Project SEARCH celebrates milestone anniversary

Today Magazine Online
Jul 7
4 min read

Updated: Jul 31

• Favarh’s Project SEARCH Makes Job Realm More Inclusive

By Bruce William Deckert

Editor-in-Chief • Today Online • Today Magazine

A distinctive training program at a celebrated healthcare enterprise in Connecticut's Farmington Valley is celebrating a decade of internship accomplishment. The program — Favarh’s Project SEARCH at UConn Health — aims to celebrate young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities by preparing them for success in the workplace.

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Project SEARCH offers immersive internship opportunities for people with disabilities, with 16 host employers in Connecticut providing structured work experiences. Farmington-based UConn Health was the first employer in the Constitution State to serve as a host site.

Canton-based Favarh — aka the Arc of the Farmington Valley — seeks to serve and champion people diagnosed with intellectual and developmental disabilities aka IDD. Founded in 1958, Favarh (pronounced FAY-var) is a local chapter of the Arc, a worldwide nonprofit organization that supports people with such disabilities.

Sandra Finnimore is the manager for Favarh’s Project SEARCH at UConn Health. A Favarh employee, she has overseen the program since its inception. The first UConn Health interns began the program in 2015 and graduated in 2016, making the milestone math simple: This year's interns comprise the 10th-anniversary graduation class.

Over the years, the interns have worked in a variety of departments — including the cafeteria, housekeeping, linen, mailroom and pharmacy. Each intern is mentored by a department manager.

"The mentors here at UConn really understand the program and the purpose, and that is a big part of why we’re so successful,” Finnimore told UConn Today. “The mentors understand that this is not just something to fill the interns’ day — it’s going to change their life. They have to be held accountable and teach them their skills, or they’re not going to be successful. ... All of our mentors have been amazing.”

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More than 60 young adults with IDD have graduated from UConn's Project SEARCH program in the past decade, including five intern graduates who completed the 10-month program in June.

BeanZ & Co., based in Avon, has hired two 2025 Project SEARCH graduates: Logan Haynes of Canton and Chloe Roberts of Farmington. The other three 2025 grads — Scott Masson of Canton, Meghan Dyer of Bristol and Ryan Cook of Terryville — have likewise landed employment roles at other businesses.

“You encourage us at every step of our employment journey," Masson told the audience at the program's graduation ceremony in early June, per UConn Today. "We could not ask for better leaders to have assisted us. ... Our self-confidence has never been higher.”

In Project SEARCH's decade-long history at UConn Health, 98% of the interns have found independent employment roles post-internship — the term "independent employment" refers to at least a part-time nonseasonal role working a minimum of 16 hours per week and earning a market wage. Nationally, the Project SEARCH placement rate is 72%.

BeanZ, a popular coffee shop, has a compelling slogan: Where Everyone Belongs.

"We believe everyone can have meaningful employment, everyone matters, and community begins with each of us," affirms the BeanZ website, adding that "80% of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are unemployed or underemployed — our mission is to change that."

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BeanZ is an inclusive business that hires people with and without IDD, demonstrating "the possibilities in all of us," per the website — and such a model "enriches every life every day."

By the way, Connecticut's Farmington Valley is a geographic area distinct from the Farmington River valley watershed that encompasses more than 30 municipalities. This quintessential Connecticut river has two sources — a west branch in Massachusetts and an east branch in Connecticut — that converge as one waterway in New Hartford.

Today Online and Today Magazine define the Farmington Valley as the following five towns: Avon, Canton, Farmington, Granby and Simsbury.

UConn Health is the only Valley business serving as a Project SEARCH host employer in Connecticut. Following is the list of the cities and towns with host sites in the state, according to the CT. gov website — there are 16 host employers in 15 municipalities:

• North Region — East Hartford, Farmington, Hartford, New Britain

• South Region — Middletown, Norwich, Wallingford

• West Region — Danbury, Darien, Greenwich, Norwalk (two employers), Torrington, Stamford, Stratford, Waterbury

Project SEARCH is open to additional internship host sites in Connecticut. Partners for Favarh’s Project SEARCH include UConn Health human resources and the Connecticut departments of Developmental Services and Rehabilitation Services.

UConn Health features John Dempsey Hospital, the UConn School of Medicine, the UConn School of Dental Medicine, and a University Safety division that provides fire and paramedic and police services.

The hospital is a doctoral teaching institution embracing a clear goal — to serve as a beacon of hope and wellness from its hilltop venue on the Farmington campus. +

Project SEARCH celebrates milestone anniversary

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