11/7/2019 Topic: A new way to design a Skills Matrix Susie Rutkowski	Our new team in Kalamazoo MI at the Radisson Hotel created a Skills Matrix based on the hotel's core values. Their example is attached. The host business liaison felt that these skills were extremely important in their environment. This is a great way for the program to support those values.
11/7/2019 Topic: Guest Speakers and Community Outings Susie Rutkowski	Hi Carolyn Vanessa Brown is the instructor at East Tennessee Children's Hospital in Knoxville. She has lots of great ideas and did a session at the conference last year on this topic. Don't forget that a great guest speaker doesn't have to be the VP or GM. Many of the line workers who have a great attitude have wonderful messages to share with students. Also, someone from the local police force make great speakers on personal safety and consequences on theft!
2/9/2020 Topic: Updating Resource Guide Documents Susie Rutkowski	Thanks Erin and Hi to Everyone Else - we are so excited about giving everything an update. As a former teacher, especially excited about the lesson plan expansion: they are meant to have more guidance for the team with critical thinking exercises and differentiation strategies. To increase collaboration and communication we want to add a section in each lesson for managers / mentors and another section for families about how they can support each lesson. It will be fun to have new lesson plans from across the country! As Erin said, we would love to credit all who submit a lesson!
2/10/2020 Topic: Assessment day tasks Susie Rutkowski	Hi Sharmey Here are some tasks that I've seen lately that were fun for the intern and interesting to evaluate from a resort in Tennessee: - Food Service - the students had to peel real (large carrots) and then cut them under the supervision of the chef. Next he had all the ingredients for to make a yogurt parfait. They had to scoop the yogurt first into the cup without it dripping; then scoop out the different fruits that were on the table with a measuring cup into the parfait plastic cup. Next came the flat plastic top and scooping the granola on the flat top and finally the dome top. The dome top was the hardest because you had to press the dome top in place and then it popped in place. (I couldn't do it even with the chef's help!). Most of them could do the first part with guidance but all had issues with the top, especially me! The chef was so patient and the students got to eat their parfait! - Housekeeping: We did this station in a suite guest room of the resort. The students had to make a typical king bed in the room. Next they had to make Murphy bed in the living room area. This skill was more about balance than anything. The students had to reach up and pull the bed down - it was tricky! While making the bed they to keep their feet on the bar at the bottom or the bed would begin floating back up Most of them caught on quickly. Again, the staff was so patient and encouraging with the students. The hardest task at this station was putting on pillowcases. Many of the students had done pillowcases but had never done the final step of tucking the top back in against the pillow so it looked more like a closed envelope. - This task was from a large hospital in SC: The pharmacist was very interested in Project SEARCH and was hoping to find a few students who could learn to be Pharmacy Tech's. He ran this station and was assigned to his station. He had a few tasks for them to complete. One of the tasks was to find the expired drugs in small peel packs. It was difficult because the numbers were so small. The pharmacist had actually included one that he thought was good but a year too old and many of the students caught his mistake! He was so pleased with that. Another task was to pull the correct medications from the pharmacists prescription and most of the students could do that as well. Many teams have a separate rooms for families with a presentation just for them. That can be very helpful for everyone. Hope these tasks help! Skills Assessment Days are one of my favorite days!
2/10/2020 Topic: Hospital Internships for Interns in wheelchairs Susie Rutkowski	Hi Erin Always good to see your name and picture. We have an intern right now who uses a wheelchair. She has been working with someone from our Business Office. Our staff member created a report of all the Project SEARCH programs who were missing information on the member portal. He helped her to create a template email to all the sites about their information, asking them to update their program site and telling them to contact their program specialist if they need help. One day she got 40 responses in her inbox. People are responding to her and updating the needed information. Currently she is emailing each site telling them their employment outcomes are due at the end of this month. She does really well working from a spreadsheet and customizing emails to our programs! Our Dow site in Michigan had someone updating the SDS (Safety Data Sheets) by finding important information on the web.
2/10/2020 Topic: Financial Literacy Susie Rutkowski	Hi Tina - FDIC also has a Financial Literacy Curriculum that has 7 lessons. It's written on several different reading levels to match needs of students. Its free and downloadable and the lessons were updated this year.
2/10/2020 Topic: Intern resumes and portfolios Susie Rutkowski	The radio station is a great idea, especially in smaller towns. Another resource for preparing students for interviews is working with an Employment Agency. They often give community open presentations on gaining employment and have some great tips and techniques that we might not think about. They have great insight into the local labor market and many of them would be happy to work with your program!
2/10/2020 Topic: Intern resumes and portfolios Susie Rutkowski	Hi again One of the Pre-Conference sessions at the Baltimore Conference will have a focus on using technology for the classroom and for job development purposes. This session will be led by Rebecca Van Gilder from MD! Check it out!
