May 15, 2023 – East AlabamaWorks is proud to support Etowah County’s Project SEARCH, and extremely happy to have helped celebrate the graduation last week of eight program students. Project SEARCH is a transition program for young adults ages 18-24 who are experiencing life with a developmental or physical disability. It provides individuals who want to work a chance to explore careers and develop transferable job skills through an internship at Gadsden Regional Medical Center. Project SEARCH places these young adults in real-world situations where they learn all aspects of gaining and maintaining a job. This process of immersion facilitates the teaching and learning of new work skills on a real work environment.

Each 9 month paid internship begins in mid-August and ends in early May of the following year. Each intern completes up to three rotations in three different departments in the hospital and/or in a community business. The interns start applying for regular employment around the end of their second rotation. Most Project SEARCH interns are fully employed by the time they graduate in May.

The 2023 Graduates are: Victoria Curtis, Jared East, Russell Palmer, Ben Satterfield, Kristee Smith, Joseph Snow, Lance Whestine, and Jonathan Whorton.

Congratualtions on your hard work and successful completion of Project SEARCH!