Social Firms, Sheltered Workshops, Supported Employment and me
The following definitions are provided via that font of all knowledge, Wikipedia:
Social Firms
'Social Firm is the British term for a work integration social enterprise (WISE), a business created to employ people who have a disability or are otherwise disadvantaged in the labour market. Its commercial and production activities are undertaken in the context of a social mission, with profits going back into the company to further its goals. A significant number of the employees of social firms will be people with a disability or disadvantage, including psychiatric disabilities. The firms grew out of disillusionment with mainstream businesses, and the failure to recognise or enable everyone's potential. All workers are paid a market-rate wage or salary that is appropriate to the work. All employees are intended to have the same employment opportunities, rights and obligations.
Sheltered Workshops
A sheltered workshop is an organisation that provides employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
The word 'sheltered' refers to a protective environment where the disabled can undertake paid meaningful employment in a supportive environment. The term 'sheltered workshop' is considered outdated in favour of social enterprise, especially in the UK, the US and increasingly in Australia. However the notion of 'social enterprise' implies that the organisation would trade in the market and take on a degree of business risk, and not be completely dependent on government subsidy, as the traditional model of the sheltered workshop may allow. In this newer model, the enterprise might receive a subsidy in compensation for the reduced productivity of its disadvantaged workers, in order to allow it to compete on a "level playing field" with conventional firms. In Australia, funding can only be used to provide training and support to is 'supported' employees. This type of employment is in contrast to 'open employment' where people with disabilities enter mainstream or 'open' employment
Supported Employment
Supported employment is a term used to describe a system of support for people with disabilities in regards to ongoing employment in integrated settings. Supported employment provides assistance such as job coaches, job development, job retention, transportation, assistive technology, specialized job training, and individually tailored supervision. Supported Employment often refers to both the development of employment opportunities and on-going support for those individuals to maintain employment.
The concept of supported employment has made it possible for individuals with moderate-to-severe levels of disabilities to become active, wage-earning members of the workforce
Which is best?
I don’t think best comes into it – the correct question should surely be which is right? Which offers the greatest opportunity for growth and personal development? Where should the powerful consign the powerless?
I should also state that I do not question the motivations of people that support exclusive rather than inclusive employment and those that favour the isolation of people with disability over their integration – I just think that they haven’t thought things through.
Do you come to work because you like it or because you have no choice? Faced with this question the majority would probably answer because I like it or because I am in transit to something I would prefer and this (your job) is simply the means to that end.
In my life I have held some 20 or so jobs with a wide range of requirements – many I did ‘in transit’ some out of need (and occasional desperation) but my longest jobs have been those that I truly love.
As a young person I needed to experience what I did not like in order to identify those things did enjoy. I will never be a plumber! I cannot use my hands in the way that my sons work with tools, with skill and safety. I do not like to work late at night.
My experience with people that have a disability suggests that they are the same – they crave experience and exposure to different areas of the workforce as a means of finding out and developing their abilities and skills and as a progressive journey (a career) that will enable them to achieve their maximum potential.
Social firms and sheltered workshops by their very nature cannot provide this journey – they are dead ends. Well meaning, well intentioned and a dead end that offers only one sort of work and punishes anyone that does not enjoy same*.
* Before you ring/write, email or graffiti the walls of my office please take 1 minute to answer this question honestly and with intelligence: Do you perform better at work you enjoy or on tasks you loathe?
Common sense and honesty would have the answer, ‘tasks you enjoy’. People with a disability are no different and yet the annual wage fixing process measures performance/productivity on the tasks that are available and/or assigned rather than on your choices or preferences – a social firm does what it does and if you don’t like mechanics, process work, packing or whatever you are unlikely to be particularly productive and, as a consequence, you will earn less than your maximum potential.
This excludes you from full participation in the workforce and would only be acceptable at even an intellectual level if there was no alternative (there is).
If you scroll down earlier posts you will come across another I worte entitled ‘thieves’. Why did the young lady earn less? Maybe because she hated teh rotten work she was given, maybe not because of her disability, maybe she just wanted to be fulfilled by her employment.
Where can opportunity be found?
Supported employment mirrors the community in which we all live. Through properly facilitated supported employment NOVA job seekers have become employees in pretty much every sort of business from Accountants to Zookeepers. Not every person has stayed in their job (maybe they changed their minds). Not every person has achieved 100% productivity and, as a result may have had to use a supported wage. Some have been fired. The difference is that in every case each person was given the freedom to make their own choices and other methods of employment offer only ‘this or that’ choice.
The truth is that every day NOVA finds or creates 3 new opportunities for our job seekers in work they have chosen with the maximum possible hours and earnings – enabling full participation in Australian society.
Our political parties are throwing money in this election period at every sort of cause and sheltered workshops and social firms are taking full advantage of this. It is a shame that the people who stand to gain or lose the most from the choices our masters make are those with the least ability to be heard.
