They will weed your lawn, do your shopping, run your errands, clean your yard and they will do it better and cheaper. They are the Men with Mops, a private firm that will do your work with employees all hired from the Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center.
The Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation provided Men With Mops with a $3,000 seed grant in 2005 and has been funded by the company’s owner Don Bennetti ever since, DDDC Program Coordinator Christopher Manente said.
The group’s goal is to assist adults with autism for independent life by providing job opportunities and coaching tailored entirely for them, he said.
“The mission of our national autism organization is to develop programs for adults with autism,” TDFF founder Linda Fiddle said. “We’re working with Rutgers to create a vocational opportunity to give autistic adults a chance and encourage businesses to hire them.”
Don Bennetti, who came out of retirement to work as a compliance officer at the 1st Constitution Bank, said he came up with the idea when he asked parents of other autistic adults if they could find jobs and found that they have a hard time in the community.
“I saw an article about some students in Boston who started a cleaning company and thought that the idea can translate for autistic adults,” Bennetti, the group’s president, said. “We could set our own hours and work according to our schedule and still do a great job.”
Manente, who has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in education from the University said despite opening in 2005, the company didn’t get its first job until August 2008.
“Their first job was a weeding job for the Rutgers Conference Center last year. They’ve been receiving clients ever since doing anything from weeding work to janitorial jobs,” Manente said.
Everything changed after Manente showed up, Bennetti said.
Manente has been in charge of advertising and has increased the number of jobs that the firm has received, Bennetti said.
Bennetti takes care of payroll, insurance and liability while Manente takes care of advertising, marketing and employee recruitment, he said.
The company costs $2,500 to $3,000 per year to upkeep, and it hasn’t made profit since its inception, Bennetti said.
“When I said that I created this company to train and find for jobs for the adults in the development center, not for profit, many people looked at me funny. I’m really doing this for the community of autistic adults that have a hard time after graduating from the school system,” he said.
Men with Mops, though an entirely independent company, hires all its employees, including labor and job coaches, from the Division of Adult and Transitional Services, which is a part of DDDC, Manente said. The job coaches are teaching assistants trained in applied behavior analysis and are affiliated with Rutgers.
“They are teaching assistants affiliated with the DDDC and they come out to supervise Men with Mops employees. The ratio never goes over two to one, so our clients actually get three people for the price of two,” he said.
The people of DDDC are compassionate, caring and professional, Bennetti said.
“My son, who has been in the program since he was five, has come a long way in the program. He went from being entirely dependent to working at a restaurant. He is more independent now,” Bennetti said.
Men With Mops take any type of job. The group works within a 20 to 30 minute distance range from the DDDC for one-time jobs but they’re willing to go further if the client plans to become a consistent customer, Manente said
“The cost depends on the type of work, but is generally in the vicinity of $15.50 per man per hour. We have 22 adult employees that are all from the DDDC,” he said.
Despite their name, they have a woman on staff, and are willing to hire those with other disabilities outside of autism or those that are not disabled, Manente said.
“We’re an Equal Opportunity Employer,” he said.
Center helps adults with autism join workforce
Published: Sunday, January 25, 2009
Updated: Sunday, January 25, 2009
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