Award for Outstanding Employment Service Provider

Award Description

This award recognizes employment service providers who have demonstrated excellence in employment service delivery, increasing employment opportunities for people who have a disability. The recipient of this award shows outstanding outcomes in quality:

• Service delivery
• Business engagement
• Community engagement

The award recipient is a high-performing, leading employment service provider in the disability employment sector. 

The application process is open until July 31, 2024, 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.

For accommodation or further enquiries, please contact us at info@odenetwork.com. 

Ways to apply

• MS Forms application
• Accessible application form (Microsoft^® Word format)

Eligibility criteria

• The employment service provider (ESP) must be an ODEN member in good standing and is currently providing disability employment services to people who have a disability.

• The ESP has demonstrated excellence and dedication in increasing employment opportunities for people who have a disability by:

1. 1. Providing excellent employment services and/or programs
   2. Engaging business communities and building talent pipelines
   3. Engaging the disability community, including self-advocates, families, and schools

• The ESP will be asked to provide two letters of support from businesses, community or other service provider outside employment who can comment on the contribution to the disability employment sector and the community made by their employment services and/or programs.

• The ESP will be asked to provide a maximum 500-word impact statement stating how the applicant is the ideal recipient of the award. The statement should highlight the following areas:

• • The service provider’s disability employment services and/or programs

• • The service provider’s strategy/initiative(s) for business engagement

• • The service provider’s strategy/initiative(s) for community engagement

• • The quantified outcomes of the service provider’s services, programs and/or initiatives

• • The extent of accessibility of the services, programs and/or initiatives

• • The extent of diversity and inclusivity of the services programs and/or initiatives

• Self-nomination is encouraged.

Application review process

Each application will be reviewed by members of the Award Committee and ranked based on the overall quality of the submission and using the rubric detailed in Table 1. The rubric shows categories and the associated metrics for the selection process. The nominator should describe how the nominee would be the ideal recipient of the award by providing evidence for each metric item.

Description of evaluation metrics

A–Services & Programs

• Service Impact and Quality: Quantified outcomes for the services and programs offered by the service provider, e.g., number of service users served, number of sessions offered, the extent of satisfaction of service users. Emphasis is placed on ensuring that barriers are removed for job seekers who have a disability while respecting, honouring and empowering people in defining and attaining their goals and achieving self-determination.

• Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA): The extent of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility of the information, services, and programs, e.g., number of ways of curating information to clients, the variety of services and programs provided, any specific initiatives for any underserved equity-seeking groups.

B–Business Engagement

• Business Relationship Building: Service provider’s ability and capacity to build connections and engage with businesses. For example, any business highlights on the service provider’s website, number of job seekers securing positions at businesses engaged, number of businesses engaged over the years, any feedback or success story from businesses the organization works with.

• Education and Advocacy: Service provider’s efforts on promoting Inclusive Hiring and dispelling myths about hiring people who have a disability, e.g., any promotion materials on their website, any other initiatives to promote Inclusive Hiring to businesses.

C–Community Engagement

• Community Relationship Building: Service provider’s ability and capacity to build connections and engage with other stakeholders, such as family, school board and other social service agencies, e.g., any collaboration done, any collaboration/partnership highlights on the service provider’s website.

• Partnership and Collaboration: Service provider’s ability and capacity to partner and collaborate with other agencies and organizations in minimizing employment barriers for people who have a disability, e.g., any collaboration done, any highlights for partnership & collaboration, if they share or refer others’ resources within their own network.