2/12/2020 Topic: State Meetings happening soon Susie Rutkowski	Dear GA Project SEARCH Friends Don't forget we have a Project SEARCH Statewide Meeting in Macon on Friday, February 21. It will be held at Middle GA State University. We hope to have representation from every GA site. The agenda is attached. j Susie
2/12/2020 Topic: State Meetings happening soon Susie Rutkowski	Dear MI Project SEARCH Friends The MI Project SEARCH Statewide Meeting will be a fun day of flexibility and fun in Battle Creek MI. We will be touring Duncan Aviation, one of our most unique Project SEARCH sites anywhere, as well as learning about Project SEARCH initiatives at the same time! Students from the Calhoun Area Career Center will feed us lunch. Hope to see representation from all Michigan Project SEARCH sites. Susie
3/16/2020 Topic: URGENT - IEP change when intern gets a job! Susie Rutkowski	Hi All – This should always be an IEP team decision. All Project SEARCH interns will have IEP goals related to gaining employment, as well as other goals related to soft skills to help them maintain employment. If they gain employment before the school year is over it should always be an IEP team decision as to next steps and whether it’s critical to keep attending the program for any portion that is possibly with their employment schedule. If the IEP team has any concerns about the ability to maintain employment, then 's important to keep them in the program to: 1. Use the remainder to the school year to give them the support needed to maintain their job and have the instructor guide the process 2. Work on other goals/activities related to their needs to keep that job and progress in their career 3. Look at each individual situation based on the interns needs, the work schedule and anticipated challenges that will need to be addressed 4. Work with all partners to ensure the student is set up for success! Depending on the interns schedule they could come just for the curriculum, one or more days a week, etc. If the intern can't physically attend the Project SEARCH curriculum part of the program, they could meet with the instructor / Skills Trainer virtually for continued work on these goals. The instructor and Skills Trainer should be checking in with the intern, collecting data on their progression. This data could be reported through Progress Monitoring and/or the Employment Planning Meetings. At my former school district, we kept the interns as "Student" status through the remainder of the school year to continue providing support ensure success on all their goals. Hope this helps!
3/16/2020 Topic: Off-Site Internships Susie Rutkowski	In terms of off site internships, they can be a lot of work and require additional staffing and transportation. The internship should have a high potential of leading to paid employment as you are planning the site. However, at this time it might be a great alternative. As all have mentioned, please make sure that staff is available to support the intern.
3/16/2020 Topic: URGENT - IEP change when intern gets a job! Susie Rutkowski	Here is some more information as a follow up to these questions: Paid Employment Paid Employment involves existing standard jobs in a company or customized employment positions that are negotiated with an employer. These jobs always feature a wage paid directly to the student or youth. Such work is scheduled during or after the school day. Paid employment is frequently an integral part of a student’s course of study or simply a separate adjunctive experience.9 Often times, these employment experiences are the first steps towards building a meaningful career for students and youth with disabilities. From: United States. Department of Education. Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS). (2017). A transition guide. To postsecondary education and employment for students and youth with disabilities.
3/19/2020 Topic: COVID-19 Info By and For People with Disabilities Susie Rutkowski	This is great and so useful now but parts could be adapted for Orientation when the program begins about washing hands and staying healthy.
3/19/2020 Topic: Please catch up on intern data while you are home! Susie Rutkowski	Hello Instructors and Skills Trainers and other team members: Please take this time to catch up on intern data and add detail about their internships and employment outcomes while you are home.
3/19/2020 Topic: Online learning resources Susie Rutkowski	Some instructors are having the interns practice interview questions at home. What a great idea! In addition to the interns answering questions they should all have some prepared questions to ask. Here are a few questions to send them for practice: - Could you describe a day in this position? - Who will I be working with on a daily basis? - Walt traits do your successful employees have? - What are your company's goals? - Why do people like working here? These questions are taken from "Express Employment Professionals" (Asheville Office) Your interns could practice these and add to the list. Happy Thursday, stay safe!
4/4/2020 Topic: COVID-19-Ways to Engage Interns Susie Rutkowski	Below are a couple resources the VocFit Webinar participants gave for interns. https://ownyourgoalsdavina.com/?utm_source=goole_ads&utm_medium=search_ads&utm_campaign=core_ongoing&utm_content=key_terms&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImubyrtLM6AIVCrDtCh3OCgvJEAAYASAAEgIR6vD_BwE Lululemon has great yoga videos free online. Stay Safe and Strong - Susie Rutkowski
4/4/2020 Topic: COVID-19-Ways to Engage Interns Susie Rutkowski	Below are some resources from a Nebraska Instructor from Omaha Children's Hospital: Some of my parents wanted more involved online training besides our daily video class via Google Meet, so I found these useful. https://getyouredge.org - Free online training modules on customer service, personal development (communication, etc) https://thepracticetest.com - typing and data entry practice https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/subjects/tech/ - free training modules on computers programs, such as Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Internet safety, etc. Thanks Melissa - Be safe and strong!! Susie Rutkowski
4/20/2020 Topic: COVID-19-Ways to Engage Interns Susie Rutkowski	Hello All - Beginning Week 6 of Stay Home! We have an Occupational Therapy Doctoral graduate student with us for a few months. Welcome Allie Schneider from Huntington University. She has designed a fun "Resources for Teens and Young Adults". Check out the attachment for fun physical and other sensory ideas.
4/26/2020 Topic: COVID-19-Ways to Engage Interns Susie Rutkowski	Verizon just listed some new ways to learn - some of the companies listed below are giving 60 days of free access to these games and platforms: New ways to learn. Home education can be made easier when you have the right tools. Enjoy up to 60 days of the following learning platforms, on us: • Shaw Academy reskills & upskills millions of adult learners online across a range of subjects focused on practical skills. Courses professionally certified. • Epic has over 40K e-books and audiobooks that let kids under 12 explore a variety of fun topics. • Quizlet Plus lets students create more engaging sets, study on the go, and find better focus with an ad-free experience. • Bookful brings stories to life for kids under 10 using 3D/AR interactive books and games. • Chegg® Study Pack helps students tackle hard homework with step-by-step problem solving, video explanations and more. Learn more

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