‘Make hiring people with a disability a priority’: Nunavut non-profit manager
Nunavummi Disabilities Makinnasuaqtiit Society seeks to break down stereotypes during awareness month
Jennifer Allooloo’s job is to enhance the customer experience at Iqaluit’s airport. She got her job with support from Nunavummi Disabilities Makinnasuaqtiit Society. (Photo by Daron Letts)
Jennifer Allooloo loves her job.
“Oh my gosh, it is like the best job ever,” said the Canadian North employee, whose workaday mission is to enhance the customer experience at Iqaluit’s airport.
October is Disability Employment Awareness Month, and Allooloo, who has a disability, advanced into the role two weeks ago after serving three years as a customer service agent.
“I now work away from the passenger counter and gate,” she said.
“I greet people, help people if they need help, talk to passengers and direct people to the washrooms or the baggage areas. It’s a big job, because I see a lot of people. New faces, new people every day and I greet them. It’s awesome.”
Allooloo, who grew up in Rankin Inlet and Arctic Bay, communicates in Inuktitut during many of these interactions.
“She’s always speaking Inuktitut. She’s always helping passengers,” said Adebola Kolawole, a project manager with Nunavummi Disabilities Makinnasuaqtiit Society.
“Most of the passengers from the communities are elders so they are more comfortable going to Jennifer to ask for anything they need.”
Allooloo sought support from the society before working with a job coach to land her position with Canadian North.
Nunavummi Disabilities Makinnasuaqtiit Society, based in Iqaluit, is the only disability advocacy organization in Nunavut. Among its services to clients are help with resume-writing, job-interview preparation, on-site skills training and temporary or permanent job coaching, depending on clients’ and employers’ needs.
The society employs 20 staff, including five job coaches, who serve more than 100 clients throughout the territory.
“What works for one client doesn’t work for another client, so we have to build a plan around each client,” said Kolawole.
Recently, the disabilities society placed a client with a position at NCC Development Inc. in Baker Lake, and another client is being placed this month in Pond Inlet.
Clients have also found work at the Northern Store and Kissarvik Co-op in Rankin Inlet.
“We have gone through almost every community in Nunavut,” said Isaac Mensah, employment specialist with the society.
In Iqaluit, clients have found jobs at Arctic Ventures, Northmart and the Aqsarniit hotel, as well as several construction companies and daycares.
In addition to building up employable skills with clients, the organization also must tear down stereotypes standing in the way, Mensah said.
“There’s a big stereotype against persons with disabilities in Nunavut,” he said, adding the benefits of a diversified workforce include higher employee morale, goodwill in the community, increased productivity and fewer sick days on average.
“Nunavut employers must embrace inclusive hiring practices. We are there to give them the support they need to succeed,” Mensah said.
Some of the non-profit’s clients have found work with the Government of Nunavut, Kolawole said, but she adds there is potential for more successful job placements.
“It would be great if the GN specifically could make it a priority to offer training for people working for the GN on what disability, inclusion and accessibility mean,” said Kolawole.
“And it would be good to make hiring people with a disability a priority at the GN.”
According to the latest Statistics Canada data, the public service is the largest employer in Nunavut. Approximately 6,600 Nunavummiut work for the GN and roughly 600 are employed by the federal government.
According to a 2011 amendment to the Nunavut Human Rights Act, the term “disability” encompasses any previous or existing or perceived mental or physical disability, and includes disfigurement and previous or existing dependency on alcohol or drugs.
An estimated 5,570 Nunavummiut live with disabilities.
Since their disability umbrella includes “previous or existing dependency on alcohol or drugs”, as well as previous (but resolved, apparently) mental or physical disabilities, I’d say that the GN already has a high number of people who are assigned “disabled” by the activists, and doesn’t need more outreach to find more.
There should be no discrimination against applicants. The GN needs to focus on hiring people who are able do the jobs they are hired for, and are willing to show up for them. It’s wonderful when disabled people can do one of these jobs, and they shouldn’t be discriminated against if they are able to do the work needed.
The people of Nunavut need to come to understand that jobs exist because work needs to get done and services need to be provided. Jobs don’t primarily exist to provide an easy paycheque to the lucky selected employee. The paycheque is how you get someone to do the job, but the work that the job needs to be done is the reason the job is there. Nunavut will not be able to develop until this is recognized.
It’s hard to imagine an “efficient workplace” where showing up under the influence is the norm. Running a government office effectively surely requires focus and productivity, and relying on “previous or existing dependency” to keep things interesting is far from ideal.
Likewise, it’s no surprise that Nunavut faces challenges if jobs are seen as paycheques with little expectation of actual work. At the end of the day, positions exist to get important tasks done, and it’s crucial that people understand that their role is about more than just showing up – it’s about contributing meaningfully.
On a more serious note, it’s common sense that drug and alcohol dependency shouldn’t be a standard in any workplace. The focus should be on hiring individuals who are fully capable of fulfilling their responsibilities and providing the services the community needs.
Just like government want the appointment is past the due date and do you know what would happen the patient, that person would have to pay extra and when the worker of the government is done same thing and that person is try to get some help for what really happen to the government workers and try to complain and all the phone calls for help would just say we can’t do anything even the kivallik legal aid are doing this thing right now. And they would want to know what really happen if there is happen and this mental health worker in arviat doing right now.
Kudos to Ms Allooloo for being employable, regardless of her cognitive or physical disability. It does seem a bit odd though that this article has her as the focus for access to employment when she was employed forthe past three years in the same facility and in a likely more demanding position as Customer Service Agent
On another note, regarding the statement: “… the public service is the largest employer in Nunavut. Approximately 6,600 … work for the GN and roughly 600 are employed by the federal government…”
That seems a tad low for the number of people employed with the Public Service in NU. Including the IAs, Hamlet, NGOs and Non-profits I’ll hazard that at least 95% of employment in NU is with the ‘Public Service’. Those unemployed also receive regular paychecks.
Keep your communities clean of family businesses. In a way, Inuit family owned business are a challenge in regions kivalliq. I like how rest of Nunavut runs their community business’s. Coop and northern and only supporting their local stores, when small amounts of business’s runs their towns and usually and usually one sided family businesses and want to run the whole town of jobs, who gets the jobs.