ORLANDO, Fla. — After high school, adults with developmental disabilities often find themselves unemployed and stuck at home.

“All the supports just evaporate. And if you don’t integrate them into a community or a job or something, they’re like an island of one with their family,” said Christine Bancalari, co-founder of the Down Syndrome Foundation of Florida.

Orlando Health’s internship and recruitment program for adults with developmental disabilities aims to change that.

The We Build program celebrated its third year of operation in December. Since 2021, 25 interns have graduated from the paid internship program, and 17 are now employed by the hospital. Four more are set to graduate this month.

David Wolf, 33, finished the program in September and accepted a job in building maintenance.

Before enrolling in We Build, he was bagging groceries.

“He learned very few things there. It was just get him in, get him out, get a paycheck,” said David’s father, Jeff Wolf.

Now, David Wolf is washing floors and helping with maintenance projects, and his hospital supervisor has already talked to him about the potential for promotions.

“He said there’ll be plenty of opportunities for David. I’ve never felt that with any of his other jobs, that there was a future other than just day to day operations,” Jeff Wolf said.

Orlando Health partners with Special Olympics Florida, the Center for Independent Living and the Down Syndrome Foundation of Florida for the We Build program. Each organization refers interns and provides them with a “success coach.”

The coach teaches hospital staff how to work with people with developmental disabilities — and helps the intern learn how to manage the workplace.

“They can go back home and talk to their coach to understand, if they maybe didn’t get something that day. They have that extra support to emphasize what that skill was they are trying to learn,” said Sherry Wheelock, CEO of Special Olympics Florida.

Graduates of the program work in building maintenance, sort and store supplies in the warehouse, prepare meals in the cafeteria and transport patients and equipment around the hospital.

They are all paid above the state’s minimum wage, which is $13 an hour, and are offered benefits such as health insurance.

Bancalari, whose adult daughter has Down syndrome, said We Build graduates are encouraging to patients who have children with developmental disabilities.

“When you have a baby who gets diagnosed with Down syndrome, the first thing people hear is what their child can’t do. Having individuals with Down syndrome working in the hospital system is awesome because people see them in a very successful role, doing things that they maybe in their mind didn’t think was possible,” Bancalari said.

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