Employment Strategy for Youth with Disabilities

The Provincial Employment Strategy for Youth with Disabilities (ESYD) will make it easier for youth with disabilities to find and keep employment. With a youth-centered approach, we are developing tools and resources to help employers, service providers, and educators work together to create better employment opportunities throughout the province.

About The Strategy

ESYD is an initiative to create a consistent approach to supporting youth-specific employment needs across British Columbia. It will highlight best practices to supporting youth with disabilities and provide practical tools and resources for employers, service providers, and educators, as well as directly for youth and caregivers, to help people work in a more coordinated way to create meaningful opportunities in their own communities. The full strategy and resources will be available in spring 2025.

2021 ESYD started The project is launched with funding from the BC Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction. 2021-22 Consultation Provincial Network and Youth Advisory Committee are formed to gather insights throughout the project. 2023-24 Consultation Youth with disabilities, caregivers, service providers, employers, and educators share insights via surveys. 2023-24 Development The strategy, reports, tools, and resources are underway. 2025 ESYD launched The final strategy, reports, tools, and resources will be available online.

Who it’s for

ESYD is for employers, educators, service providers, and caregivers who support youth between 15 and 30 years of age who self-identify as having a disability and are interested in employment.

Disability means an inability to participate fully and equally in the workforce due to the interaction between an impairment and a barrier. By this definition, mental health and substance use challenges can lead to disability.

Why it’s needed

It can be hard for youth with disabilities to get the help they need to get a job and keep it. We heard about the following challenges:

Youth with disabilities have limited awareness and understanding of employment services.

Accessing and navigating the employment services available is challenging for youth with disabilities.

Employment supports are generally not designed for youth with disabilities.

There is limited connection and collaboration among multidisciplinary service providers and community partners.

Prioritizing immediate job placements over long-term career and life planning hinders the sustainability of employment.

ESYD is a crucial first step toward transforming the quality and accessibility of employment supports in BC.

How We Got Here

CanAssist is working with the BC Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction to develop the strategy. A provincial network of key service providers and a youth advisory committee is informing the work. We also heard from more than 1,080 people through focus groups and surveys. This includes people identifying as LGBTQIA2S+, Indigenous, newcomers/refugees, racialized/people of colour, and who declared themselves as youth with disabilities, as well as caregivers, employment service providers, employers, and educators.

Their insights informed the strategy’s six guiding principles.

What’s included

Based on community feedback, we are developing a series of tools and resource supports based on a holistic employment support model to put the ESYD into action. This includes:

Employment Support Curriculum

A structured approach to employment support for youth with disabilities, covering goals and outcomes, core topics, and reflective resources. It emphasizes what is covered and why it is important.

Curriculum User Guides

Resources for employment service providers, educators, caregivers, and employers to support effective curriculum delivery. They focus on how to use and apply the curriculum.

Self-serve Employment Support Tool

An online tool for youth with disabilities to access employment support based on the curriculum. Youth can use it independently or with support from a service provider, educator, or caregiver. They can also explore the different sections in any order, allowing them to focus on what they want to learn. Employers can also use it as a professional development resource.

Additional employer, employment service provider, and caregiver specific resource kits.

Learn More

See what youth with disabilities had to say in our survey report. More survey reports from caregivers, service providers, and educators, as well as an environmental scan of the current employment supports in BC will be available in 2025.