Yukon Association for Community Living 50 years in the making
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Transcript of Yukon Association for Community Living 50 years in the making
Changing lives for 50+ Years
Small choices o en have big implica ons
down the road.
Such was the case on March 23, 1964 when a
group of concerned ci zens founded the Yukon
Associa on for Retarded Children (YARC) in
response to a presenta on about a school for
“retarded” children in Edmonton.
At the me the Yukon had no such school but,
a er six months of intensive fundraising and
organizing, the new organiza on opened the first
Yukon “special needs” school, ini ally with four
students.
Over the next five decades this group changed its
name three mes.
Its first change was in 1973 when it became the
Yukon Associa on for the Mentally Retarded
(YAMR) to reflect a growing interest in suppor ng
adults as well as children.
The next change came when YAMR joined forces
with the Yukon Associa on for Children with
Learning Disabili es and Yukon Special Olympics
to create the umbrella organiza on, the Yukon
Associa on for Special Needs People.
In 1988, when Special Needs separated into three
dis nct groups again, the last name change
occurred.
The new name, Yukon Associa on for Community
Living (YACL), reflected the view gaining strength
across the country that people with intellectual
disabili es should be included in all aspects of
community life.
(Con nued on page 2)
2 YACL: Changing lives for 50+ years Summer 2015
Regardless of name, over the five decades since that founding
mee ng this organiza on has helped seed the development
and growth of a number of groups that con nue to serve
Yukoners today
For example, a mee ng hosted by the Yukon Associa on for
Retarded Children sparked the development of the Yukon
Associa on for Children with Learning Disabili es (YACLD) in
1973.
Then, in the mid 1970s, work by these two groups, along with
the Yukon Social Services Society, led to the crea on of the
Yukon Rehabilita on Centre
Society and the opening of the
Yukon’s first centre where
adults with intellectual
disabili es could find work and
training. This centre is now
commonly known as Challenge.
The Child Development Centre
opened in 1979 as a result of
the diligent work of a core team
of parents who were supported by the Yukon Associa on for
the Mentally Retarded and the Yukon Associa on for Children
with Learning Disabili es.
Shortly a er its last name change, YACL worked with
government and other community partners to create
Teegatha’OhZheh, a group established in 1989 ini ally to help
Yukoners who were returning to their communi es from
Woodlands, a large ins tu on for people with disabili es in
BC.
The Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Society of Yukon (FASSY) was
born in 1996 when YACL’s hard working Alcohol Related Birth
Defects Commi ee set out on its own.
A few years later, the Yukon chapter of People First, a group
run for and by people with intellectual disabili es, was
established with the encouragement and support of YACL.
And the latest organiza on to grow out of YACL’s work is the
Ynklude Art Society, a society of ar sts and performers, with
and without disabili es, who develop and perform unique
works of art.
Ynklude’s new Execu ve Director, Julie Robinson, was the
YACL Inclusion Coordinator for many years. “The disability
movement is a civil rights movement just like any other, just
like the women’s movement. There are so many issues to
work on that we need a diversity of groups. Collec vely, we
have made a lot of progress in so many ways, but there is s ll
a lot of discrimina on. We s ll have a lot of work to do.”
The breadth of organiza ons that support people with
disabili es reflects the breadth of issues the disability
movement needs to address.
“Groups in the disability community work on issues related to
every aspect of a person’s life,” notes Cole e Acheson,
Execu ve Director for YACL. “Although YACL started in the 60s
with a focus on educa on, our efforts have spanned a range of
issues which affect people from birth to death.”
Over the years, YACL and other community partners have
advocated for and collaborated with the Yukon government to
ensure legisla on such as the Educa on Act, the Human Rights
Act, the Decision Making, Support and Protec on for Adults
Act, and the Child and Family
Services Act includes the
perspec ve of families and
individuals affected by disability.
The impact of this advocacy has
been transforma ve. The
disability community has also
influenced the City of
Whitehorse’s recrea on
policies, lobbied for changes to
federal legisla on on vo ng and on immigra on, and had a
significant role in improving Yukon services and support to
families with children with disabili es.
Groups have also provided input on a things like disability
pensions, health services, family violence policies and
employment equity.
“Work on issues like these are so important and require
constant work behind the scenes,” says Robinson, who also
has a child with an intellectual disability. “But it is the support
for families that has been cri cal to me and other parents.
Groups like YACL and Au sm Yukon provide a safe space to be
together with other parents. Those moments when I can look
into the eyes of others, when I know our lives are the same,
are so important.”
Some organiza ons, like Teegatha’OhZheh or the Child
Development Centre were established to deliver specific
programs and services for people with disabili es, while
others like YACL or Au sm Yukon focus on providing support
to families and individuals, raising public awareness and
advoca ng for change.
“YACL celebrates the diverse contribu ons of the many people
with intellectual disabili es, their families, volunteers, and
organiza ons and others in the disability community where
for over 50 years we have tried to build a community where
everyone is welcome.” Acheson adds. “We have proven that
together, as a community, we can change lives.”
(Con nued from page 1)
“We have proven that
together, as a community, we
can change lives.”
3 YACL: Changing lives for 50+ years Summer 2015
No one wants to grow up in an
ins tu on; no one should ever
have to.
Yet many decades ago, that was the
fate of many Yukoners.
Yukon children with pronounced
disabili es o en became wards of the
government and then were sent to an
ins tu on in B.C. called Woodlands.
In the 1950s, records show that about
1400 people lived at Woodlands, the
equivalent of a small town.
Barbe Goode, a Vancouverite with an
intellectual disability, and an
advocate for herself and others,
spoke publicly in Whitehorse in 1989
about her years in an ins tu on.
“Basically, ins tu ons are terrible.
They lock the door behind people…
They have up to 10 people in a room.
There’s no privacy. I don’t wish
anyone to live in one.”
The Yukon eventually stopped
sending people with intellectual
disabili es to Woodlands in 1976.
Around the same me, Ernie St.
Pierre, a staff member at the newly
formed Voca onal Rehabilita on
Centre (now known as Challenge) had
realized that the people they were
providing training to desperately
needed appropriate living situa ons.
He and his wife, Marilyn, started a for‐profit group home for
six male adults in the basement of their home in Riverdale.
They later opened Headway House, which had 9 or 10 beds, in
downtown Whitehorse.
In the late 1980s—as part of the larger cross‐Canada
movement to close many large ins tu ons—the Yukon
government ini ated plans to bring home the Yukoners s ll
living in Woodlands.
The first person returned in 1989. He was 33 years old and had
spent about 20 years in the ins tu on.
Ini ally he found housing at Headway House, got work at
Challenge, and learned to do his own laundry and help with
the cooking and shopping.
“I think it was quite exci ng and quite strange for him. He
would see people on the street and say ‘I remember that
(Con nued on page 4)
Moving Towards Community Living
4 YACL: Changing lives for 50+ years Summer 2015
guy’,” said Vicki Wilson who worked as a support person for
this first person to return. “This person had speech, and no
issues with hearing or vision. He was mobile. Others faced
more challenges.”
Shortly a erwards, a new organiza on known as Teegatha’Oh
Zheh, a Han Gwitch’in name meaning “coming home over the
same trail on which you le ”, was formed to help ensure the
remaining people returning from Woodlands had appropriate
housing and supports.
Eventually all five were placed in homes or apartments,
although it was a struggle to find appropriate and affordable
places as some require 24 hour care.
And, decades later, housing for Yukoners with intellectual
disabili es can s ll be a struggle.
People o en need guidance and support to help them learn
life and decision‐making skills. Some need varying levels of
physical and medical care. A
few have medical needs that
require constant monitoring.
Some children with
intellectual disabili es
con nue to live with their
families long a er they
become adults, for as long as
the families are able.
A small number have
managed to move into
apartments or approved
homes that provide supports
and the individual a en on
they need to foster their
independence.
Many are placed in group
homes or facili es with 24
hour staff supervision.
However, the need is greater
than the available op ons, in
both quan ty and quality.
“Government is concerned
with making sure that people
are warm, safe and dry,”
notes Cole e Acheson,
Execu ve Director for the
Yukon Associa on for
Community Living (YACL).
