Diamonds in the Rough: Project Explore teaches job skills to adults with disabilities

Monica Alarcon felt like there was no way out.

At 21, she had fallen into drug use and been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Doctors in her native Puerto Rico were recommending electroshock therapy for treatment. Alarcon felt hopeless.

I thought I couldnt get better, she said. I really didnt know what to do with my life.

One year later, all that has changed. Now 22 and a Naples resident, Alarcon knows she wants to teach special needs students, who she says are like angels. After moving to Naples for better treatment, she was referred by Lorenzo Walker Institute of Technology to a Collier County School District program called Project Explore.

Alarcon says the program, which teaches job skills to adults with disabilities, helped her find her way.

It just changed me, Alarcon said. Little by little, I improved myself.

Today, shell share her story during Project Explores annual celebration and awards ceremony. During the event, the 25 students in the program will be recognized, with special awards going to the mentor, student and alumni of the year. This years theme is Diamonds in the Rough.

Students in the program have been diagnosed with a physical or mental disability, such as blindness, cerebral palsy or Down Syndrome. They spend the school year working alongside mentors at Moorings Park, a Naples retirement community. There, they pitch in with work including dishwashing, data entry, food prep and laundry.

But beyond developing job skills, program leaders say, Project Explore helps boost students belief in themselves and their futures.

These kids, they come in and they just need somebody to believe in them, program director Anne Fredette said. They need to be shown that their disability is just a small part of who they are; it isnt who they are.

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Diamonds in the Rough: Project Explore teaches job skills to adults with disabilities