High School Transition Program

• This unique program provides real-life work experience to help youth, with significant disabilities, make successful transitions from school to adult life.
  
• Meant to serve as a student’s last year in high school
• Anchorage  |  Fairbanks  |  Mat-Su

Program Model:

• Project SEARCH is an international trademarked and copyrighted program model, which focuses solely on employment for Project SEARCH interns.
• Successful outcomes for this project include:
• Employment in an integrated setting (working alongside people without disabilities)
  • Year-round work
  • 20 hours/week or more
  • Minimum wage or higher

Project SEARCH is a Business-Led Program:

• This means that interns learn relevant, marketable skills while immersed in the business and those businesses are active partners participating without subsidies.
• The program has several rotations through unpaid internships with continual feedback aimed at developing transferable high-quality employability skills.

Alaska Project SEARCH Sites:

Anchorage

Teacher contact: Beth Talcott
For application paperwork please contact: talcott_elizabeth@asdk12.org
Phone: 907-212-6096

Fairbanks

Fairbanks Memorial Hospital
Teacher contact: Lisa Laqua
For application paperwork please contact:: Lisa.Laqua@k12northstar.org
Phone: (907) 590-3881

Mat-Su

Teacher contact: Kim Shangraw, NBCT
For application paperwork please contact: Kimberly.Shangraw@matsuk12.us
Phone: 907-861-6995

Students and parents interested in an Alaska Project SEARCH site for the student’s last year of high school are encouraged to discuss this interest with their teacher as well.

"The goal for each student participant is competitive employment. The program provides real-life work experience combined with training in employability and independent living skills to help youths with significant disabilities make successful transitions from school to productive adult life. The Project SEARCH model involves an extensive period of training and career exploration, innovative adaptations, long-term job coaching, and continuous feedback from teachers, job coaches, and employers. As a result, at the completion of the training program, students with significant intellectual disabilities are employed in nontraditional, complex rewarding jobs"

Trust PSA featuring Mat-Su Project SEARCH:

National Co-Founder Talks About Project SEARCH:

Anchorage Project SEARCH Success Story:

• Visit page 59 of the Alaska Transition Handbook

Alaska Statewide Project SEARCH Coordinator - Patrick Reinhart

• Phone: 907-269-8990
• Email: Patrick Reinhart

National Project SEARCH:

• Original site started 15 years ago at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital
• Now there are 500 sites worldwide