Grants of $5,000 each were awarded to The Causeway Work Centre, Line 1000 Placement Services, LiveWorkPlay (formerly the Special Needs Network) and l'association pour l’integration sociale d’Ottawa-Carleton, four of 46 projects supported across the province through the Ministry of Citizenship’s Community Access-Ability program.
"Building partnerships with community organizations such as these will help remove barriers to employment and recognize the contributions persons with disabilities make to their communities and to this province," said Jackson. "Seeking shared solutions that are locally-driven will assist in preventing the creation of new barriers and allow the disabled community to achieve full citizenship."
Project funding will assist in increasing employer and community awareness of the capabilities, talents and skills of persons with persistent and severe mental health difficulties; promote key market research findings to employers and service providers regarding job opportunities and training in growth industries for people with disabilities, and in the case of LiveWorkPlay, support the participation of 30-40 youth with developmental disabilities in analyzing the accessibility of area business and public facilities.
"This grant will help us in working towards expanding the understanding of disability," said Julie Kingstone, Co-Founder of the LiveWorkPlay organization. "When the general public hears 'access' and 'disability' they picture a wheelchair ramp. But for people with developmental disabilities, access is not necessarily about physical barriers, it is about human communication, in all its complex forms."
The Community Access-Ability program, an initiative launched in 1998 to create opportunities and improve access for persons with disabilities in Ontario, provides $200,000 funding annually in support of partnership efforts to create practical, workable projects that will remove barriers for persons with disabilities in their communities. It is part of the government’s $6 billion annual commitment in support of persons with disabilities.
For more information see http://www.gov.on.ca/mczcr/english/about...
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