Funding employment inclusion for Ontario youth with disabilities: a theoretical cost-benefit model.

Early engagement in employment-related activities is associated with greater lifetime labor force attachment, which correlates with positive health, social, and quality of life outcomes. People with disabilities often require vocational intervention to enter and remain in the workforce and reap the employment-related health and social benefits. Their labor force attachment brings about the added societal-level benefits of increased tax contributions and reduced social assistance funding.

Putting Youth in Charge: Exploring a Multi-Year Interagency Community Engagement Experiential Programme for Youth with Disabilities and Their Families.

This paper outlines a qualitative exploration of the experiences of Youth in Charge (YiC), a 3-year pilot programme. YiC was designed to promote early, immersive community participation for students with physical disabilities, and was co-developed/co-hosted by three agencies (hospital, community rehabilitation, school board). To better understand the experiences of the youth, parents, and staff involved in this broad intervention, observation of 10 programme sessions and annual semi-structured interviews with youth ( = 5), parents ( = 4) and staff ( = 6) were undertaken.

Transitions Pop-ups: Co-designing client-centred support for disabled youth transitioning to adult life.

Background: When transitioning to adulthood, youth with disabilities and their families face many service gaps. Successful inter-agency collaborations can promote family-centred, inclusive transition support amenable to personal choice and health conditions. This paper reports the 3-year co-design process of an innovative transition service that links a pediatric hospital and adult service agencies and addresses key areas of transition preparedness with joint accountability.

Facilitating virtual social connections for youth with disabilities: lessons for post-COVID-19 programming.

Purpose: Social connections are essential for the development of life skills for youth. Youth with disabilities have long faced barriers to meaningful social connections. The onset of COVID-19 increased barriers to social connections for all youth, and also led to enhanced use of virtual platforms in paediatric rehabilitation programming.

A case study of a strategic initiative in pediatric rehabilitation transition services: An insiders' perspective on team principles and practices.

Aims: The aim was to describe an innovative initiative that took place in a pediatric rehabilitation hospital. The goal of this organization-wide strategic initiative, called the Transition Strategy, was to improve service delivery to children/youth with disabilities and their families at times of life transition. The research question was: What are the key elements that have contributed to the success of the Strategy, from the perspective of team members? The objectives were to describe: (a) the guiding principles underlying team functioning and team practices, (b) key enablers of positive team functioning, (c) the nature of effective team practices, and (d) lessons learned.

The creation and implementation of an employment participation pathway model for youth with disabilities.

Purpose: Employment participation offers benefits including income, sense of accomplishment, social engagement, and meaningful contribution to society. Rates of competitive employment of youth with disabilities are amongst the lowest in society, despite having capacity and motivation to participate in the workplace. The marginalization of young workers with disability presents a lost opportunity for youth, potential employers, and social care systems.