New SARRC Workspace, Courtesy of D-Backs, Aims to Help Job Seekers with Autism
SARRC unveils its new employment hub made possible by the Ken Kendrick Grand Slam Award. PHOTO: Taylor Jackson/Arizona Diamondbacks
By Mike Saucier
A new workspace for people with autism spectrum disorders is now ready to go thanks to a $100,000 Ken Kendrick Grand Slam Award from the Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation.
The new space, at Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center (SARC), offers new computers and other resources to help people with autism spectrum disorders find jobs within the community.
D-backs officials joined SARRC for the ribbon cutting of the new employment center.
At a presentation during the event, Danny Openden, president and CEO of Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center, said he got into the field of autism in the late 1990s, when the rate of autism was 1 in 500 children. When SARRC was founded in 1997 the rate was one in 2,500. Today, he said, the rate is one in 68.
Openden said that SARRC began focusing more on programs and services for adults about 10 years ago because they realized, more and more, that the children with autism would become adults with autism and would need services for the rest of their lives.
“When you talk to families from around the country the number one thing that you hear from families of children that are transitioning to adulthood is that they are going to fall off this services cliff,” after they graduate, Openden said.
So, with the rise in children being diagnosed with autism, the need to help them when they became adults increased.
“We firmly believe that there are so many adults that are more than capable of being able to live independently if they’re given the right services and support at the right time of their life,” he said.
The question for SARRC as to how to do that revolves around employment, Openden said.
“We know that you absolutely cannot live independently if you’re not employed, if you’re not working, if you’re not earning a living and paying taxes, you cannot be independent,” he said. “So employment became kind of the centerpiece of what we’re doing with adults with autism.”
They found to achieve that they needed a dedicated building to serve those seeking employment – a place to use computers, to do interviews and to get help from staff.
The staff at SARRC has been successful so far in finding jobs for adults. It now has 33 employment partners (including the D-backs) in 64 locations spread across the Valley that are either employing people with autism or waiting for someone with autism to be employed.
Openden insisted that a wall with the logos of the employment partners be part of the new employment hub – to serve as a way of honoring their efforts and to inspire job seekers.
Data show that only 30 percent of adults with autism get a job within two years after high school, Openden said, and nationally, unemployment among adults with autism is about 90 percent.
One company, Openden said, SSP America, employs five adults through SARRC. “They consider the partnership with SARRC to be a win for their employees, a win for SSP America and a win for our community,” he said.
The partnerships all start with a space to be able to do that, Openden said, to focus on employing adults with autism.
The D-Backs support SARRC because of its innovation, its world-class care for the families and for the children and adults, said Debbie Castaldo, vice president for corporate and community impact for the D-Backs. “We’re grateful for the work you do,” she told SARRC leaders and staff. “We’re grateful to have you and we’re proud. This is a very proud investment in the right people at the right time who are changing the world for the better, one family at a time, and that’s pretty special.”
The D-backs have presented 71 Grand Slam Awards totaling $5.9 million since the program’s inception in 2002. The awards were renamed the Ken Kendrick Grand Slam Awards in 2016, in honor of D-backs General Managing Partner Ken Kendrick, and are awarded to Arizona non-profit organizations with grants up to $100,000.
