Give students at Orchard Friends School a path to employment!

Project SEARCH is an international organization that gives young adults with learning differences a path toward meaningful employment. Across the country and around the world, young adults in Project SEARCH programs are working at Fortune 500 corporations like Amazon, nonprofit organizations like Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Northwestern Medicine, and in local government—including the Bergen County Administrative Offices right here in New Jersey. There are more than 800 active Project SEARCH sites, and 72% of all program graduates are employed immediately after graduation.

Over the course of the year-long program, participants explore different careers and build a variety of skillsets through classroom instruction and a series of internships offering hands-on training. Program participants often end up with a job at the company where they did their training—but they can also choose to apply for other opportunities. Project SEARCH helps them navigate the job hunt and interview process, and continues to support them once they enter the working world.

Bringing Project SEARCH to Orchard Friends would supercharge the impact of one of our most successful endeavors, our Transitional Learning Program—which teaches 15-to-21-year-olds a wide range of practical skills through classroom learning, volunteer opportunities, and off-campus coached work experiences—and support our longer-term goal to create new ways to prepare our students for the “real world” by making the world our classroom. Ours would be the only Project SEARCH program in the Philadelphia metro area, so we anticipate lots of interest and growth opportunity within (and beyond) Orchard Friends.

Establishing a Project SEARCH program requires an up-front investment of $16,000, which covers teacher training and curriculum. But once we pay that one-time start-up fee, our tuition revenue will sustain the program. It’s a smart investment with significant impact on and for our students, our school, and our community.

Please help us reach our $16,000 fundraising goal before January 31! A generous group of donors has agreed to match all gifts toward this project up to $22,000—so any amount you contribute will be doubled!

There’s a steep drop in support services and programming for neurodivergent young adults once they leave the school system, and this program is one more thing Orchard Friends can do to change this story. Bringing Project SEARCH to our school is an investment in the future of Orchard Friends, the futures of our students—and in creating the future we all want: where neurodivergent people are recognized, loved, and valued for their unique perspectives and skillsets, in the workplace and beyond.

Thank you for your support!