Skip to content

Supported employment program success story a regular employee three years later

The success of the Society of Manitobans with Disabilities (SMD) Thompson Supported Employment Program (TSEP) and of one of its former participants were celebrated Nov. 15 during Take Your MLA to Work Day.
Thompson MLA Kelly Bindle, left, Danielle Hrabliuk right nov 15 2018
Thompson MLA Kelly Bindle, left, was at the Quality Inn & Suites in Thompson Nov. 15 for Take Your MLA to Work Day, where he spoke with Danielle Hrabliuk, right, a former Thompson Supported Employment Program participant who started at the hotel in a work experience placement and is nearing her three-year anniversary in the job carved out for her.

The success of the Society of Manitobans with Disabilities (SMD) Thompson Supported Employment Program (TSEP) and of one of its former participants were celebrated Nov. 15 during Take Your MLA to Work Day.

The event is part of Disability Employment Awareness Month, said SMD northern office supervisor Brenda Davidson, which was in October but was being marked now because of a scheduling conflict with Thompson MLA Kelly Bindle due to the legislature being in session at that time.

The success story being highlighted this year was that of Danielle Hrabliuk, who will have been working at the Quality Inn & Suites in Thompson for three years come January after starting there in a work experience placement.

“At first it was going to be a three-month work experience and then she was doing really good so they said maybe if we extended it then she would learn a little bit more and we'd be able to hire her,” said Quality Inn general manager Donna Wilson. “Sometimes it takes a lot of patience to train somebody and after three months we didn’t think Danielle was really ready to be on her own to actually hire and that’s why we extended the program.”

Hrabliuk’s job isn’t one that existed before she came to the Quality Inn but was built out of bits and pieces of other jobs that other employees didn’t always have time to get done, including cleaning of the building’s common areas and some outdoor tasks like snow shovelling.

“The Quality Inn & Suites looked at what Danielle’s skills were, how she would work out best in the hotel and almost created a position for Danielle with things that they were really having a hard time even getting done,” said Davidson. “It’s called job carving.”

Bindle said the process followed by TSEP was similar to another program in southern Manitoba called Career Connections which lets participants try out a variety of possible jobs in an effort to find the one that fits them. Because such programs may provide participants with unpaid work experience or wage subsidies, employers can be more patient while helping potential employees learn their roles.

“Lots of times some people get into jobs that they don’t know how to do or even some people with barriers like autism don't fit in with the understanding of what’s expected of them and they don’t have the opportunity to learn,” said Bindle. “They could do it if they were given the chance to learn it slowly but lots of times they’ll lose their opportunity for employment because there isn’t a program that shows them ahead of time how to be comfortable in it.”

When Hrabliuk started her work experience, TSEP senior job coach Natalie Lagace would check in on her every day but over time she reduced the frequency of those check-ins and now she just comes by occasionally to say hello.

“We just don’t want to say, ‘Bye, see you later,’” Lagace said.

Hrabliuk says one of the biggest things she has learned in her time at the Quality Inn is how to be more outgoing.

“I’m not that shy any more,” she says.

Her employer agrees.

“When Danielle first came here she wouldn’t talk to anyone, just me and [Natalie],” says Wilson. “Now she just fits in with the staff and she’ll be at the Christmas staff party and she laughs with them. She’s just one of the staff. She knows the [guests who are] regulars and they call each other by name and she talks to everybody.”

“You’re a great example for other people and Donna, as far as employment, you’re setting the standard for employers to know that everybody has the ability to work,” said Davidson.

 
push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks