Job ‘SEARCH’ offers a chance

PALMER — For every student who’s been told they can’t do something because of a mental or physical disability, Project SEARCH offers a chance to prove the naysayers wrong.

The program started 20 years ago with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital nurse Erin Riehle, who was director of the emergency department there at the time. She saw that the hospital afforded young adults with disabilities plenty of volunteer opportunities, but no access to paid jobs.

“They were never allowed to do anything but volunteer,” Riehle said.

With the help of special education coordinator Susie Rutkowski, though, Riehle was able to change that by creating Project SEARCH: a “business-led transition program” that teaches 18- to 26-year-olds with disabilities how to gain and maintain employment within their communities.

Currently, there are 412 Project SEARCH programs worldwide that have provided thousands of individuals with on-site job training at hospitals, veterinary clinics, cafés, grocery stores, airports and more.

Mat-Su Regional Medical Center is one of four businesses in Alaska that participates in Project SEARCH, in partnership with the Mat-Su Borough School District (MSBSD) and the Alaska Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. The local partnership is the best example of what the international program is all about, Riehle said.

“They don’t just do it, they think about ways to do it better,” she said during a Thursday visit to the hospital.

How it works

At Mat-Su Regional, Project SEARCH participants have the opportunity to work a year-long, unpaid internship in 19 different areas, from human resources and marketing to materials management and food services, to imaging and physical therapy. Each intern works three, 10-week sessions in three different areas — whichever best suit the individual’s preference and ability — and starts each day with an hour-long class taught by MSBSD teacher Amber Finley.

Student eligibility for Project SEARCH depends on a number of things, including but not limited to: a willingness to work; the ability to communicate effectively; possession of or ability to develop personal hygiene and daily living skills; and the ability to use or develop an understanding of how to use public transportation.

As with traditionally schooled students, the range of cognitive and physical ability in Project SEARCH interns varies greatly. However, a key objective of the program, Riehle said, is to develop social skills. One concrete example of this is the “10 and 5 rule,” which teaches students to acknowledge another person with a smile or friendly eye contact at 10 steps away, and extend a hello or other positive greeting at five steps.

For students with developmental disabilities, understanding simple interactions like this can be like a traditionally able person trying to buy something with foreign currency or trying to navigate public transportation while traveling abroad, Riehle said. Similarly, teaching employees and other adults how to interact with the interns is just as necessary as teaching the interns the opposite.

When encountering people with disabilities, Riehle said, “people without a disability usually do one of two things: They stare and ask weird questions or they look away and don’t acknowledge them.”

But as the program has developed, those reactions have nearly, if not totally been eliminated at Mat-Su Regional and other Project SEARCH partners.

“You can tell that people are thinking about what they’re doing, or are noticing but aren’t sure how to break into (conversation),” Finley said, “but then when (the interns) approach them…”

“It opens up that dialogue and encourages some of that positive reinforcement,” said Kristin Vandagriff with the Alaska Governor’s Council on Disabilities and Special Education.

Program successes

In the past five years, 32 students have completed the program at Mat-Su Regional, according to Human Resources Director and Project SEARCH Business Liaison Cathy Babuscio. About 33 percent of those “graduates” were later hired at the hospital, the rest went on to work for other businesses, and some did both, she said.

Andrew Sheldon, who started SEARCH in the fall of 2013, is one graduate who currently works at the hospital full-time.

“Every day like everybody else, Monday through Friday, eight hours (a day),” he said. “If they need me later I’ll stay later.”

Sheldon said he “gained a lot” in his internship with SEARCH, not the least of which was a job. The hospital actually hired him for environmental services — housekeeping, mostly — before he had completed his internship, so he could work more, Finley said.

What Sheldon enjoys most about his job, he said, is the people, and realizing how important his job is.

“I like being around good people, helping out,” he said. “Without housekeeping there’s no such thing as a hospital.”

That last statement is something Vandagriff said is crucial for Project SEARCH partners to understand.

“It’s not just about doing good things, but it’s actually been good for business, and I think that’s been an important message … for the community,” she said. “It’s a win-win.”

Another thing to remember, Vandagriff said, is that not every intern who goes through the program at Mat-Su Regional need work at a hospital. One recent grad works at a local veterinary clinic while another got a job at an Anchorage airport.

Sheldon is content to work at the hospital for now, he said, but is hoping to get into filmmaking, too. He’s taking his first class, Intro to Acting, at Mat-Su College this semester.

Coty Strable, who just started her internship last month, said she’s not sure what she might want to do after Project SEARCH, but is doing her best to “do a great job” and “love it,” even when her to-do list gets long.

“We’re busy a lot,” she said.

To learn more about Project SEARCH locally, visit the school district’s related webpage at http://matsuk12.us/Page/370 or the national website at www.projectsearch.us.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.