Link Up Employment Service

Link Up Blazes a Trail to the Workplace for Canadians with Disabilities

By Marianne Cooke, Link Up Employment Services for Persons with Disabilities

Over decades of service linking job seekers with disabilities to work, Link Up Employment Services for Persons with Disabilities, has made a unique mark on the Greater Toronto Area and on communities across Canada.

Link Up has refined and evolved its job development model over multiple years and the result has been thousands of persons with disabilities placed to employment, heightened employer partner awareness and greater workplace accessibility.

Raising Employer Awareness of each Individual's Unique Abilities and Qualifications

A particular key to the organization's success has been its focus on building enduring trust relationships with company partners and maintaining these relationships through shifting labour market demands, economic highs and lows and changes in technology. Link Up's clients are consistently presented to companies based on a business case and to fit the specific needs of that employer. Abilities are always stressed over disabilities and the result has typically been a satisfied company, a long-term employed client and repeat business.

Link Up prepares its clients for employment using a customized approach rather than offering a 'one size fits all' workshop series or mandatory training program. Résumés and cover letters are prepared and revised as job opportunities materialize and clients are given interview practice and coaching as deemed necessary for each. Link Up has found this approach to be efficient and critical in ensuring that each client is given what he/she particularly needs.

Link Up's success over many years can perhaps be best measured by the feedback it receives from its clients with disabilities and from its company partners. Employer partner A & W writes, "Link Up's services, including candidate screening, accommodation provision and post-hiring support have been highly valuable to our company when it has sought to fill its job openings." Client Joseph (name changed), placed to a labour position, feeds back to Link Up, "My family and I are very happy about my job as I am able to support my family and also go out for entertainment and lead a fruitful life."

Looking Forward to Further Enhancing Disability Employment Rates

This year, Link Up turns 25 and the organization is eager to keep moving forward, to continue incorporating new best practices, meeting new employers and most importantly, to continue linking job seekers with disabilities to work suited to their talents and qualifications.

If you are a job seeker with a disability or a company seeking qualified employees, please contact Link Up at (416) 413-4922 or via email at [email protected] for further information.

About the author:

Marianne Cooke is the Client Services Coordinator at Link Up Employment Services for People with Disabilities and is looking forward to helping you explore your job opportunities. For more, visit www.linkup.ca.