Many organizations exist to advocate for and support clients with disabilities, but some of these organizations take it one step further. They underscore their commitment by deliberately hiring from within their client or consumer base, and in doing so, have found immense benefits. Three such organizations – the Canadian Mental Health Association, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and the Independent Learning Centre of Manitoba – share their experiences.

The consumer lens

The philosophy of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) emphasizes the importance of consumers and this philosophy has been there from day one – Clarence Hincks, CMHA’s founding executive director, lived with depression.

For current CEO Penny Marrett, the benefits of hiring staff with mental health problems are immense. “We gain by having consumers sit on our board and committees, but having that lens day by day in the office reminds us what we’re about. I can hear, honestly, what a consumer thinks. Consumers know why some decisions have been made but they can also provide input to those decisions. That’s very important. Plus, we should be walking our talk if we expect other employers to hire people with mental illness or mental health problems.”

The challenges of an invisible disability

Admittedly, there are challenges – particularly when you are talking about a disability that is often invisible. With a physical disability, the employee doesn’t have to tell the employer what is wrong because it can be seen, says Marrett, but with mental health issues it is harder because you have to respect their privacy.

At the recruitment stage it’s tricky and Marrett struggles when making staffing decisions. “Do you require someone to self-identify or do you encourage individuals who have the experience to apply? It’s a tough issue for an organization to find that balance.” Once hired, there are still issues to contend with. Within her office, Marrett knows the self-identified consumers, but how much information does an employee have to tell? For instance, if medication isn’t working, does the employee actually have to tell the employer they’re having medication problems? It’s a delicate balance respecting privacy while ensuring that there isn’t a performance issue.

By-laws state president and CEO must be a client

The CNIB is another organization with a long history of hiring consumers. Penny Hartin, executive director of blindness international, describes the value of sighted staff working day by day and side by side with staff who are blind or visually impaired. “When they are working everyday colleague-to-colleague, they’re developing a deeper understanding because they are constantly exposed. And it’s as a colleague – not in a caregiving role.”

The CNIB is one of the few blindness organizations worldwide that has actually written into its by-laws that the president and CEO of the organization must be a client. They also have a hiring policy that states if qualifications are equal for a given job, then preference will be given to a person who is blind or visually impaired. Currently, about 15% of CNIB staff is blind or visually impaired. Hartin says this is a decrease, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as she goes on to explain.

The CNIB has a history dating back to the 1920s and extending to the 1970s of providing its own management training to prepare blind and visually impaired people for working in all aspects of the organization. The CNIB no longer needs to provide this training because universities and colleges are now much more accessible. However, this poses a new challenge for the organization. They are no longer as connected to potential blind and visually impaired employees now that they don’t provide the training opportunities themselves. The CNIB has to work hard to identify who is out there who might fit some of the positions available.

Another recruitment challenge is the increased competition for people with skills and talents. “There isn’t the same kind of stigma now about hiring people with disabilities, particularly in government, large corporations, the banks, and so on,” relates Hartin. “We have to compete with all those other employers for the highly skilled blind and visually impaired people out there.” These public and private employers can offer higher salaries than a nonprofit like the CNIB. So, while the percentage of CNIB employees who are blind or visually impaired may be going down, people are now hired into integrated positions, which Hartin sees as a measure of success.

It’s about the passion

Unlike the CMHA and the CNIB, John Young‘s organization, the Independent Learning Centre (ILRC) of Manitoba, didn’t start out with a philosophy of hiring from within its consumer base. The Manitoba organization is the second oldest ILRC in Canada and started just over 20 years ago. “In the beginning,” Young recounts, “we were preoccupied with how to do things properly and it’s sunk into your head if you grow up with a disability that you need professionals to do this. So, at the very beginning we constantly recruited and went out in the larger community and then found this didn’t work well.” In the last five or six years, there has been a push to hire from within to match the organization’s philosophy of dignity and respect.

In the Manitoba office today, more than 80% of staff have a physical disability. These staff members understand the organization’s philosophy because they live it. “This is a movement about passion. It doesn’t matter the severity of the disability that you have. If you have the passion you can do anything,” says Young. Many of the staff members with disabilities started out as volunteers with the agency. This is very helpful because it gives Young time to see what a person can do and what supports they need. As a volunteer, the person can also try different things and find his or her niche within the organization.

Volunteering provides another benefit, Young explains, because many within the physically disabled population live with their parents for most of their life. They haven’t had the opportunity to make decisions on their own; they don’t know how to apply for a job or how to act in a job. “We’ve geared our movement so that volunteerism is a foundation to employment, especially if you’ve never had a chance to give of yourself. Volunteers are the first ones we look at,” he says.

In Young’s experience, if an employee can build the environment in which he or she can best function, he ends up with a great employee. That’s why Young goes to great lengths to support his staff. Accommodating staff is important to Marrett, too, and she is quick to point out that it is not just her staff with mental health issues that require accommodation. For instance, employees with young families or employees with elderly relatives also need some level of accommodation. Hartin encourages employers and employees to find solutions together. She knows firsthand and affirms that “most of us with a disability have worked with it a long time so we know what works.”

Louise Chatterton Luchuk is a freelance writer and consultant who combines her love of writing with experience at the local, provincial and national levels of volunteer-involving organizations. For more information, visit www.luchuk.com.