Six local students graduated June 8 from a Fairview Lakes Medical Center-facilitated program designed to give people with disabilities better positioning in the job market.
In 1996, the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center launched an effort to “lead the community in increasing employment opportunities for persons with (developmental or cognitive) disabilities and advocate on behalf of their employment to other organizations.” The director of Cincinnati Children’s emergency department presented a plan to the Great Oaks Career Campuses special education director, and the resulting partnership became Project SEARCH.
Project SEARCH’s goal was to train people with developmental disabilities to fill some of the high-turnover, entry-level positions in the hospital, which involved complex and systematic tasks such as stocking supply cabinets, and to secure competitive employment for individuals with disabilities.
That Cincinnati program has since spread to over 240 job sites that include Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland and Australia, as well as the United States. In Minnesota, the program has been in existence since 2009. Sites include Medtronic, Children’s Hospitals of Minnesota, Avera Medical Center, Hennepin County Medical Center, Mayo Clinic and Fairview Lakes Medical Center in Wyoming. The Forest Lake Area School District was chosen to facilitate the Fairview program.
During their time as interns, the six local students who graduated from the Fairview program, aged 18 to 21, worked in the housekeeping, clerical, nutrition, security, store, facilities, and in-patient pharmacy departments. Over the course of one school year, each student would spend two weeks in the classroom learning job preparedness skills and would then interview in one of the hospital departments. They would spend 10 weeks on the job as an intern in that department and then would start the process over with two more weeks of classroom time. Each student worked in three different departments throughout their time at the hospital.
“None of these students were ready to interview for or work a job out in the real world when they first joined Project SEARCH,” instructor Lesa Genovese said. “Walking out of here on graduation day, however, I am confident that every member of this class of interns will be a valuable asset to the workforce.”
The Fairview Wyoming program accepts students from Forest Lake, Century, White Bear Lake, St. Francis, North Branch, Anoka-Hennepin and Spring Lake Park school districts. Potential interns must fill out an application, which will usually lead to a family meeting to determine if the student is a right fit. Interested students are then put through an interview and skills test process before finally gaining acceptance into the program.
“It is a very special thing for these young people to get into this program,” Genovese said. “For some, this is the only chance they have at being able to successfully join the workforce. Independence, financial and otherwise, is a huge step for someone with a disability and that is one of the big things this program provides an opportunity for.”
Bailee Sandbakken started the program in September 2015 and graduated June 8. Gaining the skills and confidence to able to work independently on her own without someone shadowing her to provide assistance was a major milestone for Sandbakken.
“I got a job at Caribou Coffee, and I think it’s fantastic,” Sandbakken said. “Without the things I learned here at the hospital and the help from everyone I worked with, I would not have been able to get that job.”
Sandbakken’s mother also noticed a huge change in her daughter from day one to the end.
“She is so much more outgoing socially,” Julie Gerr said. “When we are out shopping or running errands, she is not afraid to say hi to people and interact. That was something that didn’t happen before Project SEARCH.”
Fairview Nutritional Services Supervisor Wendy Braski is so confident in the program that she hired one of the 2014 graduates, Alyssa Kurrelmeyer, to work in her department.
“I noticed such a tremendous change in Alyssa as she made her way through the program that I had no worries about hiring her as a part of my team after she graduated,” Braski said. “She recently celebrated her two-year work anniversary and she has so far had perfect attendance. Another positive aspect to hiring someone from the program is that it teaches our other staff members compassion toward others ,and that is one of the Fairview values that we all want to embody.”
Beginning in 2017, Fairview will see a new Project SEARCH instructor as Genovese has been asked to lead a brand-new program in the state. Gov. Mark Dayton is a proponent of Project SEARCH and has decided to start a program at the state Capitol. That program will also be facilitated by the Forest Lake District, and Genovese will take charge of the new interns.