Internship program helping students with intellectual and developmental disabilities find new opportunities

I was in West Virginia recently for the annual convening of my colleagues who lead state chambers of commerce around the country. These meetings are always a good chance to compare notes about what’s happening in other states and learn how we can bring good ideas back to Arizona and keep the bad ones away. 

Thanks to Arizona’s tax, regulatory, labor, and legal environments, the economy here is exceptionally strong, which gives me plenty to brag about to my fellow CEOs who are looking for policy ideas to boost their own state’s economy. 

But regardless of whether we lead organizations in states that are growing or ones that are stagnating, what we chamber leaders hear consistently from our leading members are concerns about hiring, whether our top employers can fill available jobs, and whether we’re doing all we can to ensure that everyone who wants to grab that first rung on the career ladder has the opportunity to do so. Too many jobs are going unfulfilled and too many potential workers are sitting on the sidelines. 

A new policy paper from the Arizona Developmental Disabilities Planning Council that examines employment opportunities for Arizonans with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities finds that a nationwide internship program called Project SEARCH could be a gamechanger for job seekers and job creators.

Already partnered with the University of Arizona Sonoran Center for Excellence in Disabilities, Project SEARCH is a nationwide internship program available to students with developmental and intellectual disabilities, typically seniors in high school, but occasionally open to recently graduated students. The internship links up with businesses to give students the chance to gain on-the-job experience. 

We can do so much better to find competitive, integrated, and meaningful job opportunities for our fellow Arizonans with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Consider the numbers:

• Employment rate: Only 19.1% of people with intellectual disabilities are employed in the United States, compared to the employment rate of people without disabilities, which is 61.8%.
• Labor force: Less than one out of every two working-age adults with an intellectual disability is in the labor force, and 28% have never held a job.
• The unemployment rate is 17%, which is more than double the unemployment rate for people with other disabilities and almost four times the unemployment rate for the general population.

“Changing the culture of families and the general perception of people with disabilities is what Project SEARCH is all about,” said Heather Dietrich, who works out of the Sonoran Center for Excellence in Disabilities at UA and is the Arizona statewide coordinator for the program.

The internship program boasts impressive stats. Nationally, in 2021-2022 Project SEARCH: 

• Enrolled 3,855 students
• Employed 2,614
• Completion rate of 91%
• 67% of students were employed in an integrative, competitive job.

In Arizona, 344 interns have successfully graduated from the program.

“The interns are also learning transferable skills that can go to any job no matter where they are. The Project SEARCH curriculum includes team building and technology, financial literacy, self-advocacy, workplace, safety, health and wellness and preparing for and maintaining employment. And these skills are incorporated into their daily jobs,” Dietrich said.

There are eight Project SEARCH sites in Arizona in the health care and hospitality industries, including the Mayo Clinic, the Renaissance Glendale Hotel & Spa, Banner Health Gateway, and SanMar, but project leaders are eyeing expansion to ensure students with intellectual disabilities all over our state have opportunities.

“There is a largely untapped talent pool,” Dietrich said. “Nationwide, we have a shortage of talent. I think employers are trying to fill jobs, and we can help fill that gap.”

Ensuring that individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities have access to meaningful employment has been a stubborn problem for too long. And yet I hear from too many employers who are struggling to fill positions. But there’s good news: the talent is there if employers know where to look. Project SEARCH can help you find it. 

If your company would like to learn more about Project SEARCH and how it can bring new talent to your workplace, contact Heather Dietrich via email or at (520) 626-8295.