As I have discussed in an earlier BLOG, Premier Houston recently renamed the Dept of Community Services as the Dept of Opportunities and Social Development. The Premier has not yet responded to the many questions I have raised about this change, but today I am going to focus on the “Opportunities” part.
For many of the people in my community of Income Assistance recipients, the idea of “opportunity” is closely associated with employment opportunities. Other than winning the lottery, securing a long-term, paying job is likely the only opportunity we will have to significantly improve our lives and well-being. I recognize that the prospect of meaningful employment and career development may only be relevant for a minority of IA recipients (my personal estimate is between 15 to 30% of our community) but this can still make a BIG difference.
To address this challenge, the Gov’t of NS established many years ago the Career Seek Program which is described on a Gov’t website here, with further details provided in a FAQ here. In summary, Career Seek is not an actual employment program. Instead, it is an employment preparation program by which eligible IA recipients secure permission to continue receiving Income Assistance as they attend university or a post-secondary education program of more than two years.
Let me first acknowledge that I have not met with staff of the Career Seek Program about its various ins and outs. However, I have spoken with a number of first voices in my community, - people who have had access – or been refused access – to the Career Seek program.
From time to time, I have also discussed the Career Seek Program in my advocacy work and reporting. Two general points about the program have arisen in these conversations:
Firstly: Given the nature of Career Seek, why is the program managed by the Dept of Community Services / Opportunities and Social Development? Should this program not be delivered by the education and employment specialists in either the Dept of Workforce and Labour Development or perhaps even the Dept of Advanced Education? Why is the program delivered by the staff of the Dept of Community Services / OSD?
Secondly: The name change of the Dept suggests a change in programs or priorities. If so, then what changes can we expect to see in the Career Seek program that will reflect this newfound commitment to “opportunities”. And will these changes also be applied to other programs beyond Career Seek?
(Please note readers: I have written previously about other programs offered through the old Community Services Dept. and will discuss reform of these in a forthcoming BLOG.)
Now, some specific ideas and suggestions for the review and reform of the Career seek Program that have come out of my conversations with first voices.
Some of these were general conversations on the many challenges faced by people struggling to live on IA and covered topics like benefit rates, poverty and other programs. But for a certain sub-set of IA recipients, constraints faced in securing employment is a key issue. Some of these date back to when the Benefits Reform Action Group was advocating for reform of Nova Scotia’s income assistance programs.
In a 2023 BLOG, I shared the story of one woman who had successfully qualified for the Career Seek Program and was now hopeful of improving her life. But this case seemed to be the exception to the broader experience in my community in which the Career Seek Program is considered very difficult to get accepted into. This was the dominant view expressed in a 2024 BLOG which also recounted the struggles that many IA recipients face trying to cover ALL the expenses related to higher education (including tuition and text books), even when their IA benefits were preserved through Career Seek.
A further concern about the Career Seek Program is that it is only available for students enrolled in programs that are over two years long. This means that a broad range of shorter skill-development courses as well as most Community College diploma programs do not qualify under Career Seek criteria. This is very discouraging for IA recipients who are not looking for a university-level education, but for courses and trainings that will help them to develop job-related skills.
Finally, my conversations with first voices about the Career Seek Program have underlined the need for specialised support in the form of client advocates whose job would be to advocate for those individuals who are eligible for the program but struggle to complete it for any number of reasons, - be they issues of finance, health, abilities and accommodations, etc.
This prompts me to propose that the Government should undertake, in partnership with IA recipients, a re-imagining of the Career Seek Program. Only then, in my view, will we be able to increase the intake into the program as well as improve its completion rate and the clients’ successful transition into relevant employment or self-employment.
The challenges faced by people in my community are enormous. And these challenges are even more daunting for persons with disabilities, who may well need a completely new version of the program that recognises and responds to their specific needs for employment related education and training. I presented the story of one such individual, Carrie Ann Bugden, in a series of BLOGS in 2023 – 24, but it appears to me that the many lessons from that experience have not yet been learned by the concerned politicians, Depts, Programs or educational institutions.
So I will conclude this BLOG by underlining that there is MUCH to be done to re-imagine, reform, and then re-invent the Career Seek Program, so that it becomes an effective mechanism by which disadvantaged individuals have an opportunity to build their skills, secure employment and build a better life for themselves.
Kendall Worth is an award-winning anti-poverty activist who lives with disabilities and tries to make ends meet on income assistance.
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