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·	From Theory To Practice

Disability is a public policy issue in Canada for several reasons. Depending on the data source and definition of disability, there are between 2.5 and 4.8 million Canadians with disabilities.⁶ These numbers are steadily increasing as the population ages.⁷ Furthermore, proportionally more people with disabilities live below the poverty line compared to those with no disabilities.⁸ The costs to the federal government of providing programs, services and income support, etc. are more than $6 billion annually.⁹

Early in 1997, federal, provincial and territorial governments began exploring how to improve and go forward with the jointly funded Vocational Rehabilitation for Disabled Persons (VRDP) program. This program had been in place since 1962. In October 1997, the multilateral framework for the Employability Assistance for People with Disabilities (EAPD) was approved by Ministers for Social Services, and EAPD replaced the VRDP. The framework guided negotiation of bilateral agreements between the two orders of government to share the eligible costs of programs and services geared at helping people with disabilities acquire the skills, experience and supports they need to participate fully in the labour market.¹⁰

EAPD focuses on employment and employability for people with disabilities. The Promising Practice (PP) case studies prepared for this project are funded under the EAPD, meaning their programs and services focus on increasing the employability of people with disabilities. These services can relate to an individual's first steps towards working, support at work, ability to continue working, or retaining employment as in the case of vocational or employment crisis. These Promising Practices were chosen because of their contribution to assisting people with disabilities become employable or employed.

Research in Canada and abroad points toward several key considerations when developing policies and programs to enhance people with disabilities' employment related successes. For example, disability issues and topics are inter-related and often require a coordinated approach. Areas that seem independent, such as employment, transportation, housing, access to rehabilitation and training are directly linked. According to Project Coordinators of the Promising Practices, such complexity requires a holistic approach for successful program and policy development.

People with disabilities form a diverse group, comprised of individuals with varying needs, circumstances, types and severity of disability. As such, they face a range of barriers to employability. As noted by Project Coordinators, personalized approaches that are flexible as well as adaptable to the needs of the individual are most successful.

The overall purpose of this report is to present current findings on what works for whom in employability programming for people with disabilities. This report presents a synthesis of information gathered through site visits and documentation of nine Promising Practices in Canada.

1.1 Review Objectives

The Promising Practices Project (PPP) was designed to provide a core base of knowledge on what works for whom in employability programming for people with disabilities. This project was undertaken to enhance the knowledge of the operational effectiveness of EAPD and to set the stage for more comprehensive evaluation activities in the future. Specifically, the objectives of the PPP were to:

• Research and document nine Promising Practices case studies in employability projects and services cost-shared under EAPD;
• Provide a completed template for each of the nine Promising Practices that clearly delineates the Practice and includes the context /background, challenges faced, solutions, results, and future outlook; and
• Provide an integrated analysis of the cases and existing literature/knowledge in terms of lessons learned and what works in employability programming for people with disabilities.

The results of the review of the Promising Practices should promote information sharing and networking among those involved in the delivery of employability programming for people with disabilities. The results should increase awareness of innovative solutions and provide a basis for improved management practices. Ultimately, the results of these Promising Practices should spark ideas and stimulate further action by other EAPD-funded practices as well as other entities that focus on the employability and employment needs of people with disabilities.

1.2 Review Approach

Conducting this review involved two key phases:

Phase I: Identification of possible PPs
Phase II: Review of chosen PPs.

The section below discusses key steps followed during each phase.

Phase I:

The Promising Practices explored in this study were identified and nominated by the provinces. In preparation for the study, provinces selected an organization, a program or an approach and submitted their nomination to the Promising Practices Project Committee (PPPC) for review.

Two tools were used in this process: a pre-assessment checklist and a case study template. The pre-assessment checklist (see Appendix D) requires yes/no answers to 19 questions, which relate to the Promising Practices' relevance, innovativeness, replicability and existing documentation. If a province chooses to nominate a practice, the program administrator's approval must be solicited. Once this has been done, the second tool, the case study template, is used. Information is populated in this template and forwarded to the PPPC along with the pre-assessment checklist and other supporting documentation, if relevant. Programs are then referred for further research, validation and documentation.

This process assumes that there are many practices from which to choose. However, at the time when the practices were to be identified and selected for this study, there were only nine Promising Practices deemed appropriate to be put forward. As a result, all nine were selected after being assessed using the two tools described above.

Phase II:

The Promising Practices Project, which involves these nine Promising Practices, is primarily a qualitative research study that follows a case study approach. The case studies were developed using the following lines of evidence:

• Literature review/Internet research;
• Site visits; and
• Document reviews.