“But community living is
about being part of the
community, knowing your
neighbours and having
friendships outside your
house. It’s about being visible
in your home town and
par cipa ng in things that
(Con nued from page 3)
(Con nued on page 5)
5 YACL: Changing lives for 50+ years Summer 2015
interest you. Staffed group homes
or facili es have a hard me
providing any of this.”
For those that need extensive
physical care, the op ons are
par cularly limited.
Some children and adults with
intellectual disabili es end up
being permanently housed in
Copper Ridge Place, Yukon’s
extended care facility.
Julie Robinson, who was YACL’s
Inclusion Coordinator for many
years, notes the whole experience
of placing children and adults with
intellectual disabili es in a large
care facility highlights that there is
s ll a profound lack of knowledge
about what community supports
are and can be.
“There are s ll well‐inten oned
people who say this is a
‘community‐based’ op on because
you don’t have to send people
outside,” said Robinson a er
Copper Ridge opened its doors in
2002. “They’re defining a
community‐based op on as simple
geography and ignoring the quality
of what a community life really
means. This is re‐ins tu onalizing
people.”
The new care facility for proposed
for Whistlebend—expected to be
three mes the size of Copper
Ridge—may again become the only
op on for people of any age who
are seen to have complex needs.
“When government has a vacant bed in a large facility, it
might make financial sense to plant a person with an
intellectual disability there instead of crea ng a variety of
op ons,” says Cole e Acheson, YACL’s Execu ve Director.
“We see that as an in‐between step; it’s not Woodlands, but
it’s also not community living. Ideally we believe a range of
housing op ons should be available —like roommate
companion programs or suppor ve in‐home care—that allow
for a person’s dignity and autonomy. We need to work
together to create more op ons that will help all of our
community members live as independently and with as much
quality of life as possible.”
(Con nued from page 4)
6 YACL: Changing lives for 50+ years Summer 2015
Give Us a Break
Imagine not being able to leave the house to go
shopping or on a date with your partner.
Imagine always having to leave family members at home—
one to take care of the other—while the rest of the family
goes on an ou ng.
This was the reality of people interviewed in 1990 as part of a
research project done by the Yukon Associa on for
Community Living (YACL). It is s ll the reality of many parents
today.
The study, “Helping
Yukoners support
family members with
disabili es: A study
of respite care
needs and op ons”
interviewed 39
people around the
Yukon who had a
family member
with a disability
living at home.
People talked
about the me
spent providing
physical care,
ge ng medical
support, monitoring the individual, and
advoca ng for effec ve services and supports.
They spoke about how their work was nega vely affected,
finances drained, social lives restricted, family rela onships
impacted and personal health compromised.
In earlier years many of family members with disabili es
would have been sent to ins tu ons outside of the territory,
but the growing recogni on of the nega ve impacts of
ins tu ons—and of the rights of all people to live in their
homes and communi es—meant children with disabili es
were increasingly staying in the Yukon in a family se ng.
At the me, the only way families with children with severe
disabili es could get a break was to put their child in respite
beds in the hospital. It usually wasn’t a preferred op on. One
parent quoted in the Yukon News in 1992 said, “We want him
at home. We don’t want him in the hospital. I have to push
myself to say it’s me to put him in.”
In the mid‐1990s, plans for a new hospital in Whitehorse did
not include space for respite beds so a group of parents
formed the Evergreen Respite Society and intensively lobbied
for a 24 hour residen al respite care home for children with
severe disabili es. They argued it would be less expensive for
government to run and more home‐like for their children.
But the government said a separate facility wasn’t feasible
and chose instead to add respite beds to the Thompson
Centre, an extended care facility primarily for the elderly.
Disappointed parents raised concerns about safety and about
care by staff who were trained to work with the elderly.
A few years later, many of the same concerns were raised
again with the building of Copper Ridge Place. Although this
new facility was to include a separate children’s unit for both
chronic and respite care, it was seen as being inadequate and
inappropriate.
“All the things normal kids experience are not even possible
at Copper Ridge,” said YACL board member, Joanne
Stanhope, in 2002. “People can’t walk into the centre and see
anything they’d see in a ‘normal’ home.”
Government offered some financial support for families
wan ng respite care in their homes, but families wan ng to
access respite services had to go through Child Protec on
Services to get it.
They needed a social worker and had to go through an
onerous applica on process that included income tes ng so
families might be turned down if the government perceived
they made too much money.
