0:03  
And I'm gonna do my Okay, you

0:05  
know that's my favorite chocolate on it.

0:08  
airplane. Okay,

0:10  
when ice cream bar cake, wine chocolate cheese cake.

0:16  
I come to Danny China for lunch about at least once a week I try to come two days a week. It's just a fantastic place. The food is fantastic. I've never had a soup here that I didn't like. The service here is great. I mean between Jacqueline and Deborah, like I said, I come and I know when the schedules are. So sometimes they'll come and see Deborah sometimes I'll come for Jacqueline, sometimes I can come for both, if I can wing it.

0:38  
Hi, my name is Deborah. I have been at Danny for years now. I am one of the participants in Danny supported employment program.

0:48  
Founded in 2006, Danny provides employment opportunities and day programs for young adults with disabilities. The most recent Statistics Canada report finds that 400,000 working age individuals with disabilities are unemployed. Danny is trying to make sure their participants avoid becoming part of that statistic. I think it's fantastic. And if I could be anyway, have helps. And I'm going to do it especially when I can get really good coffee.

1:14  
They've given me a life. They accept me for who I am, I can do anything. And everything. When I'm here they see me as a person, they don't see the disability, they give me an opportunity to try things to make mistakes. If I'm having a bad day, it doesn't matter to them. We talk through it, try and problem solve and then we move on to my job here. When I first entered, I see myself as being a broken wing. I was crying, constantly afraid to make mistakes, constantly afraid I'm going to get fired, afraid to do anything to say anything. But now here I am. And I'm talking to you, which I would never have done four years ago.

2:07  
I'm Kathy Laszlo. I'm the co founder and director of Danny. By training. I'm an accountant. 30 years ago, we emigrated from Hungary to Canada. And I, we had Danny already our son with a disability was born in Hungary. So we came with him as a baby when we arrived here, and we're looking for some kind of a program for him some kind of a school. And we realized that there was nothing really existing which should be liked. So we decided to create one, the name Danny was created when I never even knew we going to have an organization like Danny, I think my son was about 12 when my husband came up with, that's how you spell his name in Hungarian da ni. And he put words to it. So they yes, it does send for developing and nurturing independence. Because that's really what we do.

3:05  
Well just think of all the places you go. And people say so what do you do?

3:11  
That's Professor Melanie panitch. What she does is teach in the Ryerson University School of disability studies, a program she helped create in 1999.

3:21  
And all kinds of conversations emanate from that attitudes emanate from that friendships emanate from that. So I think it's really without question that the notion of work and job in its various forms and broadest forms, sometimes it's work that's volunteer, but certainly the disability rights activists have lobbied for real work for real pay. And that that is what counts in a society like ours, and it's very difficult to live without money, and people really do want to contribute to the world that they live in. So I think for all kinds of reasons in terms of self esteem, respect, income, respectability, fulfilling life, all the reasons people want to work, are the reasons why people that we're talking about want to work

4:16  
supported employment programs like the one Danny offers promises paid work along with appropriate supports. That might mean suitable equipment or job coaching assistance. A Canadian Public Policy Research body recommend supported employment programs as the best way to help the disabled community break into the workforce.

4:34  
And why is it so important? Because these people if not working, or if not doing something like what we proposing they are living off of a disability pension.

4:45  
As of 2018, the average disability pension in Canada is just over $970 per month. This is just under $12,000 a year.

4:54  
These are adults supposed to have independent living. So first time ever they would be able to come off of social assistance and make enough money on their own. And also as an individual a hand up, not a handout, because if you think about living out of this social assistance is a very sad existence. So if they can make some money if they can be part of life like anybody else, it's really been a win because mental health is a very important piece for us. Also, the more reliant people are, the more depressed they are, the more depressed they are the different mental health illnesses kick in. And everybody loses.

