A way forward

Program helps students SEARCH for success

For the past year, Laura Winston has worked to give Garland County students with developmental delays a way forward.

Winston, an instructor for Garland County’s branch of Project SEARCH, described her organization’s efforts to Hot Springs National Park Rotary Club Wednesday at the Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa. The program, which seeks to provide internships to high school

graduates with developmental delays, is hosted by CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs and funded by Arkansas Rehabilitation Services.

SEARCH has existed in the United States for over 20 years and was established in Garland County in 2016. Through its local branch, Winston hopes to challenge the negative stigma often associated with disabilities.

“We want it to have a positive effect on the public in the area of hiring people with disabilities,” Winston said.

SEARCH’s local branch completed its first round of internships in May. The program drew a total of nine graduates from Hot Springs, Lakeside and Fountain Lake high schools to work in local industries for the duration of the 2016-17 school year.

Winston said SEARCH interns must apply for the program and are then chosen through a panel interview composed of faculty from the three high schools, CHI St. Vincent, Arkansas Rehabilitation Services and Access Schools. The applicants then do a skills assessment, through which they are graded.

The applicants with a high enough grade are admitted into the program.

“We have criteria,” Winston said. “Not all of them get in.”

The accepted applicants are then given internships with different local businesses. The interns are given tasks within the business that directly apply to the mission of the business.

Both Winston and Gary Troutman, Rotary president, gave a nod to the fact the interns perform tasks that are vital to the business. Troutman mentioned seeing one of the interns replenishing the ICU supply cabinet at CHI St. Vincent.

Winston said the interns’ work day lasts from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with the first and last hour of the day spent learning life skills, including workplace interactions, how to look for a job, and money management.

Winston said SEARCH’s local branch receives its curriculum from higher-ups in the organization, and the information has been researched and tested prior to being handed down.

“They know it works, so they give us a model to follow,” she said.

SEARCH’s first round of internships contained a total of nine interns from the three schools, with more than half gaining employment afterward, Winston said. For the upcoming round of internships, which will run from August 2017 to May 2018, SEARCH received 14 applicants and accepted 11 interns.

Winston said the applicants the program takes in will likely not attend college and often live in families that rely upon Social Security for income. She said that SEARCH is a helpful avenue for these former students.

“It seems like they’ve gone away from doing the vo-tech and woodworking and shop and things like that, which is the area that these interns need to focus on,” Winston said of schools. “They need a skill, and we’re here to help them gain employment.”

Winston said she would like to see every intern the program takes in gain employment. She also told Rotary members she would like to see those who know of the program spreading the word — both for its growth and for the community’s perception of those eligible for the program.

“Just because they have some circumstances to overcome, doesn’t mean they are unemployable,” Winston said of the interns. “They are perfectly capable of having a job, and that’s what they come to us for — just to learn those extra skills that maybe they don’t get in school.”