Employability Assistance for People with Disabilities (EAPD)

The EAPD Program provides funding to assist adults with disabilities to prepare for, secure and maintain employment. Various supports are offered, including training-on-the-job, vocational and work assessments, psycho-educational assessments, job coaching, support for employers and disability-related costs in a wide variety of post-secondary education and training programs.

Program Objectives:

• To provide people with disabilities with the necessary skills to be included fully in the labour force
• To remove barriers that people with disabilities face in preparing for, obtaining and retaining employment
• To provide support to employers to include people with disabilities in their particular work force

Program Criteria:

• Funding must support a resident of Saskatchewan, 18 to 64 years of age, who, because of a disability, will require extraordinary supports to secure or maintain employment.
• Funding supports are for disability-related costs only.
• Funding may also be used to conduct an assessment of an adult to determine the level of disability and the supports that will be required that lead to employment.
• Funding is contingent upon confirmation of disability and a description of the supports needed in an Individual Action Plan.
• The Action Plan must focus on employment with attention to disability-related costs and must encourage the use of mainstream programs wherever possible.

Applicants:

Applications will be received from a Career or Vocational Counselor, working with or on behalf of an individual. Funding is available to:

• any adult who because of a disability requires specialized supports in order to prepare for, obtain and/or maintain employment;
• a Community-Based Organization who conducts assessments or provides disability-specific counselling or employment-focused services;
• an employer who requires specialized support to hire an individual with a disability.

Application Criteria:

• All requests for funding support will be considered only upon written application.
• Any application must include the following information:
  • a career goal;
  • rationale: Why is the support required? This should be a description of how the intervention will help the individual to participate in the labour force;
  • a listing of measures, both short-term and long-term, that will be required to attain the goal;
  • descriptions of extraordinary costs necessary to participate in programs of study and other employability-related activities;
  • individual work history, previous education and training;
  • disability-related costs required to include the individual in the program.

Submissions will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Program Eligibility

Individuals:

• Individual applicants are eligible to receive funding support for the disability-related costs of their participation in education, training and employment programs, or to pay for an assessment to determine the existence and/or extent of a disability.
• Examples of disability-related activities include technical aids, tutoring, attendant care, note taking, interpreting, specialized transportation, and so on.
• When required, income support is provided through Student Financial Assistance or the Provincial Training Allowance.

Community-Based Organizations:

The program will consider project-based applications that are developed by Community-Based Organizations. Any proposal submitted must show a direct link to mainstream employment, and must address and document individual needs.

Employers:

Employers who are hiring a person with a disability can receive support for the disability-related costs of accommodating that person.

Typical accommodation costs would include such interventions as wage subsidies, technical supports, job coach and job shadowing. Generally, capital costs will not be approved.

Funding Assistance

The program will provide a level of funding appropriate to the needs of the individual identified in each application. Funds are limited and not all applications are necessarily supported.

The EAPD Program is cost shared under the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Labour Market Agreement for Persons with Disabilities.

Forms:

• Application for EAPD Disability Supports
• Supplemental Application for EAPD Disability Supports
• Training-On-The-Job Contract
• Work Assessment Contract

Contact:

Larry Carlson,
Program Manager, EAPD
12th Floor, 1945 Hamilton St.
REGINA SK S4P 2C8

Phone: (306) 787-5602
Fax: (306) 787-7182
larry.carlson@sasked.gov.sk.ca

      Links marked with this symbol require Adobe Acrobat Reader. It is a free program that can be downloaded through the Adobe icon.