SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS

Beyond Traditional Job Development
Strategies and Tools to Empower Those Charged with Helping Others to Find Work

Tribute to the Unsung Heroes
 of Job Placement

Amazing things are accomplished every day by job developers throughout North America. Young men and women are breaking the cycle of dependency on social assistance. Individuals with disabilities are gaining recognition for their unique contributions to the workplace. People are leaving the sterile walls of prison cells and getting a second chance to participate in  their communities. People who have been living in shelters are gaining access to a place called home and to a workplace. Still others have been lifted from the shock and betrayal of company layoffs to heights of new self-awareness and second careers. Businesses once closed to the idea of working with people perceived to be in any way "different", are now actively recruiting such individuals as valued team members!

Many of these accomplishments are due in large part to the hard work, belief, inspiration, encouragement and talents of job developers. I am assuming that you, dear readers, are many of those unsung heroes.

Your accomplishments have been hard-earned; your knuckles callused from knocking on doors that didn't open, your spirits dampened by people who aren't ready for change or who refuse to cooperate. But in the face of adversity and difficult economic times, you have not given up. You have persisted and succeeded in being agents for change in the lives of the people you serve and your communities.

And given all of this, I just bet that many of you have not been thanked. Well, in acknowledgement of your efforts, thank you! I feel proud and blessed to be a colleague of dedicated people who, one step at a time, are changing the world.

Our work has just begun.

- Denise Bissonnette
(from Beyond Traditional Job Development)

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