News
June 1st , 2010
National Supported Employment Conference Call for Presenters
The Canadian Association for Supported Employment is seeking workshops for our 2010 Conference - Shifting the Balance to be held in Halifax, NS June 7-9, 2011.
We will accept electronic file submissions in this MS Word Form.
Please provide your submission to our conference committee via email to case2011@hotmail.com.
Submission Deadline: September 30, 2010.
Review Period: Proposals will be reviewed by the CASE board and members of the Program Planning Committee. Persons submitting proposals will be notified of the outcome of the Committee's decision by October 15, 2010.
For more information, visit our conference pages linked to on the right
May 20th, 2009
National Supported Employment Conference Call for Presenters
The Canadian Association for Supported Employment is seeking workshops for our 2009 Conference - Building the CASE. We will be playing host to hundreds of service providers, advocates, self advocates, employers and human resource professionals, educators and policy makers who share the common goal of building a more inclusive Canadian workforce. We are seeking presentations and workshops from speakers and trainers who have an understanding of the issues faced by people with disabilities in their pursuit of career goals.
Submission Deadline: All presentation proposals must be submitted by June 8, 2009 using the proposal submission form linked to below.
Acknowledgement: All presentation submissions will be acknowledged via e-mail upon receipt.
Review Period: Proposals will be reviewed by the CASE board and members of the Program Planning Committee. Persons submitting proposals will be notified of the outcome of the Committee's decision by June 20, 2009.
How to Submit an Application:All Workshop Applications will be filled out online. To visit the Online Call for Presenters Site please CLICK HERE.
If you have any questions regarding Workshop Submission Information please contact Meaghan Feduck by email at meaghanfeduck@yahoo.com or by phone at 604-723-8251. All technical questions should be directed to Kristine Koonts, CASE 2009 Conference Coordinator (contact details below).
Regards,
Kristine Koonts, Conference Coordinator
2009 Canadian Association for Supported Employment Conference
c/o Sea to Sky Meeting Management Inc.
Suite 206, 201 Bewicke Ave
North Vancouver, BC, V7M 3M7
t 604.984.6448 f 604.984.6434 e kristine@seatoskymeetings.com
May 8th, 2009
Sask. government to hire more people with intellectual disabilities
The provincial government is expanding a program that encourages its managers to hire people with intellectual disabilities.
The job program was the first of its kind when it was implemented 10 years ago in the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure and the Ministry of Social Services. Under the initiative, people with cognitive disabilities were hired to wash laundry or clean equipment and buildings.
For more information, check out the following news articles:
CBC
Saskatoon Star Phoenix
Government of Saskatchewan
Leader Post
May 6th, 2009
2009 Conference Location & Dates Finalized
The 15th Annual Canadian Association for Supported Employment (CASE) Conference - Building the CASE - is taking place from November 11-13, 2009 at the Delta Beausejour in Moncton, NB.
Mark your calendars so you don't miss out on this fabulous opportunity to connect with friends, colleagues and industry partners. A full program of plenary sessions and workshops focusing on important issues promises to challenge and encourage all participants. Online registration will be active as of early July 2009.
For more information, check out the Conference Flyer (197KB PDF), or click on one of the conference links to the right.
We look forward to seeing you in Moncton, NB!
Meaghan Feduck
Conference Organizer
January 12th, 2009
2008 Membership Expiration
Membership in CASE for the 2008 year has expired as of today. If you registered last year prior to the month of November, your membership has now expired.
To renew your membership, please visit our renewal form and make any changes necessary.
Thanks,
Kyle Maclean
October 3, 2008
Upcoming Treaty 7 Disability Conference
The 2009 Community Futures Treaty Seven Disability Conference will promote employment and economic opportunities for First Nations people with disabilities. Congruent with the theme of the conference: Focus Empower Expand, the vision is to build the capacity of existing T7 sub agreement holder's employment services (on and off reserve) for addressing the needs of people with disabilities, to facilitate opportunities for networking and connections among all stakeholders, and to achieve outcomes in the area of employment for First Nations people with disabilities.
