1. Innovative Practice Speaker: Marna de Bruyn
Organisation: The Living Link
Country: South Africa

2. Breaking down barriers and building bridges
Supported Employment
It’s more than a job!
Breaking down barriers and building bridges
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,
This presentation will briefly explore how The Living Link, a non-profit organisation based in Johannesburg, South Africa uses the model of supported employment to break down the barriers that exist for people with intellectual disabilities. But it’s not only about breaking down barriers, it’s also about building bridges because ultimately, employment is more than just a job!

3. Introduction Sheltered / Protected Supported Employment: Real people
Real jobs
Real benefits
Traditionally sheltered or protected employment have been the predominant models used to ‘employ’ people with intellectual disabilities in South Africa. I have always wondered about the term ‘sheltered employment’. Who is being sheltered from what exactly?
The Living Link has challenged this model by implementing a model of supported employment to enable people with intellectual disabilities to successfully work in the open labour market. Using the model of supported employment, we firmly believe that real people need and deserve real jobs.

4. What does support really mean?
Training
Job sampling
Database registration
Job analyses
Sensitisation
Contract explanation
On-going job coaching post-placement
The term support can often be vague and non-specific. But what exactly does ‘support’ mean at The Living Link?
It starts with prevocational training where young adults gain the life skills they need to succeed wherever they end up working. Then these adults-in-training start job sampling, which involves rotating through various departments at our two job sampling sites – based in the open labour market. One being a corporate accounting firm, the other a large pharmacy chain store’s head office and warehouse.
Once pre-vocational training and job sampling have been completed, successful adults are registered on our job-seeking database where they can be considered for suitable employment opportunities.
The Living Link does pre-placement analysis of the job site and performs sensitisation training with the employer before the person starts working. The employment contract is explained verbally in simple, everyday language so that the individual makes an informed decision when signing their employment agreement.
Typically, a job coach from The Living Link attends the first portion of the first day of work to ensure that he or she settles easily. On-going support is offered by telephonic or physical follow-up consultations. This helps to address issues that may occur, providing advise to both employer and employee as the need arises. Basically, being a go-to for employers and the employee alike.

5. The ‘Common Sense’ Approach
Simple
Sustainable
Person-centered
Societal change
If there is one thing my mother taught me it’s that common sense is not so common after all. I tend to agree because the supported employment model is the common sense approach to vocational intervention, that has yet to be used to its full potential in South Africa.
The model of supported employment we use follows a simple, step-by-step process from training to placement. We train exclusively with the purpose to place. We don’t need to have sheltered workshops where people can work once they have completed training. They are placed in real jobs in the open labour market and we offer on-going support to enable their success. We do not follow a recruit-and-run strategy, where we place and then have no further contact with either employee or employer. Our approach of on-going support increases the sustainability of employment and the retention of the individual employee. When these young individuals earn salaries, the burden placed on their families and the South African grant system is alleviated, creating socio-economic change.
Our approach is individualised and person –centred. We perform exit interview with every adult who completes one of our training courses so that we have an individualised plan for every jobseeker on our database, taking into consideration amongst others the person’s likes, dislikes, strengths and challenges, access to transportation, location of residence and so on. Ultimately enabling adults with intellectual disabilities to gain meaningful employment in the open labour market, changing the very structure of our society as the South African workforce becomes more representative of the entire population’s diversity. It should be normal for people of all abilities to form part of the open labour market.

6. Evidence: 2016 Final Employment Figures
68 employment opportunities sourced
62 sourced by The Living Link
6 found by individuals/ families
51 paid contracts
The proof is in the pudding as they say. So, here is a bird’s eye view of the numbers that validate what we do. By the end of 2016, 68 employment opportunities had been sourced – 90% had been found by The Living Link. The fact that some of our members have secured their own employment proves that job-seeking is a partnership. The Living Link can leverage off the connections that families may have with employers in the open labour market. We remain available to offer job coaching support irrelevant of how the job was secured. Of the 68 opportunities, 51 were paid contracts by employers – because working for a salary is the gold standard of course! Where companies are unable to offer paid employment, we place volunteers and use what we call The GAP programme to pay these volunteers a stipend. This allows them to gain further work experience while also earning some money.
When we consider the national unemployment figures for South Africa, it’s a definite David and Goliath-story of beating the odds.

7. The Future.. Cape Town opened January 2017
Strengthening current partnerships
Gaining access to new sectors and industries
Analysis of employment and labour trends
Increasing income-generation through services
So where to from here?
It is with great excitement that The Living Link Cape Town opened it’s doors in January of this year. This increases our geographical footprint and the capacity to reach more people with intellectual disabilities.
We continuously strengthen our existing partnerships with employers.
Simultaneously, we are always seeking to engage with new employers and opportunities. Recently, 10 young adults from The Living Link were enrolled on a merchandising learnership at a major brands company – this was unchartered territory for us. We aim to expand this niche area so that the success of this project can be replicated elsewhere.
We perform on-going analysis of the South African job market and changing labour legislation. This allows us to understand current and future employment trends and the subsequent opportunities that may arise for the population we serve.
To increase the sustainability of our organisation, we are driven to increase the proportion of our operations that are income-generating by rendering services that are paid for. This already contributes more than half of our annual income.

8. Conclusion
‘It always seems impossible until it is done.’ -Nelson Mandela-
I’d like to close by quoting a very famous South African, the late Mr Nelson Mandela who once said: ‘It always seems impossible until it’s done.’ A democratic South Africa seemed impossible 30 years ago. Just as impossible as competitive employment without barriers may sometimes seem for those living with disability. That is, only until it is done!
Thank you for your time.

9. Contact Details:
Telephone:
Cel:
Web: