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NoMI students with disabilities gain job skills

Creative Commons

Students with disabilities in northern Michigan now have more opportunities to get workplace experience.

A Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District program works with students ages 16 to 26 with cognitive or emotional impairments.

Mimi Kinney, the Transition Coordinator at the ISD, says students are trained and placed in different jobs.

"We help them beef up their self advocacy skills," Kinney says. "Then we help them put them into play and into actual opportunities in the community."

This year, nearly 50 students have been matched with local jobs and internships. Kinney says that number is double last year's because they’ve added buses to help the students get to downtown Traverse City.

Taylor Wizner covers heath, tourism and other news for Interlochen Public Radio.