Employment Services - Project Search
A New Program at Children’s Hospital
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That could mean many things, from creating a picture book of instructions for an intern who can’t read or follow written ones, to designing a system with precounted slots, or envelopes, for an intern who has trouble keeping track of numbers.
Teacher Cathy Nielsen has been guiding intern Christine, 35, through a big filing job in Children’s Human Resources department. When Christine first started the assignment, she had trouble reading the file labels she was pasting on the folders. Cathy suggested a simple solution: bigger type. It sounds like a small change, but it made a big difference to Christine’s job success.
Cathy went to the trouble of finding employee files with long names on them to determine how large the type could be while still fitting the name across the label. The bonus: Now the files aren’t just easier for Christine to read; they are easier for everyone to read.
At Project SEARCH, that’s called a “universal design change,” because it benefits all workers, not just the disabled, long into the future.
Another benefit—for children with disabilities—is seeing working role models such as Christine, Lisa, Derrick and all the Project SEARCH interns and graduates. Seeing adults with disabilities in the hospital, working and productive, assures parents and kids with disabilities that there is hope and a future for them.
All in the family
For Linda Tywoniak, director of Compliance at Children’s Hospital’s research center, bringing Project SEARCH to the hospital was personal. Her son is a client at East Bay Innovations, and she knew Project SEARCH had a stellar reputation. With her help, a Cincinnati Children’s delegation, including project founder Erin Riehle, came to Oakland to pitch their program.
Doug Myers, Children’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer, made the call. “I just saw it as an incredible program that gave people who otherwise weren’t given a shot, a chance to be productive members of our workforce,” he said. “I could see both the joy that it brought to the interns, while at the same time fulfilling a valuable need for the institution.”
Linda understands the joy part, intimately.
“Because of my son,” Linda acknowledged, “I know what this program can do for these young workers emotionally, and for their self-esteem and hope for the future.
“You know, for their whole lives they have been put down,” she said, then paused to gather herself. It’s a painful and personal truth.
“It’s good for them and good for us,” she continued. “It makes us all slow down, appreciate what they are doing and what we are doing.
“It also enables all of the public involved with Children’s Hospital Oakland to actually see that these individuals have more capabilities and talents than someone might think.”