5:38  
I have a serious mental health illness, I was diagnosed as having borderline personality disorder, depression, anxiety, and OCD. And unfortunately, the stigma against mental health illness is real

5:52  
stats Canada compared job prospects of people with mental or cognitive disabilities, with people with physical disabilities, they found that adults who identify with a mental or cognitive disability are 10 percentage points less likely to find a job in Canada,

6:07  
we can do anything and everything. We are very hard workers and very dedicated. We are not lazy as people think. We want to be a part of community and we want to be a part of society. We're just asking everyone to please give us a chance and get to know us, don't be afraid of us. Just get to know us and what's inside of us. And I'm convinced that you will forget that we have that disability. In Canada,

6:36  
I think there was a lot of organizing around the time the Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into being. So that was 1982, when the constitution was repatriated from, from the UK. And in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. There's a section 15, which is the equality clause. And it seemed for a time that was being articulated and negotiated, the disability wasn't being included as one of the protective grounds. And there was a huge organizing strategy amongst people with mental and physical disability. The thinking was that it's just assumed if age, religion, culture, ethnicity class was included in there as protective, it would buy in and of itself include disability. But the activists are not kind of parents, young people and their organizations felt that if it wasn't identified it as specific protective grounds, that it would be invisible, and there'd be no way to actually claim rights on the basis of disability. So I'd say that was a really important part of the evolution of this sort of articulation of, of disability rights in Canada.

7:54  
Although people with disabilities were equally protected under the charter, it took some time before that equality was seen in the education system. When she first immigrated in the late 80s. Kathy says it was rare for children with diagnoses to be placed in typical classrooms.

8:09  
Then it was growing up and he became a teenager, and he was in school. And he was part of the first group of children who were always integrated in classes and camps and all kinds of programs never had been hidden away.

8:23  
I mean, there was, you know, there's a been an education act in Ontario that had puts an emphasis on inclusive education that was kind of in the 80s. But I think for a long time, we didn't really know how to do it, first of all, is there segregated schools, then it moved to segregated classes in regular schools, then in the regular schools, the segregated classes might have been integrated for gym, or for art. And those on the front line have been advocating for more active involvement. But we've also another step was an emphasis on integration for a long time. But we became critical of that, as a final step in the process being integrated means you're just sort of some people use the example of you're adding milk and stir into your coffee, you're not really changing the environment to accommodate someone. So you're just integrating you're taking someone and putting them here and then just expecting things to go on as normal, as regular like the word normal. So I'm sorry, I used it. But inclusion is a very different thing. So if you're practicing inclusion, you're trying to create an environment that's good for everybody. And not just expecting that you're going to sort of move someone into something already existing without changing the environment

9:42  
and the context. Men my son, Danny was in grade three elementary school, we had to change schools. So we went into a new school, and I was a bit worried it was a regular classroom, and they had five special needs kids in it's called intensive resource. They're all there. means they got extra support, but they were part of the regular class like anybody else. So I wanted to go in before he enters the class to talk to the kids grades three, right, the young kids to tell them that that is coming and is a little different. And just to prepare them. So we had this whole circle, and I prepared my speech that this is a library cute boy is coming and he's a little different, like is different than you? And then one kid raised his hand and said, Do you mean because he wears glasses? Because we have other kids with glasses. They just not here today. And I realized I'm so silly. They don't think about them as being different. Or he has glasses. Okay, so that's an issue maybe? Or maybe not. So I said, Yeah, you right? Yeah, he has glasses. And thank you very much. Like, it's good. If you don't think about glasses being a problem. Thank you. It's good. And I realize that's how it is they are nine year olds. And why am I making this like a big issue if they don't. So you are part of that generation growing up like this so that you don't look at people with a disability the same way as my generation used to look at to say, Oh, my gosh, this is in the wheelchair or it's one is blind, I think you can see that there's been changes in the way people have described disability over the years. So if you go back in history,

11:17  
you early legislation in Ontario, that was on the books for a long time was called the lunacy act. And you would come across terms like idiot and moron. And there's been a lot of rethinking about the stigma that's attached to that. But even going forward, many of the community organizations that would have served the kind of people who are served by Danny might have come might have been called associations for the mentally retarded. And there was a lot of challenge to that, because it was so stigmatizing. And instead, those organizations are now called associates for Community Living, which talks more about the goals and what they aspire to then rather than labeling people with a particular diagnosis,

12:01  
and the goals and aspirations of Danny include creating an organization that is self sufficient. Three years after Kathy founded Danny, the first money making undertaking launched Danny's very own cookbook,

