Employment agency breaking barriers for marginalized people on Vancouver Island
A temp agency on Vancouver Island is taking a compassionate crack at the labour shortage.
Spoonies Employment Agency is dedicated to finding safe workplaces for marginalized people, including those with disabilities and 2SLGBTQ+ and racialized communities.
“As a queer person, it’s very important to be in a job that makes you feel validated and makes you feel like you can just be yourself,” Spoonies employee Em Granley told CTV News.
Granley used to work in construction, where she said she was occasionally subjected to cutting comments on worksites. She got a gig through Spoonies in October, working at a Camosun College cafe.
“I don’t have to pretend to be somebody else. I don’t have to fake anything,” Granley said. “I can just be me.”
The agency vets every employer. Its founder has navigated accessibility barriers and championed mental health breaks for some team members.
“We’ve had people come to us from very, I hate to say it, but, toxic industries where they were treated badly and now they are thriving,” said Veronica Greer, who founded Spoonies in June.
Often, employers are happy to make accommodations based on someone’s abilities, Greer said.
“They just wouldn’t know how to do so without the help,” she added.
Granley’s employer has worked with five other Spoonies employees.
“We want to show them that the [food service] industry is for everybody,” said Greg Brown, Camosun College’s food service director for Aramark.
“If we’re not taking care of our people, we don’t have a business.”
Brown credits Aramark’s contract with Spoonies for helping keep Camosun’s food facilities afloat.
“We’re able to open all six of our outlets every single day to full capacity and create a really welcoming, happy environment that people have a good time working at,” he said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.