Many also felt like their child might be at risk of being
apprehended by protec on services simply because they
were asking for help.
“The risk of their child being apprehended always lingered
like a black cloud,” said Julie Robinson, YACL’s Inclusion
Coordinator at the me. “Rather than feeling like they are
failing, parents should feel that asking for support is a healthy
and proper response to their situa on.”
As a result of pressure from families involved in the Au sm
Working Group, respite services began to operate separately
from the Child Protec on Branch in 2002.
(Con nued on page 7)
7 YACL: Changing lives for 50+ years Summer 2015
A small group of families of children with au sm also started
to receive dedicated funding for comprehensive care.
Importantly, these families could decide to how the funding
should be spent to best meet
the interests of their child and
family.
In 2006, a er ongoing
lobbying by the recently
formed Au sm Yukon and
YACL, the program was
expanded so that all families
of children with disabili es
were able to access funding to
hire service providers to meet
their specialized needs.
The Yukon’s new Child and
Family Services Act in 2008
entrenched this approach.
Although access to resources
for respite is currently easier
than it used to be, the
available op ons remain
limited according to Robinson.
She has a son with au sm.
“There is s ll no community‐
based respite op on for out‐of
‐home care and the pool of
people to come into the home
is small. And the process of
accessing government’s
financial resources for family‐
directed support is s ll
complicated and ever‐
changing.”
Plans for a new extended care
facility in the Whistlebend
area have reignited calls for
respite and permanent care
op ons for people with
disabili es that are
community‐based and family‐
directed.
Cole e Acheson, YACL’s
Execu ve Director, wants to
see more community‐based
respite op ons, even for those with complex needs. “All
children benefit from being exposed to laughter, fun and
rela onships in a typical home environment rather than a
wing in a senior’s home. They, and their families, need
op ons for respite where they can be treated as children with
choices, not pa ents with procedures.”
(Con nued from page 6)
8 YACL: Changing lives for 50+ years Summer 2015
A History Lesson: Inclusion in the Schools
“No schools for retarded” read a March 21, 1964
headline in the Whitehorse Star.
The ar cle reported on a talk by Abe Miller about a school for
‘retarded’ children in his home city of Edmonton.
The Yukon had no such school at the me; however the event
sparked a small group of Yukoners to begin fundraising and
making plans.
Community support was strong and six months later the
newly formed Yukon Associa on for Retarded Children
(YARC) welcomed its first four students.
Although the Department of Educa on provided space for
the class, the
responsibility for the
students’ educa on—
and the teacher’s
wages—fell to the
non‐profit
associa on.
When the weary
volunteers asked the
government in 1967
to take over the class,
the Department of
Educa on declined.
It didn’t want to bring the class into the public school system.
In the 1970s, however, there was growing recogni on
worldwide of the rights—including the right to educa on—of
people with disabili es.
Slowly governments were acknowledging their duty to
provide educa on for all children.
The Yukon government took on responsibility for educa on
of students with intellectual disabili es in 1981, the last
jurisdic on in Canada to do so.
At the me, the government adopted a policy of
“mainstreaming” which looked for ways to serve children
with special needs within the regular classroom.
The idea of mainstreaming—or inclusion as it became
known—was o en hotly contested. Parents with non‐special
needs children worried about the impact on their children’s
educa on.
One family reported that a group of parents went so far as to
organize a boyco to prevent a child with intellectual
disabili es from a ending his local elementary school.
However, intensive lobbying from parents and from
organiza ons like the Yukon Associa on for Community
Living (the successor to YARC) helped ensure that the Yukon’s
Educa on Act, proclaimed in 1990, entrenched the policy of
integra on.
The new Act mandated that all students would be provided
with the “least restric ve and most enabling environment.”
Jan Wood, coordinator for YACL at the me, recalls the
impact. “The new Act gave us a leg to stand on in terms of
the right to an
educa on, and to an
educa on in the least
restric ve
environment. A child
didn’t have to go to the
special educa on
class.”
Children with special
needs now had the
right to Individualized
Educa on Plans (IEP)
designed to address
their individual needs
and challenges.
But implemen ng these IEPs required resources for things
such as learning assistance, speech therapy or specialized
instruc onal materials.
