3 minute read
STEP: Partnering with Project SEARCH at Services To Enhance Potential
BY GRETCHEN STILL
Services To Enhance Potential’s Employment and Training Services Department promotes employment opportunities to the members we serve by providing job development and placement, job training, and job coaching. Learn about STEP’s partnership with Project SEARCH and how it provides participants with valuable real-world learning experiences.
Project SEARCH is an evidence-based one-year internship for students with intellectual, developmental, or cognitive disabilities in their last year of high school eligibility. This program provides valuable learning experiences made possible by a collaboration between STEP, Michigan Rehabilitation Services, Corewell Health (formerly Beaumont) Hospital and local school districts. Program participants agree to forego their last year of traditional classroom learning and instead opt for an in-depth and hands-on internship experience.
During the year, interns complete three separate and distinct rotations in various departments within the hospital, learning the transferable skills needed to secure competitive and integrated job placement upon graduation. Each graduating class from Project SEARCH can find full and part-time employment opportunities in the community and report feeling proud of their personal progress and professional growth. Jobs that are obtained upon graduation from Project SEARCH must be in a competitive integrated setting.
STEP is excited to announce the addition of two new Project SEARCH sites for the 2023-2024 academic year, in addition to our Dearborn partnership that we have had for many years. Corewell Health is hosting a new cohort of interns in both their Wayne and Trenton hospitals. We are so excited to expand this program and to support these interns in their journey to independence and competitive employment.
Services To Enhance Potential (STEP) is a non-profit organization which provides support and services to nearly 1,400 persons with disabilities and other mental health needs in Macomb, Washtenaw, and Wayne Counties. A major goal of Services To Enhance Potential is to increase the number of persons who are employed, self-employed, and volunteer in their communities. STEP provides and supports a variety of employment and self-employment options. We were founded in 1972 to bring an employment focus to individuals with a disability and have developed a strong reputation in the community for doing so.
For more information about the programs that STEP offers, please visit www. stepcentral.org.