A brief description of each of these methods follows next.

Literature Review / Internet Research:

To ensure a thorough understanding of issues related to EAPD and to research more fully the nine Promising Practices, the first step in this process involved reviewing current literature on employment and employability of people with disabilities. The literature review provided a basis from which to interpret and synthesize findings and to develop the research tools.

Relevant Canadian and international literature was reviewed. This review included academic articles, government documents, and publications from non-government organizations and non-profit agencies published over the last five years. A bibliography of the literature reviewed is provided in Appendix B.

An extensive Internet search was conducted on key words (e.g., employment programs for people with disabilities, disability programs, labour market, employment equity), which revealed a number of additional pieces of highly useful information for this study. The more comprehensive and interesting websites are included in the bibliography in Appendix B.

Site Visits:

Site visits were conducted with each of the nine Promising Practices. The purpose of the site visits was to validate the information in the existing templates as well as to document progress and additional details of the programs. Interviews and focus group meetings were held with Project Coordinators, clients, former clients, family members, employers, funders, provincial representatives and others. These individual and group interviews, which encompassed a range of stakeholders, allowed the researchers to see the Practice from a variety of different angles and perspectives.

Document Reviews:

Each Promising Practice provided documentation on its success, number and type of clients and/or information on the services provided. The researchers reviewed the relevant documentation at each site to gain additional insight into the success of the program and to validate and add weight to the research findings. These documents included annual reports, videos, financial statements, client satisfaction surveys, follow-up surveys, press releases, news articles and promotional materials.

Table 1.1 lists each of the Promising Practices visited for this study, their location, their client target groups and the type of services provided by each. Detailed case study reports for each of these PPs can be found in Appendix A.

1.3 Organization of the Report

In order to present the integrated findings from the literature review, site visits and related documentation, the report is structured in the following way:

Section 2.0 of this report, Background and Context, provides a summary of some of the initiatives put in place by different orders of government in the context of this research.

Section 3.0, Challenges, describes the key challenges and barriers that are common to the Promising Practices studied. These include challenges and barriers that are also more specific to programs located in rural or mid-range communities as well as to those located in major urban centres.¹¹

Section 4.0, What Works Well in EAPD Promising Practices, presents the kinds of services, programs and approaches used by Promising Practices that have proven to be successful in addressing challenges and barriers.

Section 5.0, Conclusions, summarizes the findings from this research.

Footnotes

6	The Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) indicates that there were 2.5 million Canadians living with disabilities in 1994, the Health and Activity Limitation Survey (HALS) reports that there are 3.5 million Canadians living with disabilities in 1991, and the National Population Health Survey (NPHS) reports 4.8 million in 1994. These are attributable to the definitions used. For example, HALS defines "disabilities" as any restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within range considered normal for a human being. NPHS and SLID define disabilities as individuals having a restriction of activity if respondents answer positively to a series of questions related to activities performed at home, school or work (Bunch and Crawford, Persons with Disabilities: Literature Review of the Factors Affecting Employment and Labour Force Transitions. June 1998).
7	In Unison: A Canadian Approach to Disability Issues, A Vision Paper, Federal/Provincial/Territorial Ministers Responsible for Social Services, 1998, Appendix B.
8	HALS data from 1991 showed that people with disabilities who were employed had a poverty rate of 13.4 %. HALS uses Statistics Canada's Low Income Cut-offs (LICO), which are based on family income and adjusted according to family size and the community in which they live. The proportion of people with disabilities living below the low income cut-offs varies considerably, depending on whether a person's livelihood is derived from earnings, from one of the income support programs, or through support from family or friends. People with disabilities who must rely on social assistance for their income support have by far the greatest likelihood of living in poverty. Almost 28% of those receiving CPP/QPP disability benefits were poor; 14.5% of those receiving Workers' Compensation were poor; and 64.1% of those on social assistance were poor. http://www.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/sdd-dds/odi/documents/living_with_disability/chap52_e.shtml#2.
9	HRDC, Lessons Learned: Disability Policies and Programs, October 1997. Final Report and Technical Report, pg.1.
10	Quebec did not endorse the Multilateral Framework although it has signed an EAPD Agreement with the Government of Canada. EAPD Agreements are not yet in place with Northwest Territories, Yukon, or Nunavut. Northwest Territories and Yukon, however, have endorsed the Multilateral Framework.
11	The term "mid-range community" refers to a non-metropolitan urban area (census agglomeration) with a population greater than 10,000 but less than that of a metropolitan area.