SEARCH helps find careers

Entry into competitive employment is being made possible for individuals with disabilities in Indiana due to the growth of Project SEARCH.

This program, a yearlong school-to-work system for high school students and young adults with disabilities, originated in 1996 at Cincinnati’s Children’s Hospital as a means of filling entry-level jobs in the hospital’s emergency department. The model has now spread across 39 states and four countries, according to the Project SEARCH website.

The state of Indiana was no exception.  

Teresa Grossi, director of IU’s Center on Community Living and Careers, heard about Project SEARCH through colleagues in Ohio. From there, she said she considered a replication of the national model in Indiana and made a proposal to the state.

“In order for Indiana to replicate the Project SEARCH model, the Center on Community Living and Careers here at IU’s Institute on Disability and Community was contracted (by) the State of Indiana to coordinate the effort and provide the technical support necessary to uphold the hallmark standards of National SEARCH and meet the licensing requirements with them,” said Margaret Gilbride, leader of Project SEARCH Indiana, in an e-mail.

What became of this affiliation between the CCLC and Project SEARCH are nine high school transitional sites across Indiana and one site geared toward young adults in Bloomington.

These sites range from hospitals to government buildings, Gilbride said.
Each site fosters an educational, hands-on experience for the participants in the program in an effort to expand their skills and build a résumé.

The morning begins in a classroom setting with an internship rounding out the remainder of the day. By the end of the yearlong program, the participant should have rotated through at least three internships, Grossi said.  

“The intention at the end is that they will be hired by the businesses they are at or by businesses similar to them,” Grossi said.

The first interns began during the 2008-09 school year. Since then, 74 individuals have successfully completed and graduated the Project SEARCH program in Indiana, and 37 have become employed, Gilbride said.

“Since all Project SEARCH Indiana students have significant disabilities and only two earned high school diplomas (as opposed to certificates of attendance), these early outcomes are significant since this population tends to have a 75 to 80 percent unemployment rate nationally (depending on the study),” Gilbride said.