12:13  
it was 2009. So it was almost 10 years ago, at that time, it was a very buzzy thing. People didn't have social enterprises. And just to describe what is a social enterprise, it is really at a business like any other. The difference is that the profit is not given out to owners, or shareholders, the profit is turned back into the organization's budget and have to run the non for profit side of the organization. So we are not a small organization anymore. The mom and pop, Cathy's going to plunge the toilet because it's like clogged kind of. We not that anymore. We have 16 full time employees, about a dozen part time employees. So currently, we're running some social enterprise arms, they all connected to food. So we have a catering service. We have a cafe, we have an event center. And then we have a gift service. And the newest arm which is coming up is our greenhouse project. My favorite piece is the pop up restaurants. So why is that? My favorite? First of all, what is that? It's basically bringing the food court into people's offices or to a university or school, set up like a food court with pre packaged food, everything made here fresh in the morning. Then it's packaged and it's sold to the public. I am Tammy Greenwald. I'm the pop up manager and I started working at Danny in January but started working in pop up as of September. The program's been running for almost seven years now. So this is the first year where it's four days a week. Last year was three days a week before that it was also two to three days a week. So it's constantly growing and developing. And we're constantly having people come in and out of the program. We want everybody to learn

14:07  
and grow from it. It's really a diverse group of places we go to or kind of like all over the GTA

14:13  
Danny participants take part in all steps of the pop up, they package and label the food. take inventory before and after the event. calculate how much money they leave and come back with sell the food handle the money all the way to making the final deposit in the bank. Jacqueline is a participant in the supported employment program with a few years under her belt. Tammy calls Jacqueline a professional at her job.

14:38  
I've been working here at Danny for four years now. I work here Monday to Thursday. So on Mondays and Tuesday I'm at pop up. Lately I can drink cash or sometimes I give out people the food. It's always different.

14:58  
This is the cash box. I mean the cash A container where I'm going to be taking out everything from the bin to make sure we have it. And then I put everything back. I'm putting the money where it goes in the right order. So example the 10s, go at the 10s. And I'm putting in the change. So we have some toonies loonies and quarters for today.

15:29  
So the total we have is $139.75. Now I gotta counted again to make sure it is right. It's good to go.

15:41  
Jacqueline, Tammy and a fellow pop up employee, Joshua, grabbed the boxes of food in the cash container, load up the van, and they're off to

15:49  
work. And we're gonna get ready to go.

15:54  
Thank you. joshy. muscle man.

16:00  
Today's customers, the students of Toronto's York University.

16:12  
My name is

16:15  
Ganesh.

16:17  
I yoga to pop rocks.

16:19  
First

16:23  
stuff

16:24  
on the table crazy for that people come and fill us.

16:29  
I'm a little worried because I see that people have lunches already. So hopefully people do end up buying the desserts. We'll see.

16:39  
Some participants like Josh, get some extra support from Danny staff while they work. For others. It's a prompt or reminder every once in a while, Tammy says that for the most part, she tries to take a step back.

16:51  
Okay.

16:55  
Shoot

16:56  
me.

16:59  
Crazy.

17:01  
Can I get a chili? And also a slice of pizza? Yes, thank you.

17:19  
Thank you. So

17:23  
some places are small, could be a small office with 25 people, or we go to Coca Cola headquarters when there are 300 or 400 people, these people who come and ask who we are and what we do and, and buy our food. Most likely never ever seen a person with a disability working first time ever in their life, they realize that these people are just like anybody else. There's no difference. So their mind are changing. When that person goes home on the subway, and next to him is going to be somebody who is visibly as a as a disability, gonna think very differently, because now you're gonna think maybe is coming from work just like I'm going from work. Or maybe you're going to the movies like I'm heading to the movies, we are changing hundreds of people's mind about disability on a weekly basis. And therefore this is my favorite pet project as a social enterprise. I always say that to new organization coming to learn about Danny. Yes, it is you can duplicate it. Absolutely. It's a pilot project. But number one, I work about 18 hours a day, six days a week. And you have to be prepared to do that. And of course you have I have many, many people come and do things with me. And I'm not doing it all by myself. But you have to every organization has to have a lead. And this lead this head has to be prepared to work very, very long hours,

18:53  
because well I need to work weekends why I need to work.

18:58  
Supported employment programs are a necessary step in helping people with disabilities find, maintain, and grow from what many adults take for granted. Having a job.

19:13  
Even though if you make a mistake, they're not going to laugh at you. They're going to teach you and that's what I like about this place.

19:18  
Our family. As soon as you walk in, you feel like you're at home, and you really do and they really care about you. Yes, they know you have that disability, but that second nature.

19:30  
The message is really to learn that these these people are just people, they are like no different than anybody else. We all have abilities and we all have disabilities. We just don't think about them as a disability. When we are sort of normal people. Normal is only a setting on the washing machine. The rest are all just people

Transcribed by https://otter.ai