GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – It was the culmination of 9 months of hard work and through it all, a life-changing transformation happened for several special needs students Thursday.
That’s when 8 Project SEARCH students graduated from the internship program at St. Vincent and Bellin Hospitals in Green Bay.
Project SEARCH is a program that helps young adults with disabilities obtain employment training in their last year of school.
Department of Workforce Development Deputy Secretary Georgia Maxwell explains some of the skills they develop.
“They learn to work on the computers. They learn to do food service. They learn to do all sorts of great things in these rotations especially at our hospitals.”
Many times the host company will hire the workers after graduation.
“It’s a 9-12 month program and Project SEARCH provides total emersion into a large community business. Students with disabilities are offered a workforce alternative for their last year that they’re in high school,” Maxwell said.
This program was established in Wisconsin in 2008 and keeps on growing with the help of Governor Walker.
“In 2014 Governor Walker announced the expansion of Project SEARCH in Wisconsin as part of year of the Better Bottom Line initiative. The core goal of the initiative was to expand Project SEARCH from 7 sites in the state to 27 sites by the 2017-2018 school year,” explained Maxwell.
Maxwell says Project SEARCH has an exceptionally high success rate with 88% of those completing the program gaining full or part time employment.
Find more information on the expanding program by clicking HERE.
