Project SEARCH
Project SEARCH’s primary objective is to secure meaningful competitive employment for people with disabilities.
What is it? – Too often, individuals with disabilities leave high school unprepared. Community members have low expectations of them and their ability to work. Additionally, adult services are confusing to navigate for the individual and their family. Project SEARCH provides a framework for efficient and effective collaboration between schools, service agencies, and employers to help individuals with disabilities acquire the skills they need to succeed in a competitive work environment, help students find and secure employment, and link them with the support they need to keep their job.
How does it work? – Project SEARCH is immersive, where students learn skills through internships at designated businesses alongside the business’s employees. Students begin their day with classroom instruction led by a transition teacher from participating school districts, then head to work in their internships for four and a half hours before returning to the classroom for a daily debriefing. While a skills trainer works with students throughout the course of the year, come spring, the staff works one-on-one with each student intern on individualized job development in order to place the individual into a job that is best suited to their strengths, interests and skills.
For more information, please view Project SEARCH 101.
Pre-Employment Transition Services for Individuals
As stated by the Colorado Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR), “Pre-employment transition services are provided to students with disabilities to further develop an awareness of career and education opportunities, the general skills needed for employment success in any field, and the skills needed to appropriately advocate for themselves as they prepare to exit secondary education and enter the workforce or other post-school activities.”
As a vendor of these services, Easterseals Colorado works with individuals one-on-one in the following areas:
For more information on the services listed above, please visit the Colorado DVR Website.
