A young man walks on a downtown Street. Narrator: Joseph Brown walks through a brisk Baltimore morning. His destination? The University of Maryland Baltimore School of Law. The camera pans the front of the University of Maryland Law School Narrator: Joe's a senior -- and he's got a goal when he completes high school. Joe Brown: Just to go out and work. Narrator: Joe works as an intern in the law library on campus. Shot of Joe reshelving books in the law library. Narrator: Tieyona Miller wends her way along -- one block over. A young woman walks on a downtown street. A “walk” sign changes from “wait”. A bird flies across the camera range. Shot of building exterior. She, too, heads toward campus at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Inside, her supervisor walks up to her desk. Co-Worker: Hi Tieyona! How are things going? Tieyona Miller: Good! Narrator: Tieyona works as an office assistant. Co-Worker: I see you're still working on the folders? Tieyona Miller: Yes! Tieyona smiles Clarence Moore walks down a Baltimore street; shot of the walk sign Narrator: Clarence Moore strides with purpose toward his future. Like the others, Clarence is a high school senior. Clarence painting a wall. And, like the others, Clarence is on the job at the University of Maryland, Baltimore -- painting his future in bold strokes. Clarence Moore: That was the first thing I wanted to do when I first came to Project Search. Narrator: What is Project Search? Project Search coordinator sitting in a chair next to a vase of flowers. Joanna Falcone: Project Search is an innovative employment program for people with disabilities. It was started in Cincinnati, Ohio, more than a decade ago. It's now being replicated nationally -- around the world... Narrator: Project Search is a high school transition program for students with disabilities. It weaves students, the school system and employers together in a win-win for all. Shot of student collating paper Then shot of him entering a room to go to work Joe Brown: Good morning everybody... Joanna Falcone: It's a business model. It's a unique collaboration of partners. Here it's the University of Maryland Baltimore, the Baltimore City Public School System, The Arc of Baltimore, and DORS -- the Division of Rehabilitation Services. Shot of the exterior of the buildings of these organizations. Shots of Joe getting down to work And all of those partners are working together to make the program a success here. Narrator: The students gain real-life work experience. The schools land students in the field where they learn job skills. And employers such as Pamela Bluh get students eager to learn those skills in internships usually of about 10 weeks. The employers realize a potential employee down the road! Ms. Bluh at her desk –close shot Pamela Bluh: Joe is -- well -- he was our first one -- so I guess we have a special fondness for him. Narrator: Joe works in the library, its stockroom and file room. More shots of Joe labeling mailing boxes Pamela Bluh: And we looked at things like opening the mail, delivering the newspapers... Shots of Joe working I think it's been wonderful. It's given the three staff members who work most closely with the Project Search student an opportunity to learn some supervisory skills... Narrator: The staff also has help from Project Search in training the students. It comes from the Arc of Baltimore -- a community-based support services agency for people with developmental disabilities. The Arc has launched Project Search here in Baltimore. Exterior shot of Arc on York Road. Then Job coach approaches Tieyona on the job. Tameka Brooks: How are you? Tieyona Miller: Good... Tameka Brooks: I'm a job coach... Narrator: The job coach serves as an essential part of the program. Tameka Brooks: I go to the supervisors, I learn the job, I write a job analysis up, task by task, and I come back with the student, and I teach the student the job. Shots of Tieyona assembling folders with job coach checking on steps Usually you devote a lotta time in the beginning, but once you really work with them one-on-one the interns learn really fast, so you phase-out, so you might start in the beginning there every day from nine to one, and then as the days go on, and the student is mastering the skill, you phase out maybe twice a week, then maybe a couple of hours or maybe one hour. Narrator: The job coach handles the training, oversees the interns, and always is on site. Change camera to university of MD Human Resources Director. Mary Digiacinto: Too often programs are really great feel-good programs if you will -- but the amount of extra work... Narrator: Mary Digiacinto is a human resources director at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Mary walking down a hall. Then cut to close up. Mary Digiacinto: The job coaches... the quality of work was validated on an ongoing basis... and again limited time from the immediate supervisor... Narrator: She says the students' work surprised the supervisors. Mary Digiacinto: In their mind, they had limited what they expected the students could do, and found that they had to expand the amount of work that they could give to the students to fill the time and that was very exciting to everyone, and that was one of the big “ah-hahs.” Various shots of the students at work Narrator: Joe and another intern handle the everyday, such as tagging library books with anti-theft strips. But Joe also handles labeling books. Shot shows Joe tagging books. It is a multi-step process Supervisor: Alright Joseph -- where are you on these right now? Narrator: It's a more complicated job that involves correctly punching numbers into a data template on computer. Shot of numbers on a computer screen The job's done right. Back to Pamela Bluh in Law Library Pamela Bluh: Both of them have been excellent. And both of them have actually taken on more responsibility and learned more duties than we had anticipated that they would want to do or be able to do -- so we are thrilled. Back to Joanna Falcome Joanna Falcone: And that's just where we want the program to go! We want to challenge the students, we want to find jobs for them, that are not the jobs that you traditionally think that people with disabilities could do. Christina Huntley: I really wish that I'd known about it earlier. Office assistant is a very helpful position here. New shot of Tieyona stuffing papers into files for a conference. Narrator: Christina Huntley talks about Tieyona Miller -- who handles the mail, copies, sorts, assembles folders for meetings -- and more. Christina Huntley: I think our only concern is that we only have them for a short period of time, and we really wish we could have them for a longer duration. Long sequence of Tieyona photocopying Narrator: She says Tieyona’s positive presence boosts morale. Tieyone smiling while working. Christina Huntley: Tieyona is a very joyful person, laughs a lot, she has a great smile and she's very pleasant to work with. Just a great smile when she comes in in the morning. I can depend on Tieyona to come in and even get started without myself or the job coach even being present. Narrator: She is -- in short -- Christina Huntley: Independent... and also reliable and responsible. Shot of Vassie Hollamon with shots of Clarence setting up his painting work area Vassie Hollamon: The employer really expects that the individual is going to come with certain skills, certain knowledge, certain abilities, so it's really critical that when candidates come to us, they present themselves as being employable. At the end of the day, most employers are looking for you to do a job. To be job ready means that you have that ability to take on a task. Shot of paintbrush in a can. Narrator: Clarence Moore paints. It's a skill he's learned during Project Search. Clarence carefully painting a wall. Vassie Hollamon: You have that ability to understand an order when it's given to you... or a direction. Order's not always a nice word to use, but a direction when it's given to you. Narrator: Vassie Hollamon appreciates both Moore's ability to work -- DORS Counselor Jerry Cooperman walks in to check on Clarence. Jerry Cooperman: Clarence Narrator: -- and to see a job through. Clarence Moore: How you doin' Mr. Coop? They shake hands Narrator: Jerry Cooperman -- Jerry Cooperman: Ok... Narrator: -- is Moore's counselor. Jerry Cooperman: How you doin? Clarence Moore: Ok! Narrator: Cooperman works for the Division of Rehabilitation Services -- or "DORS" -- with the Maryland State Department of Education. DORS programs help people with disabilities go to work. Clarence painting. Many DORS counselors like Cooperman work exclusively with high school students who are moving from school into work. Jerry Cooperman: Clarence is getting real work experience. He comes here everyday and he works in the various departments getting wonderful skills -- not only actual work skills but “soft skills” as well. Get to work on time, how to interact with co-workers, how to deal with supervisors. We've been hearing via reports and talking to our contacts here that Clarence is really doing a wonderful job. Shot cuts to classroom setting where a teacher is discussing good work behaviors. Renee Gillis: And you want the person to know that you are very confident. So you should be making what? Joe Brown: Eye contact. Renee Gillis: Good, you should make eye contact. Teacher writes on blackboard Narrator: The students of Project Search attend class an hour before and after work. They learn job readiness, resume writing, and interviewing skills. {sound of knocking} Clarence coming into practice interview Renee Gillis: Come in...' Clarence Moore: Good morning, Ms. Gillis. Renee Gillis: Good morning. Clarence Moore: How you doin'? Renee Gillis: I'm well, thanks, how are you? Narrator: And they learn appropriate workplace conversation and behavior about how to work, as much as the work itself. Renee Gillis: Alright, I'm looking here -- I see that your name is Clarence Moore? Clarence Moore: Yes ma'am. Renee Gillis: Alright. Cuts to University of MD Human Resource Director again. Mary Digiacinto: You know you hear this all the time: “I can train for the technical skills.” And I can do that, as an employer I can do that, but what I find very difficult to do is get the right work attitude, get the right work behavior. Clarence Moore: I'm a good worker. Cuts back to classroom interview Renee Gillis: And I can depend on you? Clarence Moore: Yes ma'am. Renee Gillis: Okay. Narrator: The classroom integrates job etiquette with the skills necessary to get along -- get it done -- and excel. Shots of Clarence painting. Vassie Hollamon: An individual with disabilities can do any job that's out there provided that it can be made to be structured and systematic. Narrator: They can do these tasks, says Hollamon, and often do them better. At the University of Maryland, Baltimore, Hollamon says time has taught him one bedrock truth. Vassie Hollamon: I now employ better than a dozen individuals with disabilities in my facilities management group, and -- within Operations and Maintenance -- and what I've found over the years is that consistency, reliability, dedication, loyalty, these are all characteristics that show up in individuals with disabilities that frankly don't always show up in everybody else! Narrator: Put coldly on paper he says -- his numbers are better. Less down time, fewer sick days. Clarence reshelving books behind a young law student who is studying. Vassie Hollamon: If I were to simply look at my down time --the amount of leave time that's taken by employees. The average employee has a downtime rate of 17%. Among the individuals with disabilities who we've hired, that downtime rate is less than 10%. Film shots of Project Search students at their graduation. Students are smiling and applauding. Various close-ups of people who have been interviewed for this video. Shot of Steve Morgan, Director of Arc. Steve Morgan: If there's probably a single characteristic that a Project Search graduate -- a person with a disability brings to a prospective employer is motivation and enthusiasm about working. The thing that got, I think, all of us most excited about Project Search is that it resonates with the value that our organization holds dear when it comes to employment and that is that if given the opportunity and given the training virtually all people with developmental disabilities can work in real jobs in regular workplaces. These people want to work -- bottom line!