YACL and parents found themselves constantly advoca ng for
appropriate resources for children with IEPs.
They faced a setback when controversial amendments to the
Educa on Act in 2002 stated that IEPs will be delivered “to
the extent that is considered prac cable by the Deputy
Minister or by a school Board.”
A YACL press release at the me noted the amendment “put
the rights of a kindergarten child with a speech and language
problem to get help second to the deputy minister’s need to
keep his poli cal masters happy at budget me.”
(Con nued on page 9)
One bright light, however, was Whitehorse
Elementary School. In 2002, it received a
na onal “Leadership in Inclusive Educa on”
award from the Canadian Associa on for
Community Living for its work in including all
children in the classroom, regardless of ability.
9 YACL: Changing lives for 50+ years Summer 2015
One bright light, however, was Whitehorse Elementary
School. In 2002, it received a na onal “Leadership in Inclusive
Educa on” award from the Canadian Associa on for
Community Living for its work in including all children in the
classroom, regardless of ability.
On the whole, however, the struggle for effec ve inclusion in
educa on con nues.
“Today, you o en see students in an inclusive classroom in
the younger grades, but then their needs are not met and
they are placed in a segregated
classroom called Resource Rooms,”
notes Lynn Pigage. Her daughter with
intellectual disabili es went through
the Yukon’s public school system.
“Some mes they call them Life Skill
Classrooms, but the end result is that
the student is separated from the rest
of the student body. They end up
having assembly together or some
classes that are not very academic, like
sewing, for example.”
Pigage adds that when there are not
adequate resources or supports in
regular classrooms, segrega on might
end up being the best op on for the
child. For her daughter, Mallory, “The
teachers didn’t have the skills to teach
at mul ‐levels so by grade 4, in math
for example, an en re lesson would be
going over her head. She’d end up in
the hallway with her Educa onal Aide
for some of the day. It also meant she
was ge ng bored. We moved her to a
segregated classroom in grade 5.”
Pat Berrel, past principal of Whitehorse
Elementary School, notes that the
principal can set the atmosphere for
inclusion, but it is the teacher who is
key.
“The teacher needs to have three
things: the buy‐in to the concept of
inclusion, a willingness to implement it
and the know‐how to make it happen,”
Berrel explains. “If teachers don’t have
these three things, inclusion doesn’t
happen, no ma er how good the policy
might be.”
“In 1964, having a separate system for kids who were
different reflected the understanding at the me,” says
Cole e Acheson, Execu ve Director for YACL. “Today, we can
agree that everyone has a right to a good educa on. We just
need to remember that educa on is not just about just
ge ng through the curriculum, or even about helping each
child reach their poten al. The environment we create for
children within school systems reflects the a tudes of our
larger society and, by modeling an environment of inclusion
and apprecia on for the value of diversity, we can change the
culture of our en re society.”
(Con nued from page 8)
10 YACL: Changing lives for 50+ years Summer 2015
Most of us who want to play sports, learn an
instrument or create art can find a coach,
instructor or mentor to help us along. There will
be classes to sign up for or teams to join.
But for people with an intellectual disability, it can be a
different story. The op ons are more limited.
Prior to the mid
1970s, people
with intellectual
disabili es were
largely invisible
in their
communi es.
They were living
in ins tu ons
outside the
Yukon or kept
mostly at home.
With a few
excep ons,
suppor ng their
par cipa on in
arts and
recrea on
wasn’t even on
the agenda.
Slowly, as new non‐profit organiza ons that worked with
people with intellectual disabili es were established in the
1960s and 1970s, occasional recrea onal ac vi es began to
be offered.
Staff at the Voca onal Rehabilita on Centre (now known as
Challenge) took on organizing a few sports ac vi es and, in
1978, a group of nine Yukon children travelled to Juneau to
par cipate in the Special Olympics for the first me.
The same year, there was a workshop in Whitehorse called
“Recrea on and Community Involvement for the
Handicapped.” The following year there was a course held to
train teachers about teaching swimming to people with
disabili es.
Slowly, both a tudes and opportuni es were expanding.
