Manitoba

Programs and Services

Manitoba programs funded under the Employability Assistance for People with Disabilities (EAPD) Agreement are delivered by four major program areas in two departments: Manitoba Family Services and Housing, and Manitoba Health. Each of these program areas serves a different target population.

Service Delivery

Manitoba Family Services and Housing

Vocational Rehabilitation

The Vocational Rehabilitation Program offers a wide range of employment-focused services and supports to assist adults with developmental, physical, psychiatric or learning disabilities. Services include assessment, vocational planning, counselling, work training, educational training, job search and follow-up after employment is obtained. The program also funds disability-related supports such as technical aids and equipment, tuition, books, supplies, transportation and interpreters.

Vocational Rehabilitation Services are delivered by vocational counsellors in eight Manitoba Family Services and Housing regional offices and by three designated agencies. Each of these offices serves individuals with specific types of disabilities, as follows:

• Manitoba Family Services and Housing - developmental, psychiatric or learning disabilities;
• The Canadian National Institute for the Blind - visual disabilities;
• Canadian Paraplegic Association - spinal cord injuries; and
• Society for Manitobans with Disabilities - all other physical disabilities, including hearing disabilities.

Manitoba Health

Mental Health

Manitoba Health directly or indirectly supports several programs and services which provide a wide range of employment-focused services to assist adults experiencing mental illness. A "Choose, Get and Keep" approach to employability services is used by Manitoba Health. Within this framework, supported employment services are used to help people experiencing mental illness to be satisfied and successful in their chosen work environments, with the appropriate level of supports.
Employment activities funded under the EAPD Agreement can be divided into three categories:

• employability services funded directly through Manitoba Health;
• employability services delivered by the regional health authorities; and
• employability services provided by external agencies and funded by a regional health authority.

External Addictions Agencies

Manitoba Health provides grants to a number of external agencies that provide treatment for alcohol and drug addictions (nine agencies in 1999-2000 and seven in 2000-2001). The main focus of each of these agencies is to work with clients in treating their addictions. However, within each treatment program there is an employability component which supports clients by helping them develop the skills required to prepare for, attain or retain employment.

The size of the agency and the length of its program often determine the degree of involvement in employment-focused programming. Larger agencies will include an employability component within their overall programs whereas smaller agencies will refer their clients to community resources with expertise in employment, while continuing to provide emotional and other personal supports through counselling. Each of the addictions agencies cost-shared under EAPD provides services to a different target population.

Addictions Foundation of Manitoba

Addictions Foundation of Manitoba (AFM) programs, funded under the EAPD Agreement, provide a wide range of employment-focused services to assist adults with alcohol and drug addictions. AFM programs provide the opportunity for employment success by coordinating a range of support and counselling services to help the participant enter the labour force or maintain employment. AFM programs are delivered on a regional basis throughout Manitoba, providing a continuum of residential and community-based services.

Program Results

The Canada-Manitoba EAPD Agreement includes the following five primary indicators to measure the short- and medium-term results of interventions cost-shared under the initiative:

• the number of people actively participating in programs (participants);
• the number of people successfully completing programs (completed);
• the number of people completing employment preparation programs, who subsequently progress to other interventions leading to employment (progressed);
• the number of people employed after participation (employed); and
• the number of people sustained in employment in the case of vocational crises (vocational crisis).

N/A – Information on this indicator is not available.

1 The number of participants is less than the total Vocational Rehabilitation caseload (4,048 in 1999-2000 and 3,723 in 2000-2001) as not all those enrolled on the Program were actively engaged in employment-focused activities in these years. The Program is reviewing the caseload so that future reports will include only those participants in an active status. The number of participants is lower in 2000-2001 due to the exclusion of participants who are reported under Mental Health. These participants were reported under both programs in 1999-2000.

2 The data for Mental Health are not comparable for 1999-2000 and 2000-2001. The 1999-2000 data represent the number of participants with an open status at some time throughout the year whereas the 2000-2001 data represent the number of participants with an open status on March 31, 2001.

3 The numbers in parentheses indicate how many of the external agencies were able to report on this indicator, out of a total of nine agencies in 1999-2000 and seven agencies in 2000-2001.

Each program area is responsible for developing mechanisms to track these indicators. As a result, there is the possibility that some participants may be counted more than once if they are receiving services from more than one program area.The following table provides the most comprehensive program results available. Manitoba programs are still in the process of developing data collection systems to capture the information required to respond to the accountability requirements in the agreement. Accordingly, some of the programs are not able to report on all five indicators at this time.

Expenditures

The following table provides the expenditures claimed under the EAPD initiative in 1999-2000 and 2000-2001, by EAPD component.

Consultation with the Public and People with Disabilities

The Joint Community and Government Consultation on Disability and Employment Issues (Joint Consultation) is a committee composed of members of the disability community (consumers, service providers and advocates) and government staff from the four provincial departments which provide employment-related services to people with disabilities (Education, Training and Youth; Family Services and Housing; Health; and Labour and Immigration). The committee provides a forum for the disability community and government to discuss the EAPD initiative and other employment-related programs, policies and issues affecting Manitobans with disabilities.

The disability community also has input into the accountability and evaluation components of the EAPD initiative through representation on the EAPD Outcome Measures Working Group, which is responsible for developing the accountability requirements of the EAPD Agreement.

Provincial Contact

Adult Services Branch
Manitoba Family Services and Housing
119-114 Garry Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 4V4
Tel.: (204) 945-0808
Fax.: (204) 945-5668