Everyone who lives and works within the autism field knows that we are witnessing a tsunami of young people with a diagnosis on the autism spectrum coming up through the school system, and soon transitioning into the labor market. The US Centre of Decease Control (CDC) estimated recently that the number of autistic kids in the US has skyrocketed by 78% since 2000. Nowadays, one in 88 American kids has autism, according to the new figures, and one in 54 among boys. Those are facts we cannot ignore, and calls for decisive action.

Much is being done, but there is a lot to do and a long way to go – beyond early intervention and adequate & timely care, we need in particular to provide real solutions for better employment opportunities. This is what the Specialist People Foundation (SPF) are doing every day, and have set the ambitious goal of enabling one million jobs for people with autism and similar challenges. With the new CDC numbers and growth rate experienced in recent years it will not be long before 100 million or more people in the world may be in scope of the mission of SPF.

SPFs vision is a world where people are given equal opportunities in the labor market. We are deeply motivated to help tackle the enormous challenge of ensuring that people with autism and similar challenges indeed are brought into a position where they can realize their unique potential. To fulfill this aim, SPF have defined its mission to provide training, education and employment for people with autism and similar challenges through global collaboration and knowledge share based on the Specialisterne model.

Specialisterne (Danish for The Specialists) was founded in 2004 in Denmark by Thorkil Sonne – a father of a son with ASD. Since 2004 Specialisterne has gained much operational know-how within assessing, training and employing high functioning people with ASD by mapping and bridging the needs for specialist tasks in the corporate sector with the unique skills of people with ASD, whom we refer to as the “Specialisterne consultants”.

As founder of Specialisterne Thorkil was awarded an Ashoka Fellowship and included in the Globalizer program. With Specialisterne operating in 5 countries already with roll-out in progress in another 10 countries, the globalization process is enjoying much momentum, but needs a lot of support to sustain and further develop the momentum and create the results SPF believe clearly are attainable – the creation of one million new jobs.

Specialisterne has since 2004 operated in tough and competitive markets, characterized by a worldwide financial crisis and heavily use of task outsourcing to low-wage countries. The company has been successful in solving valuable assignments such as software testing, quality control, pattern recognition and data entry services for leading companies within the IT, telecommunication, finance, pharma and health sectors.

SPF believes that the opportunities for having a real impact in the employment area are very promising. We are dedicated to creating many new employment opportunities for people with autism and similar challenges around the world based on the experiences from the Specialisterne concept. In fact, we have been contacted by individuals with ASD or their parents from 60 countries and from 36 states in the US with a request to localize Specialisterne in their community to showcase how people with ASD can contribute to the corporate sector.

The not-for-profit organization Specialist People Foundation was founded in 2008 in order to respond to such queries, and enable one million jobs for people with ASD and similar challenges who possess unique competencies but most often are overseen by the business sector.

Together we can make a world come through where people have equal opportunities in the labor market.

Update on Specialisterne in the United States

Specialisterne Foundation, Inc. has been established in Delaware to drive the roll-out of Specialisterne throughout the US, and are in the process of raising funds to build and scale the organization. For making a donation select ‘Specialisterne’ on the web page of the Delaware Community Foundation web page.

The Specialist People Foundation leadership team will be on a two week tour in early May to meet numerous stakeholders and other interested parties who have shown an interest in bringing Specialisterne to the US.

We expect to establish Specialisterne in communities across the US where we, through our diligent planning process, are able to identify a sustainable business concept which within a 3-4 year period would offer at least 70 individuals a customized five month assessment and training program, and furthermore employ 50+ consultants with ASD at Specialisterne (or place them with an employer with ongoing job-support). To realize this we need to raise $0.7-1.3m to cover the start up costs in each new location.

With the help of engaged stakeholders, local coordinators as change makers and the Ashoka support network, we will demonstrate that people with ASD represent a valuable untapped pool of resources for the corporate sector in any business area and in any community.

Thorkil will share the experiences from Specialisterne in creating meaningful and productive jobs for people with a business profile who typically do not fit into the traditional labor market – like high functioning people with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

The Change Nation Event is taking place in Dublin between March 22nd and 24th and is hosted by Ashoka Ireland, in partnership with businesses, the Government and the media. Thorkil is an Ashoka Fellow and participates in the Globalizer program.

Speaking at the announcement of the initiative, Paul O’Hara, director of Ashoka Europe and founder of Change Nation, said many of the solutions to Ireland’s problems already existed at home and across the world. The challenge, he said, was to identify these solutions and implement them.

“The solutions to be discovered at Change Nation have proven themselves to be effective, each one typically impacting on thousands of lives. Systematically importing and accelerating these proven solutions will increase our speed, efficiency and success rate in addressing these challenges,” he said.

