While at the Atlantic City ISS show at the Ink Kitchen booth we met some folks from Spectrum Works. They are a decorating shop dedicated to helping folks with autism help themselves. They seemed like great folks doing some good work.

You can find out more about them at their website http://spectrumworks.org/

In their own words:

Spectrum Works is an innovative social enterprise employment model born out of the idea that everyone deserves an opportunity to have a productive, fulfilling life. The vision of its co-founder Ann Marie Sullivan is to use employment to empower individuals with autism with the confidence and the skills needed to achieve a sense of independence, purpose and pride. This unique approach gives people with autism the opportunity to show society that they want to work and are capable of producing high quality goods and services.

The Spectrum Works model addresses the growing unemployment crisis for people with autism by establishing nonprofit businesses (social enterprises) with supportive work environments. Spectrum Works creates social enterprises that can be scaled nationally in order to achieve widespread impact. Each nonprofit business creates employment, provides job training, generates revenue and ultimately achieves financial sustainability through the sale of products created by its workforce.