Bridging the gap from unemployment to employment

Session Nr.1: "How can legislation support the bridge leading over the gap from exclusion to inclusion?  To what extent is legislation indeed a supporting factor?"

Norwegian social services’ discretionary power to impose activities as conditions for social benefits has been transformed into universal conditions for all recipients. The law amendment aims promoting particularly young persons’ transition into work life.

Employment understood in its broadest meaning has many values, such as self-sufficiency and the individual’s experience of participation in the community. Some individuals and groups are however excluded from employment.

According to international human rights and the Norwegian Constitution, the state is obliged to assist the individual into employment. Research indicates that immigrants/refugees, youth/young adults without secondary education and persons with different disabilities are at higher risk of exclusion from workforce. In Norway, more young people in the arctic region drop out of secondary education than in the rest of the country. Work markets demand increasingly higher qualifications and skills, and members within these groups are at risk of experiencing higher obstacles to enter the work market.

We have evaluated this issue through interviews with 12 social services case workers, which have been analyzed through international human rights conventions, national law, law preparatory work and legal theory as well as theories on promoting factors for transition into work.

Our research indicates that universal mandatory activities require adequate numbers of adequate placements available locally in each diverse community. Additionally, such universal conditions call for committed professionals, vast facilitation, solid cooperation between professions and authorities and decisions based on accountable individual assessments

Session Nr.2: "From specialist to generalist in a NAV office"

Quite a few trained social workers in Norway find themselves working in NAV. NAV is the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration and was established on 1 July 2006.  The aims of the reform were to bring people from welfare into work, increased user-friendliness and efficiency. On the local level, there are 456 NAV offices in municipalities and city districts. Prior to the reform, Norway had separate government agencies for labour services, social security services, and social services. This prior organisational structure has influenced the way many NAV offices have organized themselves. I have followed a reorganization-process in one of the NAV offices, from a situation where only dedicated employees considered applications for financial assistance and followed-up the applicants, to a situation where all NAV-advisors are supposed to do both this and other kinds of services. How does NAV offices best organize themselves? Is it more user-friendly and more efficient if all the NAV-advisors work with several NAV-services? Such a way of organizing implies that each client only needs to relate to one NAV-advisor. However, is the NAV-advisors capable of handling such a broad specter of services?

By doing participant observation and by interviewing employees, I have listened to the advantages and disadvantages the employees think that this new way of organizing has. The reorganization-process has created much resistance and frustration amongst the employees. What causes these reactions? The employees’ thoughts on this matter reveal a lot about how they see their work and their role in the Norwegian society.

Session Nr.3: "First Nations and American Indians as Soveregins: workforce behavioral health, research, and philosophies of the Indigenous"

An international response to Employee Assistance Programming (EAP) and workplace health will be shared from various Indigenous groups.  (Context) Indigenous workforces have existed across the world since the creation of Earth. What has changed is the evolution of multicultural societies, governments, and landscapes that have become part of, or sit parallel to, sovereign Indigenous nations and their workforces. (Theme) Indigenous groups have been instructed to strive for peace as individuals, communities, and nations and to constantly strive to speak, work, live, and to carry on using a peaceful mind-set. To the Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse), peace is more than just the absence of conflict but is founded on spiritual and social foundations of strength and wellness which ultimately create a “Good Mind”.  (Main Message) This presentation will share emerging research on disease management for workplace settings.  Overall, theoretical underpinnings for health sovereignty are communicated through ancient teachings of Indigenous philosophies and their relationships to contemporary Employee Assistance Program development and utilization.

Summary: The art of Employee Assistance Program practice in Indigenous workforces is not a strict individual psychological direction but an array of psychology, social interaction, spirituality, and community. Emerging disease management approaches will be discussed. Workforce development will also be shared as well as philosophical underpinnings from Haudenosaunee perspectives. Ultimately, Sovereign Indigenous Nations have the right and duty to promote the wellness of future generations. The workplace is one means to move the health of people forward in culturally responsive ways