Lorrisa resides in a small community in Northern Saskatchewan called Little Red River.
Before falling into addictions, she commuted to Prince Albert where she worked as a Cashier and Housekeeper. Lorrisa made the decision for herself and her children to stop crystal meth and alcohol cold turkey. With the support of her partner, who also chose sobriety, she has been clean since 2019.
In addition, Lorrisa struggles with short-term memory issues at times and gets confused when asked verbal questions. She often needs extra time to process information, a task list to work off, and hand-over-hand teaching.
Due to her past work experience, Lorrisa was interested in gaining employment in any entry level position, particularly housekeeping and cleaning. In September 2021, Lorrisa was referred to Neil Squire by the and decided to join our program to enhance her employability skills and learn strategies to navigate the labour market.
Lorrisa was extremely motivated to learn and grow as a person. She did not want to start looking for work right away, but instead wanted to learn as much as she could so she would feel equipped to tackle job searching a until she felt confident that she could maintain employment.
She started the process by updating her resume and learning how to tailor cover letters to jobs in her field of interest. She learned how to job search, self-market, and how to prepare for interviews. Lorrisa participated in a disability presentation, which is what she says she enjoyed the most. Lorrisa took great pride in showing up on-time and maintaining near perfect attendance.
Through her effective networking, Lorrisa landed a work placement at the gas station in her community. She proved herself to be reliable and hard working.
They were so impressed by the work she did, they offered her a casual/part-time permanent job that turned into a full-time job offer. She was excited to obtain full-time employment in her community without having to commute to Prince Albert. Lorrisa is responsible for pumping gas, running the cash register, opening/closing the store, and of course, providing exceptional customer service.
If one job wasn鈥檛 enough, Lorrisa was such a go-getter that she also obtained part-time employment at Dairy Queen in Prince Albert.
Lorrisa also expressed having more motivation and benefiting the most by having the opportunity to create goals and work towards achieving them.
Not only is Lorrisa equipped with the knowledge to be successful in employment, but her confidence has increased as well.
鈥淚 feel more confident to seek employment,鈥 she says.
November is Indigenous Disability Awareness Month (IDAM). Indigenous peoples of Canada experience a disability rate significantly higher than that of the general population. IDAM brings awareness of these barriers and the issues that Indigenous peoples living with disabilities and their families face every day.