hi i'm dana j and this is henry ford health system news we bring you stories about how our team
members are improving lives through excellence in the science and art of healthcare and healing that
mission statement was the lesson of the day for a set of interns you're about to meet from henry
ford west bloomfield hospital are you helping people yes yes does that improve people's lives
yes it does these students are learning a lot more than the henry ford way they're learning to find
their own way we're learning about the importance of a mission statement and what it means to have
purpose because your mission is your purpose my purpose is to become employed make people smile
and inspire them with my kind words carly cerris and five others make up this year's project search
class at henry ford west bloomfield hospital project search helps young people with significant
disabilities get ready to get a job my favorite part about the pro about project search is
the growing and the confidence that i've had over the course of a school year they learn life skills
in the classroom and practice those skills in internships around the hospital i am parker reed
and i work in the surgical processing downstairs on ge level my name is peter shear and i i work in
the kitchen my name is cool i work at in octope my name is madison and i work in the greenhouse
and i'm gonna let you pick them and i'll look for high ones okay madison works alongside chef
jerry carpenter tending the plants and harvesting vegetables for henry's cafe
like those vegetables she's flourishing when she came to us she was very bashful
she didn't really say anything other than hello now you can hold a conversation with her over
the past year chef jerry has added seven project search graduates to his payroll they come to work
they are enthusiastic they do anything it is something you can depend on in this uncertain
world and they are fantastic they really are christina trevette noticed bria washington's
warmth and dedication and is hiring her full time as a lobby screener this was an opportunity and i
see that i could actually get in a health care setting that i would like to do as volunteer
services manager christina wanted to make sure project search continued during the pandemic not
just because of the impact the program has on the students but because of the impact the students
have on the hospital they have these talents that no one can really match in in our workforce the
ability to remember things in a way that other people can't you know the ability to sort things
in a way that other people are not able to do henry ford's all about diversity and you know
what better way of thinking about diversity than the different talents and personalities that these
individuals bring into our hospital so far four out of the six project search students have jobs
lined up after graduation and i'm willing to bet the other two will soon have jobs as well
now we're going to introduce you to kevin cole an artist who says he once had trouble communicating
so he turned to art you'll find one of his sculptures at the brigade harris cancer pavilion
mainly i got started with art uh because i have a speech impediment so my mom would always tell me
to go make her a picture any time i had a bad day at school i think it affected me in a lot
of ways because art was a way that i could i could communicate and that was the way for
me and my mom would always tell me you have something special that everybody don't have
i have three assistants we we all came together when i was asked to do it
and they were like well what are you gonna do and they sent us the schematics of the wall and
we were like oh my god okay this need to be this is entitled shared visions with shared blessings
i used the process of mapping when i found out that it was going to be a piece that large
i looked at where she was born looked at where he was born on the map okay so then you have the
the foundation becomes that that flat part where the neckties and scar-shape weave in in
and out of there all right and a lot of the scarf shapes have a lot of african patterns and symbols
on top of them that mean faith hope strength and love blue is marked her husband's favorite color
and so then you got swatches of green which symbolize her her idea of gardening then you
got swatches of reds she like she she liked the roses i was told her favorite color was
purple so you have a little bit of that in there every time every scarf shape symbolizes something
and the scarf shapes represent the uh strength of women how how women have been a major force
in our life and if you notice that there are more scar shapes than that piece than nectarines
well i just appreciate the opportunity in doing doing a piece like this
for me all my pieces have been about life put together piece by piece and to be in detroit
where a center like this which is really helping people it's about therapy and that's what my art
has always been about for me cole's sculpture called shared visions and shared blessings
is a tribute to our late great benefactors mort and brigitte harris you may have heard that
mort passed in early may at the age of 101. okay let's go back to west bloomfield here's
one way our team got their steps in during the american heart association heart walk
team west bloomfield hit a three mile course around the hospital grounds henry ford and
half walkers raised more than 267 thousand dollars to help save lives from heart disease and stroke
blowing the system goal of 200 000 out of the water almost 700 team members participated
walking in small groups around metro detroit our featured photo this time around is of some
of the fellows in the cardiology department at henry ford hospital they helped deliver
food to families in detroit so that they could enjoy their ramadan eid a belated eid mubarak
to all of our friends who celebrate and if you have a celebration that you want to share with
us send us an email at news tips at hfhs.org thanks for watching and i'll see you around