Program helps disabled broaden job horizons

Aims to overcome education, employment barriers

SKANA GEE - The Daily News

Talk about broadening your horizons.

"I had one of the young men say to me today, 'You know, I've never been near computers - I've only ever done manual labour - and here I am building a PowerPoint,'" says Tova Sherman, executive director of the reachAbility Association. "It's pretty powerful stuff."

It's just one illustration of how 4-Youth is helping people with disabilities find their way to employment or further education.

The program got under way a few months ago with a $151,269 grant from the federal government's Youth Employment Strategy-Skills Link program, but was unveiled yesterday at reachAbility's Coburg Road office with help from Blackstrap, Sask. MP Lynne Yelich.

Skills, knowledge

"This partnership will help young people in the Halifax region who face barriers to employment get the skills, knowledge and experience they need to find and keep quality jobs," said Yelich, representing Minister of Human Resources Monte Solberg.

The association was founded in 2000 to help and advocate for Nova Scotians with all types of disabilities, including physical, mental, cognitive, emotional and even "invisible" - ailments such as Crohn's disease, cancer and HIV, Sherman said.

Employment is a huge concern, especially for youth, she said. That's where 4-Youth comes in, with two groups of five young people, aged 18 to 30, signed up for six months each.

The first group, which started in early May, decided to develop its own intervention program called Stop the Stigma.

Trade show

"They've built actual modules on different disabilities, done the research, and now they're working on outreach," Sherman said. "They've already appeared at one trade show."

That work is complemented by classroom training and life-skills instruction.

"We understand it's really about self-confidence, self-awareness, self-determination," said Sherman, who expects participants to graduate to further education, employment or even entrepreneurship.

So far, so good.

"What we have seen is a raise in confidence, in self-awareness, and in the capacity to understand what they can do," said Sherman. "We believe you can dream the dream - you just have to know the steps to take."

sgee@hfxnews.ca