‘Some people don’t want to work; this program will motivate them,’ consultant says

A motivational program with proven success in getting longtime Ontario Works clients back into the workforce received an Ontario Trillium Fund grant of $462,600 Friday at Sault Community Career Centre.

The funding will go toward training the centre’s staff to deliver the program, known as NOW4Youth, to help 40 local unemployed youth from 17 to 24 years of age find and keep employment.

The NOW4Youth program was created by Liz Fabiano, People Needing Assistance (PNA) Change Consultants executive director, and comes after the success of an earlier NOW (New Outlook on Working) program for adults, 26 and over, which she designed and which was administered in the Sault.

“A lot of these individuals...have no notion or desire to work, so we’re trying to increase their understanding and motivation and then we’ll try and get them back into the workplace,” Fabiano told an audience gathered at Sault Community Career Centre for Friday’s funding announcement.

“If we can get some of these people off social assistance before it becomes a long term event, we’ll have been successful,” said Fabiano, a Sault native now based in Ottawa.

Numbers provided by Fabiano showed 130 people in the NOW program for Sault adults had an average age of 44 and had been Ontario Works clients for an average of five years.

However, between 2014 and 2017, 78 of those people (60 per cent) gained employment.

70 per cent were employed within 90 days after the three-week NOW program, 77 per cent of them keeping their employment at the 330-day follow up point.

Their average hourly wage was $14.15.

4.6 per cent went back to school, another 16 per cent continued in job development programs.

Sault Community Career Centre staff will be trained in delivering the NOW4Youth program and ready to start it by October 2019, Fabiano said.

“We’re looking at increasing what we call ‘intrinsic motivation,’” Fabiano said, speaking to SooToday.

“What that means is this. You don’t work for the money, because if so, people would never be able to pay you enough, you’d leave every job saying ‘I need more, I want more.’”

“We have other reasons why we work that are key to who we are, and it keeps us going. We want, need and desire to work. If that’s not there, we’re just preparing people to go to jobs assuming they’re motivated, and that’s not true, so ours is a cognitive motivational program, which can also help people with addictions,” said Fabiano, a criminologist by training.

“You can lead people to water but they’re not going to drink if they’re not thirsty. You have to create the thirst. That’s what intrinsic motivation is.”

The cognitive techniques in the NOW program have also helped individuals in London and Chatham-Kent, Fabiano said.

“It’s an exciting addition to the programs and services the Sault Community Career Centre currently offers. We believe it will make an impactful, positive difference in the lives of several youth in our community,” said Keith Brown, Sault Community Career Centre communications specialist.

“We believe everyone has the potential to contribute to and benefit from the economy, provided they’re matched with the resources they require (such as NOW4Youth and other programs),” said OTF grant volunteer Robert Nowosielski of the upcoming program.