FASD and Employment

While a lot of attention has rightly been given recently to the connection of people living with disabilities and poverty, most of the discussion has centred on universal basic income. However, the inherent challenges associated with UBI have become apparent again with the rollout of the Canadian Disability Benefit and changes to the Ontario Disability Support Program. Among some of the challenges is accessibility to diagnostic capacity, attitudinal stereotypes, and lack of knowledge capacity within key sectors. Rural FASD, with its innovative grassroots approach to problem-solving, has learned and implemented solutions among our most vulnerable individuals, neurodiverse individuals currently undiagnosed. It is important to note all our current funding models assume that every person living with a disability has received a medical diagnosis. Yet, Dr. Popova’s 2024 study for the Public Health Agency of Canada demonstrates that in Ontario, we diagnosed 1347 of the current 562,800 Ontarians living with FASD between 2015 and 2019. Recent increases to Ontario’s FASD diagnostic capacity has improved our rate but Dr. Popova concluded 98% of Ontarians living with FASD are still currently undiagnosed or 551,544 out of 562,800 individuals. Because ODSP, Passport Funding and CDB require a diagnosis, universal basic income is not an option for these neurodiverse individuals. It is not surprising then that StatsCan states 74% of Ontarians living with very severe disabilities such as FASD are living in poverty in the recently released Canadian Survey on Disabilities and confirmed by the Labour Force Survey. It should be noted as well that the unemployment rate is twice as high for people living with FASD ages 16-24 versus all other age groups of people living with FASD. While the options for people living with FASD not wanting to live in poverty in Ontario are very limited, the most viable according to our members is sustainable employment. Considering the same Labour Force Survey states there are annually over 300,000 unfilled jobs in Ontario, there are still many challenges to overcome for people living with FASD to become employed. These challenges start with our educational system which does not currently receive any training or professional development on how to best support students living with FASD as proposed by Bill 172 in 2020. As a result, most of these students are isolated, trained to be dependent on adult support, and not receiving the basic foundational and soft skills required to become employable. Following their educational training generally without a high school diploma, they transitioned into the adult world with little to no technical or communication skills. They have no viable option to upgrade their skills through post-secondary learning and no understanding how to navigate the employment sector. It is at this time they are most vulnerable to human trafficking, food insecurity, mental health challenges, gang involvement, incarceration and homelessness. Without a strong network, their focus becomes daily survival resulting in greater challenges. However, it does not need to be like this. Rural FASD and our partners such as the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Adoption Council of Ontario, Open Doors for Lanark Children and Youth, the Town of Smiths Falls, the Municipality of North Grenville, the Townships of Edwardsburg-Cardinal, Beckwith, and Montague and the Counties of Lanark and Leeds-Grenville has changed this trajectory. To learn more on how this has been accomplished, please come to our next FASD Awareness Day at Queen’s Park on Thursday, Oct 23 from 10:30 to 1pm sponsored by MPP John Jordan of Lanark, Frontenac and Kingston. You will have an opportunity to speak directly and have lunch with multiple young adults living with FASD who have overcome these challenges. We also invite all MPP’s interested in speaking at this luncheon to contact Jayne at opm@ruralfasd.ca to be added to the itinerary. To all members of the public interested in attending, please reach out to your local MPP to join them as a guest. Rob More, MA, OCT Father of three amazing adult children living with FASD