Three North Central Kansas Youth Sign to Join Project SEARCH

USD 224 Clifton-Clyde and USD 333 Concordia, in collaboration with the Learning Cooperative of North Central Kansas and the North Central Kansas Medical Center, hosted signing day events for Project SEARCH on Wednesday, March 20th.

Project SEARCH is a program to train persons with developmental disabilities for high-need positions.  Project SEARCH was developed at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, a research environment that fosters visionary thinking and innovation.  Since its inception, Project SEARCH has grown from a single program site at Cincinnati Children's to a large and continuously expanding international network of sites.

The Learning Cooperative of North Central Kansas will be providing the employability and soft-skills training for students in the region, while North Central Kansas Medical Center and Cloud County Community College will provide the training room and internship opportunities for learning skills for competitive, integrated on-the-job training at the hospital and in the community.

Lisa McFadden, Coordinator, says Project SEARCH's primary objective is to secure competitive employment for people with disabilities.

This year, Project SEARCH interns Kyler Haskett, Zach Leiszler and Lane Vanous have been interning at North Central Kansas Medical Center and Cloud County Community College, learning work skills.

North Central Kansas Medical Center has served as the host business site the last two years.

Last month, McFadden says they began a new partnership with Cloud County Community College, which provides more areas of interest for interns to choose from.

On Wednesday, Kinley Havel and Elly Matheu of Clifton-Clyde and Colton Berk of Concordia were introduced as the newest Project SEARCH intern class.  All three signed letters of intent to participate in Project SEARCH during the 2024-2025 academic year.