Answering Your Questions
Who does Job Quest help?
Job Quest is an employment program that offers specialized supports
and services. We help people with employment barriers to find and
keep a good job while introducing employers to high quality, skilled
and enthusiastic workers.
Job Quest fills a gap in employment services by reaching out to
support those people who have the greatest difficulty finding and
retaining employment. Consider these national unemployment figures:
| Disability | Unemployment rate |
| People with lower levels of education | 18.5% |
| People with mental health / cognitive / learning disabilities | 21% |
| People with severe disabilities | 27.9% |
| People needing special accommodations | 28.8% |
| People with serious mental illness | 75 to 89% |
(Source: Points 1 – 4: Human Resources and Skills Development Canada website, www.hrsdc.gc.ca; Point 5: Province of Ontario, Making it Work – Policy framework for employment supports for people with mental illness.) |
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The misconception is that people who live with these challenges
cannot work - that their challenges are the barriers to employment.
The truth is that people with unique needs require unique supports.
It is the absence of these supports that is the true barrier to
successful employment for people with disabilities.
Job Quest strives to address the true barriers to employment by
building the supports needed to create successful employment
opportunities for people with disabilities. At the same time, we
introduce employers like you to a broadened labour pool of skilled
and enthusiastic people who want to work.
By assisting people to obtain and maintain competitive employment,
Job Quest offers them the opportunity rise out of poverty, achieve
financial independence and build the skills and experience necessary
to open up new potential at work, at home and in the community.
Read more about how Job Quest can help employers.