THE WOMAN BEHIND WORKABILITY
Aly Beach
The Chronicle
“Success is more than a paycheque,” says Dawn Lauchlan, which echoes the values of Ontario Works and a workshop called Workability.
Lauchlan has worked for the Regional Municipality of Durham for 25 years. Lauchlan says that her initial plan was to be a teacher. But after working at the John Howard Society, she realized that community work was her true calling.
“I got into community work and really loved it and my plan was to go back to school to get my bachelor of education just shifted,”
Lauchlan currently runs a workshop called Workability which is available for Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) clients.
The workshop, which has been around for about 12 years, covers topics such as job interviewing skills, employer research, and job hunting through the eyes of an employer.
“You don’t know what you don’t know.” Says Lauchlan, “people come to us for a variety of reasons,”
People will take Workability for many reasons. Some, because they’ve unemployed for a long period and need to get a routine and be productive, and others, because they were employed for a long time but job searching has changed dramatically since they last had to search.
Lauchlan says confidence is something that is taught throughout the workshop, however Lauchlan says there’s no single day dedicated to it, but rather, it happens organically.
“It’s pretty hard at the end of the day to sell yourself well, to market yourself well, if you don’t believe in yourself.”
Lauchlan believes that enthusiasm is one of the most important general skills a person can have.
“Anybody can be taught to do something but if you don’t come with the right attitude, you can’t train that, you can’t train someone to have a positive attitude or an enthusiastic eagerness to learn their job and do it well – that comes from inside,” says Lauchlan.
Enthusiasm, like confidence, is something that emerges in participants throughout the program. It could be attributed to Lauchlan’s method of coaching.
“The day that I don’t want to be there anymore, that I feel that I don’t have that enthusiasm to bring into the classroom, is the day this workshop ends.” Says Lauchlan, “I can’t expect people to deliver, if I don’t,”
Ontario Works is a form of social assistance that is run by the provincial government. Clients must agree to participate in employment activities such as workshops or volunteering activities to receive the money and benefits.
According to the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services more than 450,000, or about 1 in 30 people are on Ontario Works as of June 2016. Unfortunately, there seems to be a negative stereotype surrounding people on social assistance.
“I think it’s [the stereotype] unfair, because you don’t know ever know someone’s whole story, you never know how they ended up where they are,” says Lauchlan.
In her experience, the stereotype is largely unfounded and she dislikes the negativity of it.
“What they see is social programs are sucking tax payers dry.” Says Lauchlan, “they don’t see the benefit in it and they don’t see how they also receive something from those social programs.”
Many people rely on Ontario works for a variety of reasons, says Lauchlan, not just for financial assistance. Ontario Works also provides clients with support in the forms of employment and mental health counselling, health and dental coverage, volunteering resources, and the free educational workshops.
“I think a vast majority of people who are on benefits, want to take advantage of the programs and services we offer to help move them forward,” says Lauchlan.
70 per-cent of Workability participants find success in one way or another, according to Lauchlan.
“Peoples’ successes in this program comes from many different things.” Says Lauchlan, referring to some of the success stories, “Success is not just, “Now I get a pay cheque,”
Lauchlan says she has many successes in her workshop and that her favorite part of being a coach is witnessing personal growth.
“I think [the best part is] seeing peoples’ growth. Like, there really are those lightbulb moments, you know, and someone has that look on their face like, “Wow, I didn’t know that.”
One example was a man in her workshop several years ago who had gone through several personal tragedies and had been living of the grid for about nine years.
“On paper, I might have looked at him as not appropriate for Workability. I might have thought he needed to start in a couple of different places in terms of jumping back into his life,” says Lauchlan.
Lauchlan says he had lost a lot of weight and didn’t wear clothes that fit him.
“He just didn’t look like he took good care of himself,” says Lauchlan.
One of the activities in the Workability workshop is a mock interview where participants show what they’ve learned. For the mock interview the man had his hair done, bought clothes that fit him and started taking care of himself.
“I literally did not recognize him when he walked into the room. I was about to re-direct him to another room or another workshop because I had never seen him present himself that way,” says Lauchlan.
He did so well on the mock interview that Lauchlan recommended him to a job scout who was looking for someone to fill a position at a local bar. He got the job and the last time Lauchlan saw him, he was still working there almost 10 years later.
“I see him sometimes around town or whenever and he still keeps himself tidy and you know, he looks like someone who jumped back into his life,” says Lauchlan.
Success stories such as this show that there is value in social assistance like Ontario Works, and Lauchlan helps contribute to the programs that touch the lives of many people.