Educators, employers praise Project Search for helping students with disabilities land community jobs

At a public remarks session, local educators, employers and a parent described Project Search, a collaborative internship program that places students with disabilities into real work settings and aims to secure paid jobs in the community.

Chuck Ashby, a Frederick County Public Schools teacher who works with the Project Search program, said the initiative partners with Winchester City Schools, Frederick County Public Schools, Winchester Medical Center, the Department of Aging Rehabilitative Services and NW Works to teach “real life skills” and workplace behavior and to help students find jobs in the community. “It takes students with disabilities and puts them in the real work world and teaches them real life skills on how to get a job,” Ashby said.

A Discovery Museum staff member who identified themself as Beer said the museum’s involvement was “a no-brainer,” praising students’ interpersonal interactions and the breadth of skills they develop through on-site placements. “There were so many positive aspects of the whole thing,” the staff member said.

William Scott Harvard said he works at Shannidoa University’s student center/grant center and voiced support for the program’s student benefits. A parent of a participant (identified in the transcript as “Katie Hart Williams’ mother”) said the program had been introduced to her family and that it “gives them some good working experience,” adding that program partners help connect students to jobs.

Program staff described typical internship tasks at host sites: building kits, moving equipment, assembling tube kits in the emergency room, cleaning wheelchairs and escorting patients. The speaker said about 18 to 20 hospital departments host students during the program year, giving students “multiple skills that they’re receiving throughout the year.”

Chris Bossman, who said he represents a host employer, described nine years of participation, said more than 70 students have come through the program and reported a success rate “over 90%” of graduates who have gone on to jobs in the community. “When they get their first job, it’s so — there’s just so much power to see a student get his first job and then get their first paycheck,” Bossman said.

No formal vote or action was taken during the session; commenters provided testimony and employer updates about the program’s outcomes and community partnerships.