MentorAbility Canada
What is MentorAbility?
MentorAbility Canada is a national initiative built on a supported employment foundation that promotes the recruitment, employment, and retention of persons experiencing disability.
MentorAbility provides and celebrates in-person and virtual mentoring experiences, networking and learning events, and social media campaigns, as well as building a body of evidence through research activities.
With a specific focus on facilitating unique, short-term (from 1 hour to 1 day) mentoring opportunities between employers and persons experiencing disability, this initiative is part of a national effort to promote the employment of persons living in Canada who experience disability.
MentorAbility Canada: Inclusive Workplaces (video on YouTube)
Click a link below to go to a section on this page:
- MentorAbility experience stories – read about actual mentoring experiences and how they impacted participants
- Who can participate in MentorAbility
- Benefits of participating in MentorAbility
- MentorAbility Hubs across the country
- Read more about accessible workplaces and inclusive mentoring
700+
Facilitated Mentorships
400+
Employers Engaged
200+
Communities Engaged
1000+
MentorAbility Events
MentorAbility Experience Stories
Get to know the stories of the people involved in facilitated mentorships with MentorAbility Canada. Each story showcases a unique experience between a mentor and mentee and the local supported employment service provider that facilitated it.
To learn more about the impact that the MentorAbility Canada program is having from coast to coast to coast, read from our collection of shared experience stories:
Who Can Participate?
Employers
Is your organization interested in expanding its workplace diversity and strengthening workplace culture and employee engagement strategies? Become a MentorAbility partner and offer your staff opportunities to become a MentorAbility mentor!
Service Providers
Are you an employment service provider interested in expanding and strengthening your employer engagement while providing valuable career exploration opportunities for your clients who experience disability? Become a MentorAbility partner today!
Job Seekers
Are you a person experiencing disability? Do you want to be part of the workforce? Would you like to meet people to learn more about a career that interests you? Participate in a MentorAbility mentorship!
All MentorAbility Participants Benefit
Employers
- Easy way to try mentoring and learn about disability inclusion, without doing the heavy lifting.
- Employees with disabilities who work for organizations that invest in employee-centred programs, such as mentorship, are less likely to leave their jobs.
- Professional connections can improve workplace culture by enhancing collaboration between departments and familiarizing employees with broader impacts.
- Mentorship helps to build psychologically safe workplaces where employees feel valued and heard.
- Mentorship provides opportunities for cross-training, allowing for greater flexibility and creativity in the planning and execution of tasks.
- By participating in mentoring initiatives, organizations gain access to new talent pools.
Mentors
- Peer mentorship can enhance empathy in leaders.
- Mentors who experience disability act as co-navigators and teachers in the workplace, offering specialized support for mentees with disabilities.
- Mentors without disability deepen their understanding of disability inclusion and learn to recognize systemic barriers, which can lead some to champion inclusive practices.
- Mentors gain valuable personal rewards by fostering talent development, offering guidance, and engaging in shared learning.
- Sharing their experiences and knowledge can help rejuvenate the career of seasoned employees.
Mentees
- Mentorship boosts feelings of inclusion and can foster a sense of belonging.
- Having a mentor can improve job satisfaction.
- Inclusive experiences, like mentorship, create an environment where people feel safe to disclose their disability.
- Impactful mentors can have a significant influence on a mentee’s self-esteem and confidence.
- Many mentees experiencing disability transition to mentorship roles to contribute to others’ success, creating a sustainable mentor pipeline.
Facilitators/Site Partners
- Connect, network, and collaborate with other service providers, locally and nationally.
- Enhanced ability to successfully engage employers and build value-added relationships with local employers.
- Gain another tool to support job seekers: unique job and career experiences, locally and nationally (virtually), to explore fit.
- Access to resources and professional development.
- Access to funding for MentorAbility activities.
MentorAbility Hubs
MentorAbility Canada is coordinated by CASE in collaboration with implementing partners, called “MentorAbility Hubs,” that are located across the country. Together we provide information, knowledge, and tools to facilitate beneficial short-term mentoring opportunities for employers, mentors and job seekers.
Hubs are the first connection point for local employment service providers (site partners), persons experiencing disability (mentees) and employers (mentors ) to connect with the national MentorAbility Canada network.
Twelve MentorAbility Canada provincial and territorial hubs, along with many site partners, offer resources and information and/or facilitate mentoring experiences across Canada.
Explore the MentorAbility Hubs below and connect with the Hub in your region today.
Connect With Your Local MentorAbility Hub
Alberta Hub:
Gateway Association
Contact Person: Kazeem Abolaji
Email: [email protected]
Contact Person: Susannah Tawse
Email: [email protected]
British Columbia Hub:
Inclusion BC
Tel No: 1-604-777-9100 or
1-800-618-1119
Manitoba Hub:
Career Connections Inc.
Contact Person: Chantel Mulholland
Email: [email protected]
Tel No: 1-204-728-9594
New Brunswick Hub:
Avenue NB
Contact Person: Patricia Price
Email: [email protected]
Contact Person: Sébastien Modéré
Email: [email protected]
Nova Scotia Hub:
TEAM Work Cooperative
Contact Person: Amy Grant
Email: [email protected]
Newfoundland & Labrador Hub:
Avalon Employment Inc.
Contact Person: Courtney Abbott, Chloe Elliott
Email: [email protected]
[email protected]
Tel No: 1-709-579-4866
Nunavut Hub:
Nunavummi Disabilities Makinnasuaqtiit Society (NDMS)
Contact Person: Pierre Essoh
Email: [email protected]
Tel No: 1-867-979-2228
Ontario Hub:
March of Dimes Canada
Contact Person: Lisa Livingston
Email: [email protected]
Tel No: 1-519-579-5530 ext. 262
Ontario Hub:
Ontario Disability Employment Network (ODEN)
Contact Person: Kiersten Smith
Email: [email protected]
Prince Edward Island Hub:
ResourceAbilities
Contact Person: Meadow Ramsay
Email: [email protected]
Tel No: 1-902-838-4743
Location: Summerside-Prince County
Contact Person: Avery Pike
Email: [email protected]
Tel No: 1-902-436-0638
Quebec Hub:
ROSEPH
Contact Person: Adeline Zilliox
Email: [email protected]
Tel No: 1-438-869-8075
Yukon Hub:
Inclusion Yukon
Contact Person: Lorraine Paddock
Email: [email protected]
Tel No: 1-867-667-4606
Saskatchewan Hub:
SaskAbilities
Contact Person: Carmen Donald
Email: [email protected]
Location: Saskatoon
Contact Person: Samantha Luker
Email: [email protected]
Northwest Territories Hub: CDETNO
Contact Person: Anh Thu Bui
Email: [email protected]
Tel No: 1-867-873-8790
Northwest Territories Hub: Inclusion NWT
Read more about accessible workplaces and inclusive mentoring
Research
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