WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wis. (WSAU) — Two new locations were announced Tuesday for Wisconsin’s Project SEARCH program, which helps young adults with disabilities gain employment training and skills to enter the workforce.
Governor Scott Walker was at Riverview Hospital in Wisconsin Rapids and St. Vincent Hospital in Green Bay to announce the expansion of a program that helps differently-abled people get meaningful jobs. “This is now a whole new wave of seven more sites for project search we’re announcing for this next school year. We’re up to seven for this past year, so will double the size of projects that we have across the state to help people in high school age with disabilities find their unique abilities through this program, and help them prepare to enter into the workforce.” He says, “It’s really about finding ways to identify the unique abilities that people with disabilities have, and really plug them in, not just here at this hospital, but give them the confidence to go elsewhere.”
The Project SEARCH program was originally developed by the Cincinatti Children’s Hospital Research Center, and was adopted as part of Walker’s Better Bottom Line initiative. “It’s part of our overall initiative called the Better Bottom Line, to help more people enter the workforce, to get people the skills and the education they need to get a great job and more importantly, a great career going forward.”
The state has budgeted $850,000 to expand the number of Project SEARCH sites in Wisconsin from seven to 27 over three years. The new sites are at hospitals in Green Bay, River Falls, Sauk Prairie, and Wisconsin Rapids, plus the Milwaukee County Zoo and Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells.