The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry’s (L&I) summer employment program for high school students with disabilities – MY Work – is officially underway, with more than 1,000 students expected to participate in the life-changing program this year. Created by L&I’s Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR), MY Work connects students with meaningful, paid work opportunities in their local communities. For many of these students, this is their first real work experience and their first paycheck. This year, there are more than 250 MY Work employer partner sites across all 67 Pennsylvania counties – a first for the program.
“We know that students with disabilities who have a paid work experience before graduation are four times more likely to become employed in the competitive workforce. That’s why OVR is committed to creating opportunities like MY Work – helping students earn their first paycheck, build workplace skills, and prepare for future success,” said L&I Secretary Nancy A. Walker. the opportunity to chart their own course, and know individuals with disabilities bring invaluable skills to the workforce. Earlier this month, the First Lady joined Secretary Walker in Philadelphia to highlight OVR’s InVEST project, which helps individuals with disabilities transition into competitive integrated employment.
Each year, OVR engages with more than 76,000 students and adults with disabilities across all programs. Last year, nearly 18,000 students with disabilities received Pre-Employment Transition Services – including paid work-based learning experiences like MY Work – and OVR placed more than 6,400 individuals into competitive integrated employment.
This summer at the York Fresh Food Farms MY Work site, students are spending eight weeks weeding, planting, harvesting, cleaning, and sorting produce and herbs.
In 2016, OVR started the MY Work program in Allegheny County with just 50 students in its first year. In 2021, the program was expanded statewide, and since then has connected more than 2,600 high school students across Pennsylvania with paid summer employment opportunities – with wages fully covered by OVR at no cost to municipalities.
