PRINCETON-Local agencies, schools and business are teaming up to provide students with disabilities an opportunity to enter the workforce.

Gibson County Area Rehabilitation Center, Indiana Institute on Disability and Community at Indiana University, Gibson -Pike -Warrick Special Education Cooperative and Gibson General Hospital are part of Project Search, one of only five programs in the state to provide the experience.

GCARC was awarded the contract in 2008 through Indiana Vocational Rehabilitation, to work with students in three 10-week intern rotations, depending on how the schedules fit in with the school calendar, says GCARC's Brian Drogich.

Students in their last year of high school can apply for the intern positions, and if selected, articipate in the program instead of their day-to-day classes.

The original program was started at the Cincinnati Children's Hopsital in 1995, but has since spread to Indiana and beyond, even in places as far as Europe and Australia, Drogich said.

When starting the project in Gibson County, GGH was the only logical choice, he said. The original program was designed around a hospital and Gibson General is a well-known member of the community, Drogich explained.

Both of these points combine to make Gibson General a perfect site for Project Search, Drogich said. Students work in six different locations inside the hospital: the Lifestyles Diabetes Center, enviromental services, skilled nursing department, lab department, purchasing department, and the medical/surgical department, Drogich says.

In each of these departments, students have a different job. In the lab, students prepare specimens and help transport them to other places in the hopsital.

Students serving their rotation in skilled nursing will do several different jobs to help keep the department clean.

Working in environmental services means cleaning laundry, folding laundry and completing the department's orders.

Students working in purchasing help stock and fill out orders and deliver to the rest of the hospital.

Medical/surgical assignments include many of the duties CNA's perform, according to a news release from GCARC.

The classroom part of the project started Aug. 17 with the rotations starting Aug. 31. The interns' days are from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Coordinators are on site to help students. Steve Belcher teaches students life skills with money, problem solving, and how to write a resume. Each day, students write in a journal, focusing on their weaknesses and how they can improve. He also helps prepare them for interviews each student has to do before starting each new rotation.

Janet Graves, Director of Materials Management, was part of the original presentation for the Project Search idea and helps students with many of the purchasing and receiving skills used in local businesses.

Tonda Welch, lab director, says that "every area of the hospital is affected." The hospital, even departments that do not have interns, enjoy having the students on site.

Emmett Schuster, GGH's president and CEO, says it is "amazing how well the program is being received."

Cristy Teeters, Transition Coordinator, worked to decide which students would be selected, which students would fit in best in rotations, and, once the rotations are complete, helps students find a job opening in the community.

Teeters is at the hospital every day, making sure that students receive help they need to have a successful internship, according to GCARC.

After the year of interning is complete, students may talk with an employment specialist to help them find a permanent job in Gibson County.

Project Search can be implemented into locations other than hospials. Schuster saud he and the other members of Gibson General's Project Search team are receptive to meeting with other local businesses and telling them what worked with the project, what didn't, and how it has affected and helped the hospital.