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Where Business and Education Come Together
Project SEARCH Durham Region is a unique work-oriented transition program for high school students with developmental and/or intellectual disabilities whose main goal is employment through career exploration. Students who will be referred to as Interns are immersed within a host business site and supported by a core team including a certified teacher and skills trainers.
Project SEARCH Interns:
- Participate in a variety of work experiences within the host business during three 8-10 week internships
- Acquire competitive, transferable and marketable employability skills
- Gain increased independence, confidence, and self-esteem
- Obtain work-based individualized coaching, instruction and feedback
- Develop links to employment support and other service agencies
What Does Project SEARCH Look Like?
There are two facets to the Project SEARCH program: employment skills instruction and employment skills application. Each day begins at the host business in a classroom setting where students learn employability skills. After classroom instruction, the majority of each day is spent in hands-on training. The internships are selected to ensure interns develop skills that are in demand in their local labour markets. At the end of each day, Interns return back to the classroom to reflect, journal, problem solve, and plan around their key learnings. The program runs for approximately 10 months.
The teacher and skills trainers are onsite at the host business daily. In the classroom and on-the-job, they teach both the hard and soft skills needed for workplace success. In addition, interns receive guidance from mentors who are experienced staff of the host business. The mentors act as advisors to guide the interns’ skill development. The mentors share real-world performance expectations, help the interns reflect on the competencies they are developing and give open, candid feedback.
The ultimate goal is to support students to be successful in their post-graduation search for competitive employment, utilizing the skills learned in the work experiences and throughout the program. Some students may be hired by the host business where they trained. Others find employment in a range of industries within their local communities.
Project SEARCH History
Project SEARCH was developed at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in 1996. Erin Riehle, then Director of Cincinnati Children’s Emergency Department, felt that because the hospital served individuals with developmental disabilities, it made sense they should commit to hiring people in this group. She wondered if it would be possible to train them to fill some of the high- turnover, entry-level positions in her department. As a starting point, Erin presented her ideas to Susie Rutkowski, then the Special Education Director at Great Oaks Career Campuses. Erin and Susie formed a partnership that was instantaneous, and together they launched Project SEARCH.
Since its inception, Project SEARCH has grown from a single program site at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre to a large and continuously expanding international network of 731 sites in 10 countries all with the primary objective to secure competitive employment for people with disabilities.