Project SEARCH graduates in Coeur d'Alene gain jobs, skills

Two Project SEARCH interns in Coeur d'Alene walked away from the program with more than celebration-day applause. Liam Coffey was hired by Chartwells as a dishwasher, and Matthew Thayer said he had been hired by Tessera at Fairchild Air Force Base as a cashier, clear signs that the school-to-work pipeline is delivering real jobs for young adults with disabilities.

The program marked the end of another year with a graduation-style celebration at the Kootenai Health Resource Center. Coffey reflected on what the internship taught him, including how to work as part of a team and how to work hard, while his mother was visibly moved by the moment. For families, the ceremony carried the weight of seeing a young adult move from supported training into actual employment.

Project SEARCH in Coeur d'Alene is built around that transition. The Coeur d'Alene School District describes it as a high school transition program for young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, combining classroom instruction with a school-year-long unpaid internship at Kootenai Health. Interns spend four hours a day in the workplace and also receive instruction in employability and independent living skills, a structure meant to build habits, confidence and independence alongside job-specific experience.

The local partnership between Kootenai Health and the school district began in 2011, and the class that just finished was the 15th. More than 130 interns have graduated from the program over the past 16 years, a record that suggests the model has become a dependable path into work rather than a one-time success story. In 2024, five interns graduated with job offers, reinforcing that employment outcomes have remained central to the program.

This year’s class was also the first all-male group, and it logged about 640 hours of internship time apiece. That kind of repetition matters to employers in Kootenai County, where entry-level staffing can be hard to keep stable. The internships are designed to show that workers with disabilities can fill real openings when they are given structured training and the chance to learn in a supported environment.

The program also widened its reach this year. Wound care and the hospitality center participated for the first time, adding work that included stocking linens, cleaning high-touch surfaces, room turnover and in-house laundry support. Abbie Waters, who has worked with Project SEARCH since 2017, has helped guide that expansion as the program continues to connect local students with local jobs.

Nationally, Project SEARCH says it serves young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities through an intensive academic year of career development and internship experience. In Coeur d'Alene, that model is not abstract. It is producing workers, filling openings and giving employers a clearer view of what inclusive hiring can look like when the training starts early and the expectations are real.