For young people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, finding a job after high school might seem impossible. Project Search gives those young people the opportunity to gain the skills and go out into the workforce, oftentimes leading to regular employment and sometimes even full-time jobs with benefits. After a one-year hiatus, the Project Search program in Hastings has moved from Hastings Public Schools to Educational Service Unit No.
9 and now is giving six young people the opportunity to earn job skills at Mary Lanning Healthcare. “This is just a wonderful program that gives these young people opportunities they might not otherwise have,” said instructor Amy Vetter. Vetter helped to start the program back in 2011 as a partnership between HPS and Mary Lanning.
Since that time, the program has produced about 50 graduates, many of whom work paying jobs at Mary Lanning today. “Of our interns from that very first year, one young man got hired at the end of that school year part-time nutritional services and part-time environmental services. And he is now full time with engineering,” Vetter said.
In a short walk around the hospital, Vetter said Project Search graduates can be found working in housekeeping, materials management, nutritional services, materials management, engineering and environmental services. “Environmental services and nutrition services are our heavier departments because they are more entry-level skills,” Vetter said. “Some do not h.