Thorkil and the other social innovators at this week’s event will pitch 50 solutions to help address a range of challenges. The organizers say they hope to have at least half of these ideas implemented in some form within 12 months. Mr. O’Hara said the organization was inviting everyone to discover these solutions at its website, changenation.org.

“We hope that people will get involved in the solutions they are passionate about, or choose to create their own. Ireland needs more change-makers and everyone has a role to play,” he said.

Thorkil is this week also addressing the National Disability Authority (NDA) Employment Policy Seminar 2012 –The National Disability Authority is the independent state body providing expert advice on disability policy and practice to the Irish Minister of Justice Equality and Law Reform.

In tandem with this Specialist People Foundation are working with the Specialisterne Ireland Advisory Board and with Specialisterne Ireland coordinator, Mary-Ann McCormack, to set up an Irish operation in line with Specialisternes other international models localized to fit into the Irish context. Specialisterne Ireland will address the huge challenge of employment of skilled people who do not fit in and is still in early stages with fundraising activities and discussing partnerships with local stakeholders in the private and public sectors. Discover the commitments made to Specialisterne in Ireland during the Change Nation summit.

Mary-Ann McCormack is leading the process in Ireland which will implement Specialisterne Ireland within a year and interested parties are most welcome to contact Mary-Ann by email m.a.mccormack@specialisterne.com.

Listen to the radio interview with Thorkil and Mary-Ann with George Lee at RTE1s “The Business with George Lee” show, broadcasted at 10am on Saturday 24 March 2012 – please forward to the 23 minute mark in the radio player.

Unicus and Specialisterne employ high functioning individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) as consultants providing valuable services to leading companies in technology, IT, telecommunications, healthcare and software.

“Specialisterne Denmark was our inspiration to start Unicus in 2009. We are very happy to become part of the international Specialisterne family. We have been successful and profitable as a startup company, and we are now entering the scaling phase where the know-how, proven concept and methodologies from Specialisterne will become very valuable. We are confident that Specialisternes’ eight years of operational experience and its growing international presence combined with the local success of Unicus can bring in new dimensions and impact to the Norwegian society as we will provide opportunities through the creation of meaningful and productive jobs for high functioning people with ASD,” says Lars Johansson-Kjellerød, Founder and General Manager of Unicus.

Thorkil Sonne, Founder of Specialisterne and Chairman of Specialist People Foundation, says “We are very excited of the opportunity to partner with Unicus and their team. This is another important step on our journey toward the goal of enabling one million jobs for people with autism and similar challenges. This collaboration which will bring Specialisterne into Norway will become an important source of inspiration for all stakeholders in the Nordics. Together we will improve perceptions in the Nordic societies towards the employment opportunities of people with invisible disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorders.”

Specialisterne are now present in Denmark, Norway and Iceland with the expectation to establish operations in Sweden and Finland.

Lars Johansson-Kjellerød and Thorkil Sonne will present the partnership at the Partnership for Change conference in Oslo on March 20, 2012.

For more information please contact:

Unicus – Specialisterne Norway
Lars Johansson-Kjellerød, Founder & General Manager
Email: lars@unicus.no
Tel: +47 957 74 198

Specialist People Foundation
Thorkil Sonne, Founder & Chairman
Email: thso@specialistpeople.com
Phone: +45 2020 0008

The Chairman of The Social Capital Fund, Ms. Gurli Martinussen, calls Specialisterne a prime example of social entrepreneurship: “Specialisterne have spotted a unique potential in people who often is seen as a vulnerable group in society, and used this potential to create exciting and meaningful jobs. It is a sustainable social solution that also helps to further develop the understanding of how we create more opportunities for everyone in society. It is exactly the type of businesses we want to help spread and develop,” she says.

For Specialisterne Denmark the new financial platform will make an important difference in its endeavours to create more jobs for people with autism spectrum disorders. CEO Henrik Thomsen says: “We have lacked growth capital to exploit our potential in the market to a greater extent and expand our team of consultants with autism spectrum disorders. Where Specialisterne might have been too “social” for some commercial investors, but too “commercial” for some social funders, we have in the Social Capital Fund encountered an investor with the social aspect as a priority as well as knowledge and resources to help us in our business mission to create further sustainable jobs. We will now be able to take major step forward and get much more ‘specialist people’ in work”.

Links:
www.specialisterne.dk
http://www.densocialekapitalfond.dk/english/ (english)
http://www.densocialekapitalfond.dk/ (danish)

“We’re delighted,” says Specialisterne Iceland General Manager Bjarni Torfi. “This award will help increase focus nationally on what we are trying to achieve in Specialisterne. It shines a light on our profile and will help us establish new contacts so we can continue to grow our business.”