The local chapter of Special Olympics was officially set up in
1981, the same year that a Yukon con ngent joined Team
Canada at the Winter Special Olympics in Vermont. Yukon
athletes brought home three gold medals and a bronze in
cross‐country skiing from this interna onal event.
The shi towards providing people with disabili es more
sports and recrea on opportuni es reflected an overall shi
in a tudes at the me.
Increasingly,
community members
started to
acknowledge that, in
addi on to housing
and appropriate
care, people with
disabili es also
needed to have fun,
to feel good about
themselves and to be
part of a larger social
group, just like any
other member of the
community.
In the early days,
Special Olympics’
found that the
Yukon’s small
popula on meant there weren’t usually enough people to
hold separate ac vi es. So the organiza on o en worked to
involve their athletes in mainstream ac vi es.
“People at the grassroots were fantas c. They were really
willing to have their eyes open to the poten al and to
involving a diversity of people in their community,” said Keith
Clarke, who was a program coordinator for the Yukon
Associa on of Special Needs People in the 1980s.
Clarke also remembers that the parents of children with
intellectual disabili es were as excited about the opportunity
as their kids. “It should be a simple thing, but seeing their
kids involved and included was what families really wanted.”
While the number of athletes in Special Olympics has grown
to over 90—and they now have their own teams in a number
of sports—the opportunity to train and compete with other
Yukon athletes con nues to be important for Special (Con nued on page 11)
Celebrating Inclusion in Arts & Recreation
11 YACL: Changing lives for 50+ years Summer 2015
Olympics athletes.
“Our soccer team has
been playing once a
week with the Under 13
team for years,”
explained Serge
Michaud, Execu ve
Director for Special
Olympics. “And last
summer we won gold
at the na onal games. I
can’t thank our soccer
community enough for
helping us do it.”
Similarly, the local
Special Olympics curling
team regularly
competes in a
Whitehorse mixed
league and they too
recently won gold at
the na onals.
Michaud notes that
Special Olympics
focuses on providing
opportuni es for their
athletes to compete at
whatever level they are
at. Each athlete defines
success differently and
every athlete is
ul mately a winner.
In the 1980s, the Yukon
Associa on of
Community Living
(YACL) was also working
on increasing access to
recrea onal
opportuni es. The
group started the
“Leisure Buddies”
program in 1989 which
matched an individual with an intellectual disability with a
volunteer. The buddies would spend a few hours a month
together doing different ac vi es, organized or casual, that
they were both interested in.
YACL also worked in the 1990s to increase access to a range
of cultural and recrea onal ac vi es. The group applied for
funding to pay for passes to various cultural and recrea onal
(Con nued from page 10)
(Con nued on page 12)
12 YACL: Changing lives for 50+ years Summer 2015
ac vi es. Staff worked with the City to ensure support people
could get in free to places like the pool and that the Leisure
Guide indicated which recrea onal programs or ac vi es
were accessible.
Another significant shi for Yukoners with disabili es started
in 2005.
That year, YACL’s Inclusion Program worked with the Yukon
Wheelchair Associa on to set up the Society Towards
Accessible Recrea on and Sport (STARS).
Together, YACL and STARS organized sports like
basketball and dance for people of diverse
abili es. They also entered inclusive teams in the
Klondike Interna onal Road Relay and the Kluane
Chilkat Interna onal Bike Relay, for two years
each.
YACL also observed that people with intellectual
disabili es were not ac ve in the arts, except
occasionally as audience members.
“The best we could do at the me was get free
ckets to performances at the Arts Centre,” noted
Julie Robinson, YACL’s Inclusion Coordinator at the
me. “In 2002 we did do a Music and Masks
program where people with intellectual disabili es
explored making art and playing music. It was fun
but we wanted to show more people what we
were capable of. We wanted to become the show
people came to see.”
Robinson established the Ynklude troupe which
operated under YACL’s umbrella un l it became a
separate organiza on in 2013.
Ynklude has involved about 30 ar sts and
performers who have worked together to develop
new and unique works of art.
The group has developed and put on numerous
music, dance and theatre performances. They
have created a broad range of visual arts including
books and two award winning films.
“There is no area we can’t explore and do
professional work in” notes Robinson. “It has
taught people to be brave enough to try anything.
And people with intellectual disabili es have
taught the rest of us in the group how to be a li le
freer.”
One of Robinson’s favourite memories was when
the group travelled on Air North to Whistler to perform at a
na onal disability conference. During the flight a er pu ng
on a spontaneous show for the passengers, they received a
standing ova on.
“In another me the women with canes, with FASD, or with
Down Syndrome would have boarded early and quietly found
their seat and people would have either stared at them too
long or felt sorry for them,” recalled Robinson. “This was the
exact opposite experience. They were admired and
celebrated.”
(Con nued from page 11)
13 YACL: Changing lives for 50+ years Summer 2015
If you walk into Shopper’s Drug
Mart these days, you might be
able to say hello to Rachel
Dawson, one of their newest
employees. Dawson started
working with Shopper’s in early
May.
She can’t tell you directly, as her verbal
skills are limited, but she clearly loves
having a job and working with others.
She might stand out a bit as she
currently has a job coach working
beside her, helping her learn how to
organize products on the shelves.
Over at Staples, perhaps you’ve seen
Cole Robinson‐Boivin who has been
employed for over seven years. He
keeps inventory on the shelves; last
year the district manager singled him
out, telling him that he had the best‐
maintained shelves of ink and paper in
the region. Robinson‐Boivin has a script
he uses when he needs to respond to
customer requests and a job coach to
help him as needed.
Stop by McDonald’s and you might find
Gaetan “Gaets” Michaud working that
day. He has been working for the
owner/operators, Julie and Mike
Thorpe, since 2007.
“Gaets is one of the most dedicated
workers we’ve ever had,” the Thorpes
say. “It was important for us, as his
employers, to understand what his
strengths and opportuni es were;
however, this is no different than any
other employee. It just turned out that
his strengths and opportuni es were a
li le different than other employees.”
They learned that having a specific
rou ne every day has helped Michaud
succeed.
Like their co‐workers, Michaud,
Robinson‐Boivin and Dawson are happy
to have a job with the same pay and
(Con nued on page 14)
It’s Not Just Work
Ph
oto
: Jo
el K
rah
n/Y
uko
n N
ews
14 YACL: Changing lives for 50+ years Summer 2015
benefits as the person next to them. The job also builds their
skills, opens the door for friendships and makes them feel
valued.
What makes them a bit different from most other employees
in their workplaces is that they have an intellectual disability
caused by a condi on like Au sm or cerebral palsy. So they
some mes require supports or accommoda ons tailored to
their specific needs.
Although a number of people with intellectual disabili es are
successfully working in
the Yukon’s private
sector—including
businesses like Career
Industries which
specifically hires and
supports people with
disabili es—it hasn’t
always been this way.
Up un l the 1980s, the
common view was that
most people with
intellectual disabili es
either couldn’t learn a
job skill or were best
off being kept busy in sheltered workshops. There was li le
effort to build people’s skills for other types of work and they
were not paid a fair wage for work they did do.
Across the country, however, there was shi in the 1980s
from away from sheltered workshops as the employment
model and a move towards an approach of supported
employment.
Jon Breen, Execu ve Director in the 1990s of the local non‐
profit organiza on now called Challenge—Disability Resource
Group explained, “The goal became more about ge ng
people out into the community, into compe ve work
situa ons. This reflected other trends at the me towards de‐
ins tu onaliza on for people with intellectual disabili es.”
Breen also noted that the charity model of employment was
s ll strong when he started working at Challenge. “The
business community o en felt they would be doing Challenge
a favour if they bought our products or employed our clients.
We started working to turn this around by showing them how
we could offer value and support the business community.”
Partnering with the Chamber of Commerce and other
businesses, Challenge started offering training programs that
met iden fied job needs. The programs covered areas like
kitchen skills, landscape and greenhouse work, and carpentry
assistance. Similar programs con nue to be offered by
Challenge today.
In 1991, Challenge officially set up its woodworking shop as a
separate for‐profit business, Career Industries Ltd. The
business con nued to produce useful products like core
boxes for the mining industry and provided training in basic
carpentry skills.
Today, Career Industries con nues to hire adults with
disabili es to make a variety of products for businesses,
government and
individuals. It also pays
their employees a fair
wage and helps them
develop new skills.
