29 organizations – we actually had the opportunity to meet the gentlemen from Antigonish that Jeff is talking about. It’s those kinds of learning opportunities that allow every DIRECTIONS organization to make our individual centres that much more client-centred. As a not-for- profit group, who does DIRECTIONS reach out to for the resources you need? HS: The government is really getting behind DIRECTIONS like never before. They’re helping us to build capacity and to scale-up some of the opportunities around social enter- prise. MT: That’s true. We have a number of projects that we’re delivering in partnership with the Department of Commu- nity Services. Two of those projects are providing increased resources to local agencies within our network to assist people to connect with basic community employment opportunities. We’ve done similar things in the past and they’ve been highly successful with very good job retention rates – which of course, increase the work experience of our clients. This sort of proactive approach is part of our mandates. We aim to help people with disabilities move to the next stage of their employment dreams. For others, this helps them make permanent connections to employment. The government is really moving in a direc- tion that increases our capacity to provide support and
51
APRIL 2017 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
Made with FlippingBook HTML5