However, this will be my last post. Jobs4Autism.com is a nonprofit website and our supporters are no longer able to keep it operating.

Although I feel our site provided a much-needed service in the autism community, I know there are so many others out there fighting for awareness and solutions to the problem of employment for adults on the spectrum. Please give them your support.

Thank you for the support you gave Jobs4Autism, for helping to spread the word about us.  I wish the best of luck in whatever hurdles you face. Don’t give up! Keep asking for help and keep helping others by sharing your stories in some way, even if it’s not here.

Our Facebook page will remain open as a resource for sharing and learning. If you’re not a member already, please join at http://www.facebook.com/groups/Jobs4Autism/

Best wishes and thanks again!

Barbara

The candle making project was so successful at creating employment opportunities for individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities that it led to the development of Humboldt Includes.

Humboldt Includes  seeks to partner with businesses of all sizes in Humboldt County in sponsoring  transitional skills development to increase “the diversity that comprises the mainstream community, the quality of life of individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities and increase independence…” and in the process,  help to make ground breaking social change.

Agencies provide support staff and as well as contracted employment circumstances to make the whole process as easy as it can be to sponsors.

To read more about Compassionate Integrations and Humboldt Includes, go here: http://www.compassionateintegrations.org

That’s the logo of Paperworks Studio, a “mission-based market-driven social enterprise” that employs people with special needs to make hand-made greeting cards.  About 20% of those artists are autistic, according to an article by Alice G.  Walton in Forbes magazine, “Living Life with Autism: Has Anything Really Changed?”

Owned by Goodwill Industries and based in Traverse City, Michigan, the company has doubled in the past year and is on track to do so again this year.

Each one-of-a-kind card is made by hand from recycled materials, including recycled blue jeans.  There are cards that contain flower petals and ferns and some with coffee, small pieces of upcycled wool or even recycled beer products. They can create customized holiday cards, wedding invitations and cards with your company logo on them.

Through the production of these cards, the members of the production team learn life and work skills, grow in self-esteem and obtain more independence.

“When you give a card, it shows you care. When you give a Paperworks Studio card you are giving cards that change lives.”

The mission of Paperwork Studios is to remove some of the barriers in life of people with disabilities through job skills training and the production of these quality cards.  In their words, “Our profit is people.”

Watch the following video to learn more about Paperwork Studios and the people behind the cards.

Hi~

My son is now living in Florida with his dad. He’s 24, and has been job searching in and around the Broward County area for a year. He has started at a number of jobs that have not worked out.

Do you have any contacts in Florida that could possibly help me help him? He is still very motivated, but is not successful working through the process of his own.

Thank you in advance.

What sets Erik’s Ranch & Retreats apart is that they are run by the residents who live there.  They  combine home and workplace, to promote learning and personal/social growth, as well as sustainable employment.

Their mission statement sums it up better than I can:

Erik’s Ranch & Retreats provides safe and unequaled living, working, social and recreational environments for young adults with autism, using its guiding principles of lifelong learning, individual community building, and bidirectional integration through voluntourism . We’re committed to giving each of our residents a rewarding life on his/her own terms, experiencing dignity, compassion and the joy of continuing possibility.

When Kathryn Nordberg, CEO and founder of Erik’s Ranch & Retreats, searched for options four years ago that would provide her son Erik, a moderately functioning young adult on the autism spectrum, an active life,  one full of possibility and purpose,  she found nothing.

According to the website,  ”She quickly found that there were few good options for moderate to high functioning adults with autism, including those with Asperger Syndrome. Despite years of hard work, even those high-functioning individuals often look for a community and desire some level of structure and support in their lives – with living accommodations, relationship building, work and recreation.”

So Kathryn, along with a team of psychologists, attorneys, architects, and marketing and business professionals,  developed innovative residence facilities for young adults with autism: Erik’s Ranch & Retreats, with locations in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, and in Montana’s Paradise Valley, not far from Bozeman.

Ms. Nordberg has held executive positions with organizations in technology, finance and healthcare, and has leadership experience in organizational planning, management and marketing. And, for the last decade, Nordberg has helped run the largest privately held assisted living facility in Minnesota seeing, firsthand, how residents benefit from a consistent caring and dedicated staff.

To that end, she streamlined the documentation process and improved efficiencies to allow nursing staff more time for personalized care.

For more information about Erik’s Ranch, click HERE to go to their website.