Survey of Volunteer, Training and Employment Programs for People with Developmental Disabilities in Canada |
SURVEY OVERVIEW
Invitation to Complete this Survey
On behalf of People First of Canada (PFC), we are inviting providers of volunteer, training, and employment supports and services for people with developmental disabilities to complete this survey. The survey is part of PFC’s initiative to support the transition from sheltered work to inclusive employment for people with developmental disabilities in Canada. It gathers data and providers’ perspectives on progress in achieving this goal and on any steps that providers have taken in restructuring their programs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. PFC is undertaking this initiative with a financial contribution from Employment and Social Development Canada.
For the purposes of this survey we define a ‘program’ as a volunteer, training or employment support or service which providers deliver to people they support. The survey questions use the term ‘program’ in the broadest sense to include any related supports and services an organization provides.
IRIS - Institute for Research and Development on Inclusion and Society, and Chronicle Analytics have developed and are conducting the survey on behalf of PFC.
Please complete the survey for each of the volunteer, training, and employment programs your organization delivers and provide a separate non-identifying code for each program to facilitate analysis of the information collected. The survey provides instructions for doing this.
It should take about 15 minutes to complete the survey for one program, assuming you have information about the program and participants readily available to you (e.g., number of people served in the program and participants’ gender, length of time in the program, etc.).
Background to this Survey
People with a developmental disability have among the lowest employment rates of any population group in Canada – only 30% of working-age adults are employed. The purpose of this survey is to:
1) improve understanding about the range and type of volunteer, training and employment programs in Canada delivered by local agencies or organizations mandated to support people with a developmental disability;
2) learn about what providers are doing to improve employment outcomes, including during the COVID-19 pandemic; and,
3) gain insight from agencies about what assistance they need to improve employment outcomes for people they support.
Your answers will be confidential – no identifying information is gathered about agencies participating in the survey.
1) improve understanding about the range and type of volunteer, training and employment programs in Canada delivered by local agencies or organizations mandated to support people with a developmental disability;
2) learn about what providers are doing to improve employment outcomes, including during the COVID-19 pandemic; and,
3) gain insight from agencies about what assistance they need to improve employment outcomes for people they support.
Your answers will be confidential – no identifying information is gathered about agencies participating in the survey.
Thank you for taking part in this survey.
For more information or assistance in completing this survey, please contact:
Katie Plaizier
Senior Research and Development Officer, IRIS
k.plaizier@irisinstitute.ca
If you are completing this survey and know of other providers which deliver volunteer, training or employment programs for working-age adults with developmental disabilities, please forward the link https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PFC_2020_Survey to them or reach out to IRIS at k.plaizier@irisinstitute.ca.