Six young adults are leaving 10-month internships at UConn Health positioned to find independent employment, graduating from Favarh’s Project SEARCH, a program that provides structured work experiences for adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities.
Favarh’s Project SEARCH held a bridge ceremony for its 11th graduating class at UConn Health, which was the program’s first host site in 2015.
Four of the graduates already have found jobs; one of them, Cody Bucklew, was hired by the UConn Health Department of Dermatology as a clinic office assistant and reported to work immediately following Wednesday’s ceremony.
“I think the most important thing was giving me a lot of good interview experience, and I was able to ace every interview here, including my interview for dermatology,” Bucklew says. “And I’m really thankful because I don’t think I’d get this job if I didn’t go through Project SEARCH and all the growth that they have imparted on me, and everything that has come my way and everything that I’ve done to help out throughout UConn Health, and I can’t wait to keep giving.”
Bucklew, of Simsbury, had a six-week rotation in the dermatology clinic as part of his internship, and also worked in the UConn Center on Aging and in dental finance. Two years ago, his family moved to Connecticut from Texas. His mother, Mindee Olm, says the Project SEARCH experience changed his trajectory.
“It has shifted his focus from just how to work to spend your time versus how to work toward a goal of sustaining yourself,” Olm says. “Our next step is to do supportive housing, so it’s looking at a long-term plan, whereas working, what he was doing before was more of a short-term kind of a plan. This is a future that he can create and forge in a community that is accommodating of those in the workforce with the disabilities that they may have.”
Stacey Dias, of Farmington, who also worked in dermatology and in housekeeping, spoke on behalf of her class at the ceremony.
“We especially want to thank all the departments and mentors for guiding us through each internship,” she said. “We appreciate you taking the time to teach us, answer our questions, and show us how our jobs work. We are grateful to our mentors for sharing the advice, encouragement, and real-world guidance that will carry us into the future.”
She noted that, in addition to the hands-on work experience, the program taught the interns essential workplace skills such as communication, time management, professionalism, teamwork, responsibility, and flexibility, and coached them on how to write professional emails and letters, prepare for interviews, and advocate for themselves.
“Project SEARCH taught us more than just job skills, it helped us learn how to meet new people, work through challenges, and believe in ourselves,” Dias said. “We are proud of how far we’ve come, and we are grateful for the opportunities we were given. Thank you to everyone who played a role in our journey. We will carry what we learned here into our futures, and we are excited for what comes next.”
Dias found a job as a cashier at Beanz & Co., a coffee shop with locations in Avon and New Britain with a history of offering adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities employment opportunities.
Fellow Project SEARCH graduate Farren Henry, also of Farmington, also has a job at Beanz & Co. She worked in central receiving and the mailroom.
“I learned to look up people’s name on the computers and then deliver mail to each room in the hospital,” Henry says.
Aiden Willette, of Bristol, also rotated through the mailroom and central receiving, as well as the psoriasis center.
“I enjoyed coming in every day,” Willette says. “I’m going to miss the mentors that we had, the mentors were great. I’m going to miss the people. And departments know us by name. Once the first internship hits, you start to go around, meet people, they know you by name, and they’ll be saying, ‘How you doing, Aiden,’ which is nice.”
He says he’s just accepted a part-time job as a dining server at a KindCare, an assisted living facility in Bristol.
Both Willette and Henry worked with mail handler Joshua Figueroa.
“Thank you for making my experience just as good for me as it was for you,” Figueroa said during the bridge ceremony. “I just loved working with Aiden and Farren and teaching them to pay attention to detail, and them teaching me a little bit more about patience, and I just wanted to say thank you for that.”
Project SEARCH was life-changing, and it’s a really good experience. — Dante Bontatibus
The 10-month program combines classroom instruction and training on best practices for finding and keeping independent employment, as well as the rotations through the work areas for hands-on experience working with mentors. A typical day starts and ends in the classroom, with the interns reporting to their work areas from 9:15 a.m. to 1:45 p.m.
Dante Bontatibus, of Canton, worked in linen, housekeeping, and Morrison Healthcare, UConn Health’s food and nutrition services vendor.
“I liked the linen department because I like to fold clothes, and it was a really good experience,” Bontatibus says. “Project SEARCH was life-changing, and it’s a really good experience.”
Olivia Camerl, of Bristol, also worked in food and nutrition, plus dental finance, and the pharmacy.
“I was grateful that I was able to get the interview help, because I feel like I’ve gotten better at it. I still have to get better at that, but it’s still something that I’m glad I got the experience and the help on within this program,” Camerl says. “I want to be able to, hopefully, gain more experiences and be able to go to higher and better things within the next couple of months.”
Keegan Riley, Favarh Project SEARCH manager at UConn Health, says she was impressed with this year’s class.
“Their diligence in reaching their goals and how eager they were to get through the year really, really shine,” says Riley says. “They came in with a certain energy, and then they finished the year with that. They’ve gotten denied jobs, and now they’re starting to hear back from jobs, and so they really didn’t let that phase them, they just kept going.”
The program resumes in late August with a new class of eight interns.
“If you’re thinking about enrolling your child, or even as someone who might already have been in the workforce before, anyone who may have a disability but are willing to work through that, I think that they will find a great place and great opportunities at Project SEARCH,” Bucklew says.
Favarh is based in Canton and is a chapter of the Arc, a worldwide organization that supports people with disabilities. In partnership with UConn Health Human Resources and the Connecticut Departments of Developmental Services and Rehabilitative Services, Favarh brought Project SEARCH to UConn Health in 2015. Since then, the program has a 98% success rate for interns who complete the program finding successful independent employment, working a minimum of 16 hours a week in a nonseasonal position with market wages.
Today, 17 Connecticut employers are host sites.
