Project SEARCH interns past and present showed up for an Open House and ribbon cutting on Friday, Feb. 9. There have been 23 graduates from the program at Tabor College. 
Project SEARCH held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday, Feb. 9 to reveal their new trophy case.
Many of the past and current interns were on hand to show off not only their trophies but to show their training area as well as project boards about things they have been learning and working on. Friends, family and members of the public were on hand to show support.
Director Robert Haude welcomed everyone and thanked them all for coming.
“We appreciate your time. We brought back this year’s and past interns—quite a few past interns, in fact. Each year we have an open house where we invite the Tabor community as well as Project SEARCH family back that have been involved in Project SEARCH to come through and check our training room out as well as see the interns and their progress to the program. At this point, they’ve completed 2 internships,” said Haude.
According to the official website, Project SEARCH is an international organization that focuses on preparing young people with significant disabilities for success in competitive integrated employment. The program was developed at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, a research environment that fosters visionary thinking and innovation.
The program began in 1996 when a director there felt that, because the hospital served individuals with developmental disabilities, it made sense that they should commit to hiring people in this group. The director also wondered if it was possible to train people with developmental disabilities to fill some of the high-turnover, entry-level positions in her department, which involved complex and systematic tasks such as stocking supply cabinets. As a result, Project SEARCH was launched. The program has grown from a single program site at Cincinnati Children’s to a large and continuously expanding international network of sites.
The Tabor College Project SEARCH program is in its seventh year and has had 23 graduates so far.
“We’re very thankful and grateful for the continued support that we have from Tabor. Upon graduation, many of these interns went to work. Some of them went on to some additional schooling or participated in a program that provided them with other experiences that allowed them to reach some goals that they had post Project SEARCH,” said Haude.