The conference will be held at Coast Plaza Conference Centre, Calgary, AB from February 23-25 2009.
For more information, check out this poster (494kb PDF) or the Treaty 7 Website
Kyle Maclean
August 27, 2008
NSEC Conference Registration is Open
Registration for this years National Supported Employment Conference is open. For more information click on the relevant links on the right hand side of this website.
Kyle Maclean
April 21, 2008
NSEC 2008 Call for Presenters
Planning for the 2008 National Supported Employment Conference is well under way. If you would like to participate as a conference presenter, please fill out our proposal submission form (100KB PDF).
For more information on this years upcoming conference, check out our conference pages linked to on the right of the website.
Kyle Maclean
January 2nd, 2008
Happy New Year!
Happy new year everyone! As you may or may not know, CASE membership expires on December 31st each year so it's time to renew your membership. Because we are now managing CASE membership right here on this website, we will need everyone to fill out our Registration Form with all of the relevant details. For those of you that registered after the National Supported Employment Conference in November, your memberships will carry forward for this year. Registering will also give you access to our new forum, and Member Resources (once payment has been processed). If you have any questions about our new registration process, contact our new Membership manager Rochelle Poncelet via our contact page.
Kyle Maclean
December 11th, 2007
Another Successful National Supported Employment Conference
We had another successful Canadian Association for Supported Employment (CASE) Conference in beautiful Calgary AB this year! Thank you to the Calgary group for a truly wonderful and informative conference! If you haven't completed the on line Conference Evaluation CEO Inc. sent out, please complete it ASAP. It is important to get your feedback as we want to make each year's conference even better than the last one. If you have not received the evaluation, please phone CEO Inc. at 403-206-1508 and they will be glad to send you the link.
Next year's conference will be in Vancouver BC. British Columbia Association for Community Living (BCACL) will be hosting the event in partnership with the Canadian Association for Supported Employment. This will be the 14th Annual CASE Conference! Watch for details as they become available.
As one of the founding members of CASE, I would encourage you to please register with CASE and participate in the forums. Our webmaster Kyle Maclean has done a great job on our new website and now we need to use it in order for us to share news and information as it relates to moving the agenda of supported employment forward. We are encouraging you to share your successes and challenges as you continue to work with clients and employers. If we are to truly assist in helping those with historical barriers to employment find and maintain employment we must share resources and information, so we can all do the best job possible to see our successes continue to grow.
Membership in CASE expires December 31st each year, but if you want to register right now, your account will carry over to the next year so don't wait. Our new Membership person is Rochelle Poncelet. She will be ensuring a smooth process for registering with CASE this upcoming year. She can be reached via our contact page by selecting "General Inquiries" or on the forums here.
On behalf of the CASE Board of Directors, have a wonderful Holiday Season and all the best to you in 2008! See you all in Vancouver next year!
Sincerely,
Tracy Meyers, President
December 2nd, 2006
Frightening gaps show we have far to go
Success is a journey, not a destination.
That's an important concept to hang on to as we get set to mark this year's United Nations' International Day of Disabled Persons with gatherings scheduled across the country for Monday.
When it comes to tearing down the barriers that shut out people who move or communicate or process information differently from the majority, is Canada moving forward, marking time or backsliding?
Are the victories we achieve translating into meaningful change?
Nine years ago the Supreme Court of Canada issued a landmark ruling. It said, in effect, that Canadians with disabilities are entitled to equal access to and equal benefit from all government-funded services. It also said hospitals across the country must provide free sign language interpretation services to enable deaf patients who use sign language to communicate with those giving them medical care.
Today there are still frightening gaps in that scenario.
This week, the Ontario Association of Food Banks reported that people with disabilities, who represent 12.4 per cent of Canada's population, make up more than 20 per cent of those who need their services.
Not surprising perhaps when you consider that the employment rate for people with disabilities is about half that of their non-disabled peers, another frightening gap.
That statistic comes from the Ottawa-based Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres - http://www.cailc.ca - whose research and policy consultant Jihan Abbas has led the way in gathering numbers that show clearly what the disability community is up against.
