Tools for Inclusion for Fostering Workforce Resilience
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Date
2019-04
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ohio State University. Office of Outreach and Engagement
Abstract
Horticultural activities can open the doors for persons with disabilities to enjoy the therapeutic rewards of growing and cultivating plants for food and beautification. Gardens and greenhouses can also provide rewarding job opportunities for persons with cognitive disabilities. Both for-profit and nonprofit gardens can provide meaningful work experience, and help individuals grow to be valuable employees. Join us to discuss the roadmap one collaboration of partners created to focus on delivering an educational tool for a specific audience with defined needs. Learn how the project fosters inclusion, generates resilience in the agricultural workforce, and provides a catalyst in transfer of knowledge. The training package designed through this project delivers tasks guides and safety resources to fit the needs of an agricultural workforce with cognitive disabilities, ultimately adding diversity to the partnership audience while focusing on keeping all workers safe.
Description
Horticultural activities can open the doors for persons with disabilities to enjoy the therapeutic rewards of growing and cultivating plants for food and beautification. Gardens and greenhouses can also provide rewarding job opportunities for persons with cognitive disabilities looking for a change to other employment or service activities. Both the for-profit and nonprofit gardens can provide meaningful work experience, and help individuals grow to be valuable employees. Supervisors who provide explicit training, in a safe work environment, can nurture workers with intellectual disabilities to be reliable and confident employees in the garden and greenhouse. Ohio AgrAbility is a federal USDA-NIFA supported program to assist farmers with disabilities; our work is traditionally focused on physical disabilities, getting farmers back to work after a disabling injury or chronic illness. This past year, Ohio AgrAbility partnered with other community groups to grow our disability services into new and more urban areas. OSU Extension in Summit County provided an Extension educator and Master Gardener Volunteer team, and Easter Seals Serving Greater Cincinnati lent expertise in cognitive disability workforce development. The result of our efforts led to agricultural and horticultural training guides for employers, supervisors and job coaches who oversee training for cognitively impaired workers. The guides are designed to analyze and break down tasks to better understand common horticultural tasks. Laminated cards, with step-by-step instructions, provide additional prompts beyond the written training curricula. The new guides will compliment an existing series of safety fact sheets, designed for small farmers and gardeners. Within this supplemental package, 39 safety and health topics provide the employer and employees with best management practices to reduce exposure and prevent injuries while on the job. While gardening is not considered a hazardous occupation, there are workplace chemicals, mechanized operations, and environmental concerns (dust, noise, heat exposure) that impact the safety and well-being of the workers. The training guides, when combined with the fact sheet series, provides a comprehensive training program for gardeners and small farmers who wish to include cognitively impaired workers to their staff.
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Dee Jepsen, OSU Extension program director, Ohio AgrAbility, jepsen.4@osu.edu (Corresponding Author); Laura Akgerman, OSU Extension disabilities service coordinator, Ohio AgrAbility; Lisa Pfeifer, OSU Extension education coordinator, Ohio AgrAbility; Jacqueline Kowalski, OSU Extension educator, Summit County; Gary Pottebaum, director of transition and community employment, Easterseals Serving Greater Cincinnati
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Dee Jepsen, OSU Extension program director, Ohio AgrAbility, jepsen.4@osu.edu (Corresponding Author); Laura Akgerman, OSU Extension disabilities service coordinator, Ohio AgrAbility; Lisa Pfeifer, OSU Extension education coordinator, Ohio AgrAbility; Jacqueline Kowalski, OSU Extension educator, Summit County; Gary Pottebaum, director of transition and community employment, Easterseals Serving Greater Cincinnati
Keywords
workforce development, cognitive disabilities, community gardens and small farms, inclusion
Citation
Engaged Scholars, v. 7 (2019).