Advancing Referral Processes

Comment by Vladimir Sorak on March 1, 2010 at 3:23pm

Advancing Referrals Processes
March 1, 2010

*Developed by:
A Commitment to Training and Employment for Women (ACTEW)
First Work – Ontario Association of Youth Employment Centres (OAYEC)

Question 1: Discuss the findings and recommendations from Phase 1, which identifies issues, challenges and opportunities regarding referral practices for women and youth within the Employment Ontario service delivery network
 The findings seem to resemble those at Employment Resource Centres of London Public Library. Many female and youth patrons are in need of upgrading their education/skills [have not finished high-school or have not gone past high-school].

Question 2: Contribute to the dialogue regarding how much the findings validate your own experience and practice
 Issues and challenges presented in this podcast are real and need to be taken into consideration to provide the best possible assistance to those looking for an employment. I will mention a couple of them:
1) Even though I have encountered patrons of different social status, generally the majority of ERC users are those with average/low income and are now using Employment Insurance and living in poverty. Some patrons are using meal plans, and other similar assistance. Many cannot even afford to buy USBs, the ERC is a blessing for them in many ways.
2) During the London Transit bus strike, our attendance decreased significantly, [which can be seen from ERC Monthly Reports] but then went back to ‘normal’ as soon as the strike was over, suggesting many patrons cannot afford to pay for transportation.

Question 3: Suggest how to disseminate the information to peer organizations.
 For many people, the London Public Library is the starting point in searching for a job. This is where people come and say: “I need a job, can you help me?” It is important, based on their needs to refer them to the right location/organization.
 All we can do is try to even further strengthen our communication with other organizations offering employment resource services available in London area. We are already working on that by attending outreach events, staying in touch via telephone and/or email. We do receive pamphlets and brochures from them and whenever opportunity presents, we inform patrons about alternative options which they have by attending information sessions provided by other organizations.
 From our end, we [LPL ERC] can only try to seek new ways of making patrons aware of services which other agencies provide. One of the options is perhaps to create large displays [one per each ERC branch] advertising training information available for patrons who wish to update their skills. The challenge might be keeping up with changing programs available through agencies.
 Some agencies [such as Over 55, YOU] provide us with a printed version of their newsletters which we display in our ERC areas. If all or at least most of the agencies provided us with their newsletter [that is if they do publish them] it would help us advertise them even more.


Vladimir Sorak
Employment Resource Centre Facilitator
London Public Library
1280 Huron St.
N5Y 4M2
519-451-8140 ext. 7415
Advancing Referrals Processes - Reply.docx

Comment by Heather Graham on March 12, 2010 at 1:53pm

Vladimir:

I am the consultant that is working with First Work (OAYEC) on the Advancing Referral Processes Project to document case studies that reflect innovative and successful practices AND to summarize the work we have undertaken to date in Phase II of the project which has focused on disseminating the findings from this project and generating discussion about them in the sector. I want to first thank you for taking the time to participate in the discussion, and also ask you if you would allow us to reference or quote some of what you've said in the final report we are compiling.

Regards,
Heather

Comment by Vladimir Sorak on March 12, 2010 at 2:15pm

It was my pleasure to listen to the experts in the field. If there is anything you find worthy of mentioning, by all means use it.

FYI: I am not a Career Developer, Career Counselor nor the "professional" in the field. Employment Resource Centre is a referal place. We refer people according to their needs. As I mentioned in my previous comment, we are the "first stop" to many patrons. It is a great feeling to see so many people getting free assistance. They are satisfied and that is what makes us [ERC Facilitators] happy.

Regars,
Vladimir

Comment by Diane macDonald on March 16, 2010 at 12:22pm

The focus of this project seemed to be more on agency-to-agency referrals, and internal referrals within an agency, as opposed to the sort of referrals made by the London Public Library’s Employment Resource Centre Facilitators (to local agencies). However, it doesn’t necessarily exclude the referrals we make on a daily basis. Often the Facilitators struggle with where best to send a client, especially when it is clear to us that they need help in more than one area, because we don’t want them to feel they are being bounced from place to place, adding to the stress they are already experiencing. We also have many clients are what I have termed “agency phobic”. They like coming to the Library to do their job search because they are not required to identify themselves, and are not accountable to anyone but themselves. These people shy away from agencies because they then lose that anonymity. One of our greatest frustrations is knowing that a client needs the help of an agency, but also knowing that they are not willing to take that step either because of the loss of anonymity mentioned above or simply because they don’t know that they need that help.
I absolutely agree with the notion of agencies working in a collaborative rather than competitive way as this project suggests. Networking clearly plays a role here – the more contact amongst agency staff (and others, like the Library’s Employment Resource Centre Facilitators who make frequent referrals to agencies) can only result in a positive outcome. Everyone, including clients would benefit from such an approach.
Another difficulty facing the agencies, and centres like ours is that there is so much change taking place in terms of programs and services offered and the types of clients served that it is difficult to keep up. An improved line of communication (from the top down!) would certainly help.
I strongly support the recommendation to convene stakeholders! That to me would be an important first step in improving all lines of communication.

Comment by Heather Graham on March 17, 2010 at 10:44am

Diane:

Thanks for your response! Would you also allow us to reference or quote some of what you've said in the final report we are compiling?

Regards,
Heather

Comment by Diane macDonald on March 17, 2010 at 10:56am

Certainly

Comment by Brent Nancekivell on March 19, 2010 at 4:14pm

In my experiences, I have witnessed women who enter the Employment Resource Centre who are typical of those that were mentioned. They are frequently single mothers of one or more children who are in low paying, survival type jobs and struggle day to day. As for youth, some come from "broken" homes where they are forced to seek other options at a very early age and are again forced into finding short-term, not so meaningful employment in order to make ends meet.
A lack of subsidized child care for single mothers I feel is a major barrier for most of these women, and for youth it may be something as simple as them not realizing all the options they have open to them, as well as lack of job experience (some of whom may not have been able to complete their education for whatever reasons).
I have noticed an influx of older female job seekers (50+) who most likely due to circumstances such as a spouse being out of work, has forced many older women who may have never had a job in the past to seek out employment to support the household. A very intimidating process for one to have to go through.
For agencies to better cope with the increased numbers in their offices, a standard Common Assessment Process is crucial so as not to duplicate efforts, freeing up more time to get to the core of the issues. As discussed in the article, having all aspects of assistance under one roof (Career Counsellor, Case Manager, Psychologist) to assess someone would benefit many people as instead of making 3 trips to different agencies they would only need to make one. Community outreach is very important in getting the word out that there are options out there for people and having easier accessibility is a must. I feel that knowing exactly what wait times are out there at the various agencies can assist us in making more effective referrals.

Comment by Theresa Adams on March 22, 2010 at 10:40am

I believe this report accurately reflect many of the barriers facing women and youth when attempting to access employment services. Many clients feel like they don’t have enough time to engage in employment services, whether that is because they are single parents, underemployed or looking for an expedient way of getting their life back on track. I think the issue of subsidized childcare and extended EI benefits greatly influences the choice to access these services for single mothers.

To ensure the referral process operates in a smooth manner, I think it’s important for all of the service providers to be informed of the programs available to clients. It was touched on in the podcast that many programs’ eligibility requirements change so often that it can be very difficult to refer clients to the appropriate service provider. If there could be a way to possibly streamline that process, it would greatly help practitioners make accurate referrals. Perhaps there needs to be more agreement in the services offered at the provincial and federal levels to make this happen.

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