2024
2024 – WISE and the Ready Willing and Able funded project – Youth Employment Project
The project offered culturally appropriate pre-employment learning opportunities through an employment training curriculum. This curriculum is a central part of our initiative and provided young individuals with the chance to improve their employment prospects. Clients also had the opportunity to explore and develop insights into their employment preferences and strengths. The program ran from May 2024 until December 2024 and was open to youth who are finishing school and are up to 29 years old. It is specifically aimed at youth from racialized communities, indigenous communities, with an intellectual disability or ASD.
2024 Pilot Project – Financial Literacy
Full inclusion of people with disabilities in the economy is not possible without economic inclusion. To ensure that they can make informed choices when participating fully in the economic system, WISE has partnered with the Royal Bank of Canada. Together, we provide accessible and customized sessions about savings, investments, paychecks, and other relevant subjects. This information is presented in plain language.
2023 World CASE Conference
In June 2023, Vancouver hosted a conference for local, national, and international stakeholders of inclusive employment. During the conference, attendees learned about various research, discoveries, success stories, and challenges faced by others in their respective countries. WISE presented information on their Food Service Assistant Certification program, a formalized training which aimed to fill a staffing gap in the hospitality industry.
2023 Accreditation by the Council on Accreditation (COA)
COA is a global organization that aims to support and certify agencies providing family and social services. In November 2023, after a lot of hard work, including reviewing files and policies, and gathering feedback from stakeholders and the community, we were able to achieve our best practices. This was a huge team effort, and in the end, both WISE and UNITI, our parent agency, obtained their accreditation with perfect marks.
2023 Impact 2.0
Franklin Roosevelt famously said, “We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.“ Impact 2.0 is a collaborative research initiative led by the University of British Columbia (UBC). WISE, along with 9 other organizations, focuses on youth aged 16 to 19. Through interactive and engaging sessions, these youth learn about their strengths and talents and gain valuable work experience with local businesses. This research aims to determine the impact of early exposure to employment before these youth complete their secondary education.
2021
WISE successfully participated as speakers in the CASE conference, a Canada wide association of employment agencies focused on supporting workers with intellectual disabilities.
2021 Digital Literacy with ISS of BC
In our continued efforts to keep up with the fast-moving world of technology, WISE partnered with ISS of BC to implement Digital Literacy sessions for our clients. In these sessions, the participants learn about safety online, email etiquette, and many other useful tips to increase their confidence in online interactions.
2021 Celebrating You
At WISE, we firmly believe in the power of teamwork. As such, every job, every success story is based on the efforts of many people. Our community partners, the job seekers and their families and support networks, and of course, the employers. With these thoughts in mind and despite the worst quarantine the modern world had ever seen, we committed ourselves to recognize everyone’s efforts. Thus, Celebrating You was born. Once a year, we put away our work tools, we dress up, we meet, and celebrate everyone making a difference in Employment Inclusion.
2020 PBLMT Government-funded skill building
Place-based labor Market pieces of training are an efficient way to focus on the skills that local markets demand, timely and accurately. In 2020, Low Voltage, Underground Utilities, and Fire Extinguisher maintenance filled the bill. In 2022, as the markets shifted towards hospitality jobs, WISE pivoted with it and developed the Food Service Assistance. During this successful project, clients learned the ins and outs of the food industry with a high percentage of them securing a job afterwards.
2019
A big year for WISE Employment Solutions when they chose to participate in the IMPACT project. This is a UBC initiative to research the outcomes of employment in youth living with disabilities. So far, WISE has worked with 40 youth comparing results with 9 other agencies.
2019
For the first time in British Columbia, two Federal Government Agencies, ISED and Transport Canada, partnered with an employment agency in this specific field, to create job opportunities for adults with disabilities. WISE Employment Solutions facilitated the hiring and training of their staff.
2019
The WISE team, in partnership with the Surrey School Board, created the Ease into Employment project. The goal of this project was to expose youth experiencing disability to a wide array of careers, skills and certifications. It is believed that early employment interventions lead to higher rates of paid, satisfactory employment in this sector of the population.
2019 Learning Labs
The WISE team created next-level employment skills preparations for our clients. We called them Learning Labs. During these sessions, clients gather to discuss relevant soft skills such as Conflict Resolution, Professional Boundaries, and some practical knowledge like resume writing, mock interviews, and job search. With technology constantly changing, our Learning Labs are also ever evolving, giving our clients the most up-to-date tools to compete in today’s employment market.
2018
By the end of 2018, WISE Employment Solutions had a staff of four Employment Specialists. These are professionals who are highly trained not only in the field of employment, but also understand that each business requires specific skill sets from the staff they want to hire.
2018
Under Seema’s leadership, the employment services provided by Semiahmoo House Society gets a new name and WISE Employment Solutions is born. WISE stands for ‘WORKING INNOVTIVE SOLUTIONS FOR EMPLOYMENT‘.
2017
As employment for adults with diverse abilities continue to evolve, Semiahmoo House Society hired Seema Tripathi as the Associate Director of Employment. She set to work at creating a series of tools and protocols for better matching of workers with disabilities and permanent competitive Employment.
2009
By 2009, Customized employment hired four staff with the purpose of finding employment for those receiving services within their communities. These jobs consisted mostly of piece work, contracts, seasonal, etc.
2008
In 2008, Semiahmoo House Society recognized that paid employment is a fundamental right for adults with disabilities and created Customized Employment.
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