40 years of my working career were in manufacturing, 25 years of those years were spent establishing social enterprises that strived to offer valued supported employment for people with disability. During all of this time, one thing has always stood out and continues to the present day.
“Meaningful work, activity, or recreation—whatever you choose to call it—is important in everyone’s life. Regardless of age, ability, disability, or individual talent, having a sense of purpose is a fundamental human need and a vital part of our quality of life.”
Sadly, I feel this is not truly appreciated in our community, by governments and businesses, nor by the organisations established to support people with disability in accommodation, recreation, training or employment.
Most people, including some with a disability, might agree that inclusive mainstream employment (open employment) within the broader community offers the best outcome for people with disability. But rarely do we talk about what meaningful or valued work means for those to whom we offer a service.
The sad reality is that there are not enough jobs, accepting employers, or political will to make it happen for everyone, particularly for our most vulnerable people with high support needs who may require ongoing levels of support, training, workplace modification or have other episodic support needs which restrict ongoing participation in employment.
Supported Employment
Supported Employment plays an essential role in our society. If we as a community care and want to ensure people with disability have the right to choose employment/work regardless of what challenges an individual’s support needs are. We need to continue to fund Supported Employment services at sustainable levels to make this choice available.
Unfortunately, many long-running Supported Employment programs do not provide sufficient opportunities for meaningful work. In some cases, they are no more than a place for people to go when they have no other choice.
Apart from a few exceptions, most services are little more than sheltered workshops run by well-meaning charities, who, in an attempt to keep large groups of people busy, sit people down around a table to pack things in bags. Many of their businesses are cheap contract assembly services, such as lawn mowing, cleaning, or laundry, and, due to low viability, they offer to pay a token wage, where organisations are reliant on the charity of others.
The net result is that people with disabilities are not seen as valued employees of real businesses. Rather, they are marketed for fundraising. This creates a wrong impression: that people with disability are helpless victims deserving only our pity and charity.
Many Supported Employment services attempt to minimise risk, avoid inclusive workplaces and rarely employ business and industrial staff or other people from the broader community. Instead, the staff they do hire are carers rather than fellow workers. Rather than working with and alongside people, they prioritise compliance and risk management over training and work practice modification to improve work access.
Consequently, they have little capacity to develop the business or industry expertise, let alone the capacity to assess business performance, the cost of products or services and the productivity of their workforce to pay fair wages.
Social Enterprises
A Social Enterprise is a profit-making venture set up to tackle a social need. But unlike a commercial business, all profits are retained and reinvested into the venture to ensure its sustainability and growth. Not focused on charity fundraising activities, but more on ways to improve business viability to meet a social need.
Successful attributes for a Social Enterprise whose social purpose is to provide supported employment for people with disability are:
- Operating in a sustainable, valued business area.
- Hire skilled staff in the chosen business area, understand your real costs, and tool-up correctly. Always price quote and tender for viability.
- If the business cannot sustain the employment of people on full award wages, it will never pay fair wages for people with disability or be able to measure their real participation.
- Apply Social Role Valorisation (SRV) principles to your business, marketing and employees.
- Governance and management are purpose-driven – disability advocacy, SRV, mission, and vision.
- Use best business practices, financial management and cash flow.
- Run a separate profit and loss for the business income and human service funding, as it is crucial to understand the real costs of delivering human services and your business’s viability.
- Employment and training are person-centred, focusing on training and workplace modification to ensure valued participation in meaningful work activities.
- Dignity of risk. Allow individuals to take risks, learn new tasks, equipment, and job roles. Stepping into the unknown is part and parcel of treating people with disability as dignified adults.
- An entrepreneurial board. Having good financial skills on board is still essential, but equally important is an understanding of both the business and the organisation’s purpose, and a willingness to take risks to grow, improve, and change if needed.
- The ability to know when to let go of an unprofitable business and when to start in a new business area when opportunities present.
All sounds simple, right? No!, It’s challenging work, which is why purpose, mission, and vision are essential, as it requires extra effort from boards, management, and staff.
A significant challenge for Social Enterprises offering Supported Employment for people with disability is identifying a viable business to pursue. Even under typical circumstances, starting and sustaining a business is difficult, especially given that 8 out of 10 new businesses fail within the first 18 months. The challenge grows when the organisation must also provide meaningful work for groups of people. On top of this, delivering quality support, training, workplace modifications, and inclusive practices to enable meaningful participation for people with disability is not feasible without public funding.
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My background experience in establishing and providing supported employment in Social Enterprises:
CEO of SA Group Enterprises Inc. – 1995-2014
Aspitech – Electronics recycling and computer refurbishing – 2007-2014
Inprint Design – Graphic design, print brokering and website development – 1995-2014
Link Disability Magazine – Full-colour national print magazine publication – 2005-2014
Optcom – Website Development, Database development and multimedia – 2000-2005
Precision Cartridges – Toner cartridge remanufacturing – 1995-1998
SA Wire Ware – Point of Sale Display Stand Manufacturer – 1995-2014
Worklink Enclave – Contract Laboratory Staff – 2007-2014
Your Employment Success – Specialist DES Employment Services for the Deaf – 2003-2014
Qualitec Limited – Electronics assembly, design and manufacturing – 1986-1995 I was first hired at Qualitec as the Production Manager to help set up the plant and equipment. Then, train staff in electronics manufacturing. 3 years later, I became the General Manager.
Qualitec was the first Social Enterprise of its type in Australia, established as a demonstration research project by the University of Sydney, NSW, Macquarie University, NSW and the University of Oregon in the US. The Special Training Program (STP) model was developed by the University of Oregon, where they had established a successful Social Enterprise Electronics Manufacturing business employing people with severe to profound intellectual disability.