The rights of people with disabilities "will be achieved when economic, social and cultural rights are realized ... in a meaningful way," says lawyer Dave Shannon, a director of the association of independent living centres and one of Canada's representatives helping United Nations member countries negotiate an international human rights treaty for people with disabilities.
But Shannon, originally from Thunder Bay, sees some barriers and divisions becoming more pronounced, particularly in rural areas. If even Supreme Court rulings are effectively ignored, he notes, what does it take to achieve change?
He is particularly discouraged by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's axing of the country's $5.6 million court challenges program, designed to help Canadians who could not otherwise afford to pay for lawyers to fight for their constitutional rights. The axe fell despite a whopping $13.2 billion federal surplus.
The statistics gathered by the association of independent living centres, a few of which are reprinted with this column, paint a troubling picture.
Among other things, they show that in an age of supposedly wide-open technology, people with disabilities are still more likely to be on the wrong side of the digital divide that separates those who can effectively use new information and communications tools from those who cannot.
No wonder the theme of this year's United Nations International Day of Disabled Persons is E-accessibility, focusing on the need to improve access to information technology for people with disabilities.
Shannon, who will be speaking at celebrations in Ottawa Monday, hopes the United Nations' human rights treaty for people with disabilities will ultimately create "a framework for positive policy and public perception changes."
But one of the most promising sources of hope may be found in an Ontario project to help "northern and rural" small businesses serve people with disabilities.
The EnAbling Change Partnership, to be launched Monday by Social and Enterprise Development Innovations in Simcoe, promises to provide some of the necessary tools, according to Social Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur.
Developed in co-operation with the Ontario Association of Community Futures Development Corporations Inc., the project features a website to help small businesses meet the needs of customers and employees with disabilities.
The launch, scheduled for 1 p.m. at the Norfolk District Business Development Corp., 4077 Highway 3, Simcoe, will also be carried interactively online starting at 1:30 p.m. at http://www.ndbdc.com/accessibility.
Meanwhile, Toronto Mayor David Miller will kick off his city's celebrations of the United Nations' International Day of People with Disabilities at 10 a.m. at the CNIB Centre, 1929 Bayview Ave.
On the agenda: a celebration of the achievements of unsung heroes and a sneak peak at Toronto's proposed 311 non-emergency information service, slated to come on stream in 2008.
HELEN HENDERSON
For more information, see http://www.toronto.ca/diversity.
June 5th 2006
Consumer Attitudes Towards Companies that Hire People with Disabilities
A new study regarding customer perceptions of businesses who hire people with disabilities reveals the additional benefits of inclusive work environments.
The study - conducted by the University of Massachusetts' Centre for Social Development and Education (CSDE) surveyed approximately 800 people. Of these, approximately 75% had experienced direct encounters with persons with disabilities in business environments. 92% of this group felt more favourable towards businesses that hire persons with disabilities and 87% agreed they would prefer to give their business to companies that hire people with disabilities. Hiring people with disabilities ranked third overall (behind offering health insurance, and protecting the environment) as an indicator of a company's commitment to social justice.
Source: Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, Vol. 24 - #1, 2006 - "A National Survey of Consumer Attitudes towards Companies that Hire people with Disabilities"
Jan. 31st 2006
Cuts to Services and Supports Imminent in Alberta
CASE would like to draw the attention of members and stakeholders to the issue of funding for people with developmental disabilities in Alberta. Simply stated, the necessary increase requested by the Minister for Seniors and Community Supports was denied by the Treasury Board of Alberta. The lesser amount which was approved does not keep up with growth and current funding needs - thus, forced cuts in existing services will occur unless the provincial government can be convinced to devote approximately 0.2% of its projected $8.7 billion surplus to this issue.
AASE as sent a letter to the Premiere and all MLAs requesting that government act to resolve these recurring funding issues. AASE's letter, along with similar letters from other organizations are linked to below (PDF files).
Lethbridge News Release 06 Funding Cuts