PROJECT SEARCH Little Rock program helping young adults with disabilities prepare for the workplace BY DWAIN HEBDA
After graduating from the program, Devon (above) now works in the distribution center at Dillard’s. Liz (below), who now works at Embassy Suites, gained a variety of skills during her internship at UAMS.
36 JANUARY 2016 | THESAVVYMOMS.COM
t the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, they’re used to graduations with its beaming honorees, proud parents and the air hung thick with promise for the future. But last May, 13 graduates brought the celebrated Little Rock medical school to its feet as the first class of Project SEARCH Arkansas to receive their certificates of completion. “So often at commencement ceremonies you hear speakers tell graduates to start going out to change the world,” Alan McClain, commissioner of Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, told the graduates, his son Nathan among them. “Well, I think through your experiences the world has already been changed, not only for you and your families but for the people you’ve worked with every day.” Project SEARCH helps young adults with developmental disabilities prepare for the world of work through an internship program with participating companies in their community. UAMS’ program is the first in Arkansas, which lent additional emotion and joy to May’s graduation. It was a moment Jenny Adams, Project SEARCH Arkansas director, had waited to see for a long time. “There is quite a bit of prep work to get a program like this up and running, but it’s doable,” she says. “It took us about a year-and-half of prep work before day one at UAMS.” Participants invest 20 hours per week in the program from August to May, learning work skills and receiving job coaching and lessons in independent living. Project SEARCH also provides the critical final step—job placement assistance—to help graduates put what they’ve learned to practical use. “(Without Project SEARCH) their options right now would be to join a kind of sheltered workshop where they would be working at sub-minimum wage,” Adams says. “There are some other community resources that could offer placement that might lead to employment. Or they can try to navigate employment on their own. That can be pretty tough but they can try that.” By contrast, Project SEARCH has a sterling track record: Of the program’s 25 total graduates, 24 have found employment, many working full time with benefits. “Actually, one of our interns just got a raise,” Adams says, her voice ringing like a proud parent. “Our highest-paid graduate is now at $15.83 an hour. We’re very excited.” The Arkansas program is an affiliate of Project SEARCH International, headquartered in Cincinnati. While it is not limited to healthcare business partners, so far that’s where the Arkansas program’s early growth has come,
PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY PROJECT SEARCH
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