Community Living Huntsville partners with Fleming College for employment service

Community Living Huntsville has a long history of offering Supported Employment services for community members and employers in North Muskoka. Photo by Community Living Huntsville.

NORTH MUSKOKA – Community Living Huntsville has a new service to offer after being named one of the Fleming College Muskoka-Kawarthas Service System Manager (SSM) Employment Service Providers for North Muskoka, as part of provincial efforts to streamline employment services in Ontario.

“Community Living Huntsville promotes inclusion and diversity throughout our community, and we have provided our Supported Employment services since 1990,” says Diane Lupton, Manager, Community Supports, for Community Living Huntsville. “We have relationships with more than 125 local businesses and organizations in North Muskoka, and are excited to support more jobseekers through the addition of this new partnership with Fleming College Muskoka-Kawarthas SSM.”

The new Muskoka-Kawarthas SSM model streamlines 17 employment service providers within the District of Muskoka, Peterborough County, Haliburton County, City of Kawartha Lakes, and Northumberland County into one employment service team managed by Fleming College.

The province’s aim is to find innovative and efficient approaches to employment services to better connect all jobseekers with sustainable employment opportunities using locally responsive, community-based, outcomes-focused, and client-centered services for individuals and businesses.

As a result, Community Living Huntsville, in addition to its long-standing Supported Employment services for people with developmental disabilities, now also offers employment supports for jobseekers supported by the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), who have complex barriers to employment, in the Huntsville area until at least March 31, 2022.

A Community Living Huntsville Employment Specialist can help plan employment goals based on an eligible person’s interests and skills, facilitate education and training opportunities to grow a person’s networks and career, and help them obtain a job suited to them, and then provide on-the-job coaching and work with both employee and employer to make sure everyone is satisfied.

Eligible people interested in these Employment Services supports can get a referral from their ODSP case manager or contact employment@clhuntsville.ca.

Community Living Huntsville is a not-for-profit, registered charity that supports and advocates alongside people with developmental disabilities to live, work and play in unique and purposeful ways in North Muskoka. Find more at clhuntsville.ca or follow @clhuntsville on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.