But finding jobs for
individuals outside of
affirma ve work
places like Career
Industries has been an
ongoing effort. It has
required changing
employers’ and
society’s views of jobs
as charity for people
with intellectual disabili es.
Less than 15 years ago, one local retailer thought they were
doing the right thing by paying an employee with intellectual
disabili es in bu ons and gi cards. They were also taking
things off the shelf just so the employee would be kept busy
restocking.
“Work is more than just a paycheque.” said Cole e Acheson,
Execu ve Director for the Yukon Associa on of Community
Living (YACL). “For any of us, a job offers opportuni es to
learn and develop skills, build confidence and a social
network with coworkers. People with disabili es want a real
job. They want to know they are accomplishing something.
They want to have the same rights—and responsibili es—as
other employees.”
“Many employers here have been fantas c and see bo om
line value,” adds Lisa Rawlings Bird, past Execu ve Director of
the Yukon Council on DisABILITY (YCOD). “Now, most
employers who hire people with intellectual disabili es have
expecta ons of their employees. They expect value from
them—just like any other employee. But they are also willing
(Con nued from page 13)
(Con nued on page 15)
“For any of us, a job offers opportuni es to
learn and develop skills, build confidence and a
social network with coworkers. People with
disabili es want a real job. They want to know
they are accomplishing something. They want
to have the same rights—and
responsibili es—as other employees.”
15 YACL: Changing lives for 50+ years Summer 2015
to find crea ve ways to
include them in the
workforce.”
George Green, a long‐ me
disability advocate, notes that
employers o en want to help,
they just need to know how..
“Willing employers o en lack
the knowledge about how to
work around a person’s
disability so they can do the
job. But when they can get
that knowledge, and
understand their employee’s
skills and challenges, they
soon find that they get a lot
of value from a mo vated
employee.”
According to Green,
governments are “ge ng it”
and are now offering more
supports to allow people with
disabili es to find and retain
employment.
Green adds that assessments,
started in the mid‐1990s,
really helped both employers
and employees as they
highlighted a person’s
capabili es and indicated
which tools or approaches
could be used to help address
any challenges.
And there are a diversity of
approaches employers can
use to accommodate a
disability such as job coaches,
specific rou nes, clear
instruc ons, visual or voice
prompts, or specific tools that
meet a person’s physical needs.
Technology has made things easier as well.
Rawlings Bird described how a new smart phone app makes it
far easier for employees with limited verbal skills to
communicate using the Picture Exchange Communica on
System.
(Con nued from page 14)
(Con nued on page 16)
16 YACL: Changing lives for 50+ years Summer 2015
Breen explained how one worker on a
job site outside the Yukon sends his job
coach digital photos of his completed
tasks over the day so the job coach no
longer needs to shadow the employee
at his workplace.
To further employers’ understanding of
the value of hiring people with physical
and intellectual disabili es and different
approaches to making it work, disability
advocates organized a Six Steps to
Success conference in Whitehorse in
2011. The event sparked important
conversa ons and follow‐up research
about the recruitment and reten on of
people with disabili es in the Yukon.
More recent programs, like the na onal
Ready, Willing and Able delivered in
Whitehorse by YACL, con nue to help
employers understand the value and
the methods of accessing the untapped
labour pool of people with intellectual
disabili es.
In the last three months, the program
has helped nine previously unemployed
people find work.
“Many employers find it challenging to
find enough reliable, long‐term and
mo vated employees,” said Acheson.
“People with intellectual disabili es is a
labour source that is s ll underu lized
by most industries and businesses. In
my experience, and with the growing
body of Yukon employers hiring people
like Rachel, Cole and Gaets, we see win‐
win employment that benefits both the
business and the individual equally.”
(Con nued from page 15)
Yukon Associa on for
Community Living
867.667.4606
Suite 7, 4230 4th Ave. Whitehorse,
Yukon Y1A 1K1
OUR VISION:
Every person is welcomed, and can live and
par cipate in the community throughout their
life me.
WHAT WE DO:
We provide advocacy, public awareness and
educa on, and a variety of programs and services
that broadly support the inclusion of people with
disabili es.
EVERYONE HAS A RIGHT:
to be part of a family
to have a home
to community involvement
to an educa on
to employment
to friendships
to leisure
to spirituality