Let’s take the money from sheltered workshops and programs that exclude and leave people with disability to make their own informed choices about where they might like to use their skills – I doubt it will be painting surveyor’s pegs.
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Your Comments Tim Bennett from north carolina wrote on 25 Jun 2016 5:47:07 AM we need to end subminimum wages for the disabled non disabled i didn't haqve a intellectual or developmental disability to be paid such lousy wages
Previous Posts
Exploitation the consistent theme I wrote this 14 years ago:
https://www.novaemployment.com.au/ceo/How-to-rort-the-Star-Ratings_294/
(apologies for some formatting issues)
Take a look at the present Royal Commission on abuse of people with disability....
The records keep falling! Following on from last post, I'd like to give some public recognition to my staff who have not only stood up under the tests of the Pandemic, they've continued to achieve record breaking results....
Never been so busy! At the risk of jinxing it, there's never been a better time to be looking for work - NOVA is getting scores of inquiries for workers, breaking all records each week with no sign of a let-up in sight!
The demand might be simply a post lockdown mini boom and maybe the bubble will pop - I have to say there's no sign of that....
July Rant There's an inquiry into Disability Employment Service and how best the new National Contract (2023) might serve the needs of the Commonwealth - note, that I haven't said, 'the needs of people with disability'....
Review Australia's $1bn disability employment service criticised over poor outcomes and reduced employment - https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/mar/31/australias-disability-employment-down-3-in-past-decade-as-service-scheme-criticised-for-poor-outcomes....
Thank you Mark Zuckerberg (not!) Friends of NOVA may have seen our Facebook page is down - courtesy Mark Zuckerberg NOVA/Focus are victims of much larger forces - no idea when or if we'll be restored - more as events unfold....
They Don't Count Gaining or holding formal qualifications can set a person up for a lifetime career. Holding appropriate qualifications that can lead to lifelong careers, tradespeople generally make a good income and enjoy well deserved respect....
Benchmarks To access NOVA Employment or any Disability Employment Service (DES), almost everyone is required to be assessed by the Services Australia Services (Centrelink) to determine their "Benchmark" hours: Benchmark hours are the pay point for service providers; being the minimum working hours required for the DES provider to bill the Government and the assessed maximum hours a person is deemed capable of working with DES support....
International Day of People with a Disability
International Day of People with a Disability
It's IDPwD and we have a 1 hour 'special' screening on SBS from 4.30 this afternoon.
Our Ryan Goodwin has done a great job of selecting some of the great entries from NOVA's 'Focusonability' short film festival - we love the Festival and hope that you'll love these films, gathered from around the world....
2020 - the first half When the going gets tough, the tough get going
Good! - Now they've left us, let's look at reality - when the going gets tough, many people suffer and dis-proportionally, people with disability suffer more....
Countdown Clock II
What's the countdown clock all about?
It's our closing time and a countdown to the end of a truly remarkable month of extraordinary effort by my staff....
Countdown Clock Regular viewers will have noticed a countdown clock ticking away (above)
What's that all about?
Can't say - you have to wait till 4.30pm (a little earlier for staff)
...
Just the best 3 One thing we all love is a winner which is why there's a smile on my face it will be pretty hard to shift.
There's a nightmare pandemic sweeping the world (carried off my mum), the economy has tanked in a never before seen disaster that's left more than a million Aussies unemployed and the only news seems to be bad news....
More than Money!
If asked, most of us would say we went to work for the money, to pay our bills or support our family.
All true, and yet work means so much more:
Prior to finding a job with NOVA employment Glenn* struggled to keep jobs for more than a few months and was generally working as a dishwasher in restaurants which he found to be quite unsatisfying work....
Life Changers II
How are you in the mornings (or evenings, or nights)? NOVA is an 'old school' Disability Employment Service - we find work in the general community with identical pay and conditions as those enjoyed by people who dont have a disability....
Life Changers Required! Received yesterday:
I was unemployed for 24 years because of my disability. I was looking for a job for the last 2 and half years. With the help of (NOVA Staff) I found suitable job and working in the law company for last one year....
Try us!
Don't know about you but I have felt pretty bruised from all the horrible stuff brought upon us by this damn virus - seeing so many folk losing their jobs is particularly awful and the uncertainty generated for everyone, particularly for workers who have a disability is dreadful to see....
Best Ever II
Following from last post:
NOVA Employment has operated for 30 years. Comparing all results from previous years, February 2020 has been our most successful to date - Following on from January that's 2 in a row and every indication March will also be a record breaker....
Best Ever
NOVA Employment posted another 'best ever' result for the first month of 2020.
Despite the most dreadful natural disasters and with many businesses closed for the holidays, the NOVA team delivered more new workers than in any previous January results, beating past 5 years average by 25% and previous (2017) 'best ever' numbers by 5%....
Depressing cracked record!
A good friend will occasionally pull me up with the reminder that I have a tendency to rant, 'rave on slop jaw' if I remember correctly....
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