Beyond Interns - Students with disabilities gain job skills, inspire co-workers

12/21/2017

This article was written by ANDREA PRAEGITZER and originally appeared in the Charlotte Sun on 11/30/2017

At a large, round table in the cafeteria of Bayfront Health Punta Gorda, Chanelle Bond sat alone and focused on rolling silverware tightly into white paper napkins.

She filled a tub with the finished product, carefully, one-by-one.

Earlier in the week, she put cookies gently into little bags and helped make sandwiches.

That was after she got training on how to do CPR, along with workplace etiquette through role-play.

She watched videos about discrimination and harassment and learned about hygiene, hand-washing and sanitizing.

For Bond, 21, these are some of the skills she needs to snag the food preparation job she now aspires to do.

And without this recent exposure, Bond may never have found her calling.

Charlotte County students, like Bond, are getting on-the-job training during their last year of high school in a program called Project SEARCH.

In all, 10 students with disabilities make up the first class of interns this year from the Charlotte County School District. All are working at Bayfront Health Punta Gorda hospital.

“We feel honored and humbled to be the first employer in Charlotte County to offer the Project SEARCH High School Transition Program to students of Port Charlotte and Charlotte high schools,” said Drew Emery, CEO of Bayfront Health Punta Gorda.

Though only a third of Florida counties have Project SEARCH sites like the one at Bayfront — with none yet in Sarasota County — there are other “extended transition” programs operating throughout the state serving students aged 18 to 22.

Students who will not graduate with a standard diploma may receive services through Florida school districts until their 22nd birthday.

Districts in Charlotte and Sarasota counties also offer school-based enterprises, vocational instruction or other real-life experiences involving local businesses. But those don’t always involve full-day schedules at businesses for an entire school year like Bond is experiencing.

“I like it — I want to be in the kitchen,” Bond said about her internship.

The national unemployment rate last year for people between the ages of 25 and 34 was three times more for those with a disability than without, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The state’s transitional programs are working to change that.

Students at Bayfront Health Punta Gorda are learning skills they need to succeed in jobs.

After the program ends in May, they can apply to potentially work at Bayfront.

Or they can take the skills they are learning to work somewhere else.

“As the students prepare to graduate from the program in May, we look forward to ensuring their successful transition into employment,” said Emery.

But while working at Bayfront, even just as interns, their presence is official.

The students all wear hospital badges listing their names and pictures, which some interns proudly showed off during a recent forum with the Sun to discuss their experiences.

The interns, all between the ages of 19 and 21, come to work every weekday morning dressed in matching uniforms: Blue crew-neck shirts that say Project SEARCH, khaki slacks and black boots.

The program requires the presence of a school teacher, along with a skills trainer, and mentor hospital staff that the interns work with daily.

They work alongside hospital employees and supervisors to build communication, teamwork and problem solving skills.

“This program serves individuals with the most significant disabilities,” said Florida Department of Education Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Spokesperson Sarah Timoti. “The goal for each student participant is competitive, integrated employment.”

The interns are doing three, 10-week rotations through different areas of the hospital — from kitchen work such as food preparation and dishes, to cleaning X-rays, working in the stock room and delivering supplies, for example.

They are gaining different skills — and leaving their own impacts on co-workers along the way.

“It is exciting to watch as the interns explore new career possibilities while making a positive impact on the culture here,” said Emery.

After just a couple months, Ruthanne Goodby, an employee in the kitchen and cafeteria at the hospital, has become attached.

Goodby, who has been with Bayfront for about 25 years, said Bond and others under her purview have become like “extended family.”

“We’re supposed to be helping them, but they’re helping us,” said Goodby while tearing up. “It means everything to us, they’re delightful.”

Goodby said it was bittersweet as Bond and others in her unit got ready to transition out of kitchen work and into another division. Meanwhile, other interns readied to rotate in.

“We’re going to miss them terribly,” said Goodby, adding they have been an inspiration to her. “I know they’ve had obstacles in their lives.”

Of all Project SEARCH sites in Florida recently, about 33 percent of interns who have graduated became employed by their host sites and most of the rest were employed elsewhere. On average, graduates worked about 25.4 hours per week and earned $9.61 per hour, according to the Florida Division on Career Development and Transition.

“The national average of individuals who get jobs after attending the program is about 70 percent,” said Cheryl Etters, spokesperson for the Florida Department of Education.

Florida began working with Project SEARCH in 2007 and there are approximately 294 students currently in the program, who get to spend their last year in high school learning “transferable and marketable” skills, according to Etters.

“The students attend high school at the business and are totally immersed into a business and what it is like to have a job so this helps with the transition to a productive adult working life,” said Etters. “The Project SEARCH program provides the opportunity to learn about jobs that are complex but have a systematic element to them.”

The program is funded by reallocating existing resources. The Florida Developmental Disability Council funded the start of 10 sites last year, and prior to that employment service providers funded the sites, said Etters.

“A fee covers the use of the name, the curriculum, and access to the national experts for technical assistance,” she said. “Once the initial fee is paid, there is a nominal yearly fee.”

Project SEARCH is not a fit for all exceptional student education, or ESE students, who must apply for internships from the sites like Bayfront.

But there are also other program options through both Sarasota County and Charlotte school districts aimed at teaching job skills.

For example, in Sarasota County, there is an Academy of Individual Mentoring that offers some community based work experiences for students.

They spend a couple hours per day at employers such as Hampton Inn doing tasks such as cleaning, laundry and dining room duties. Burlington Outlet and Home Depot also offer the students opportunities such as sorting and organizing merchandise and dusting appliances, according to information from Scott Ferguson, Sarasota County Public Schools spokesperson.

Both school districts also offer school-based enterprises where students make and sell items such as artwork.

Officials with Sarasota County School District are now looking into the Project SEARCH program, Ferguson said.

The interns at Bayfront Health Punta Gorda have walked at Port Charlotte High School or Charlotte High School graduations.

They have autism, or intellectual disabilities that they told the Sun can require more time for them to process instructions or accomplish tasks as compared to people without disabilities. Some of the students struggled with verbal communication but thrived doing tasks that frequently involved repetition, such as dish-washing, rolling silverware or cleaning tables or equipment.

Thomas Frederick, 19, who attended Port Charlotte High School said he has a learning disability. With other jobs at the hospital still yet to try, he said he hasn’t found his calling yet but is keeping his mind open and has enjoyed cleaning X-ray equipment so far.

Students weren’t just thinking about this year. They were also contemplating where they want to be in the next 10 years.

Noah Gobbel, 19, said he would like to work for the hospital for a couple years, but then he said he would like to be a real estate agent and also open his own business — perhaps a restaurant.

Kyle Lee, 19, explained he has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, with some autistic features and depression.

“In 10 years, I would like to have a family, to be happier and have a nice job,” Lee said.

For now, though, delivering supplies from the stock room at Bayfront to other parts of the hospital “gives me something to do and look forward to,” said Lee.

“I feel like I’m a part of something bigger than myself,” he added.

Lee said he has done landscaping work before, but for most of the other interns this is their first job experience.

Most said they are enjoying it, but some have dreams of doing something else.

Alex Rogers, 19, has cerebral palsy and wiped down tables in the cafeteria. She made her way back and forth from the kitchen to assist Goodby.

“I want to be a music teacher,” Rogers said, smiling.

Students are rotating through different departments to be exposed to various skill sets.

The experience can be an asset to their resumes and future job pursuits. Graduation from the internships is set for May at the hospital.

“We all work at a different pace,” said one of the interns, Daniel Snipes, 19. “If we were all the same, life would be boring.”

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