training costs in the long run. As Doug Tennant, Executive Director of Semiahmoo House pointed out in a recent article in our local paper, “The benefit is that employees who have disabilities have been demonstrated to be much more loyal. They will stay in their job a lot longer. If you look at restaurants and other hospitality industries, the amount of money they have to put into recruitment and retention is monumental.”

     Our daughter loves her job and I am sure will stay satisfied with it because it is something she really wants to do. She discovered her desire to work with plants and flowers over the course of her over-year when SACL and the Surrey School District encouraged her to make goals for herself and then go after them. It really was a collaborative process that brought her to this point in her life and we are all so grateful for this new opportunity. And to be twenty-one months seizure-free on top of it....wow!