Statistics show, despite years of disability employment strategies, rates of employment for people with a disability remain much lower than the general population. On this episode Nicky takes a deep dive with Rod Von Clark the CEO of the Flagstaff Group to understand why.

Rod talks about some of the systemic and cultural barriers to people with disability achieving employment. While getting a job is generally regarded as a great achievement and important to our identity and self-esteem, Rod also talks about the counter intuitive fear and vulnerability that can be associated with achieving employment and the importance of addressing the genuine concerns people may have about being disadvantaged through obtaining paid work.

To address the challenge Rod talks about a model of integrated employment with broad application where there is support as needed, high expectations and people are treated equally and with dignity in the workplace. This is a whole of government and whole of community issue and here Rod articulates a helpful holistic model for an inclusive, relational and high performing approach to the workplace and thinking about work.

Music Credit:

"Jarvic 8" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Acknowledgement of Country

Community Industry Group' podcast is recorded on beautiful Dharawal Country, and we acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, and their Elders.

We acknowledge and respect their continuing culture, the world’s oldest living culture, and the contribution they make to the life of this region and our country.

We acknowledge that we live and work on Aboriginal land and recognise the strength, resilience and capacity of Aboriginal people.