00:00:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to Get Connected with Nina Del Rio, a weekly conversation about fitness, health, and happenings in our community on 106.7 Light FM.
00:00:14
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to Get Connected. A recent survey of autistic adults found that nearly half don't feel it's safe to disclose their autism at work. But at one nonprofit in Port Washington, that concern is non-existent. Fifteen years ago, my guest, Patrick Bardsley, started Spectrum Designs, a custom apparel company with just two employees and a sewing machine in a barn. Today, Spectrum Designs operates four locations in New York, New Jersey, and Florida, serving clients including Google, and is on track to generate $ 10 million in revenue this year. Spectrum Designs is also a nonprofit employing a workforce that is 70% autistic. Patrick Bardsley, thank you for being on Get Connected.
00:00:52
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me.
00:00:53
Speaker 2: You can find out more about it at SpectrumDesigns.org. Let's go back to the beginning, actually, Spectrum Designs and its genesis. Where did everything begin?
00:01:03
Speaker 3: They say necessity is the mother of all invention, and that was true for Spectrum Designs. We looked at the high unemployment rate for adults on the spectrum and just felt like that was unacceptable. And so we said, why don't we start creating those jobs and creating a company and companies that could that could create careers for autistic adults. And so the brand and merchandise company of Spectrum Designs was born. And thankfully, we've had a good amount of success ever since.
00:01:29
Speaker 2: Back to the introduction, nearly half of employees don't feel comfortable talking about their autism at work. Why does it matter if employees can't be open about their autism or any other neurodivergence in a workplace?
00:01:41
Speaker 3: I think inclusion is just so important. And for adults, inclusion in the workforce and being employed is so much more than just the paycheck, right? It's access to routine, structure, self-worth, friendships, all of these things that come from just having the opportunity to be included. And so obviously at Spectrum Designs with 70% of our over 100 person team being on the spectrum, it's creating an environment and a culture that is so obviously inclusive, but also where the difference and diversity is not just sort of tolerated, but celebrated. And that creates an incredible culture that from top to bottom, just a wonderful place to be.
00:02:23
Speaker 2: Your background is in special education. So, you know, you knew what you were kind of going for. But again, why did you choose custom design specifically? What is it about that business model that you thought might be malleable?
00:02:34
Speaker 3: Well, it's a commodity that you can have customers from, you could ship all over the U.S., all over the world. But particularly for those on the spectrum, there are multiple steps involved that, you know, inherently there's repetition, but there's also creativity. There's variety. It's fun. It's an environment that no two days are the same, but there is obviously built in repetition. And initially our first customers were people who were, you know, on the spectrum or doing walks or fundraising efforts for, for those on the spectrum. So it was the autism community. And then it sort of graduated out to, people who were maybe connected directly, and then the degrees of separation went away. But it's still obviously a big part of our mission is a big part of how we've grown the business.
00:03:18
Speaker 2: You've also managed to keep people, you know, you have a high retention rate.
00:03:23
Speaker 3: You know, I think it's it points to that the culture as well, you know, and having a place where where people are just kind of you can come as you are. And that creates a culture and an environment that people gravitate towards. And this is something that I think every company should be looking at, not just obviously us as a unique case. But of course, you know, we have a number of employees that have been with us a long time. They love where they are. I think the other side of that coin is that maybe they don't like their opportunities somewhere else, right? They're because of the high unemployment rate, but we don't rest on that. We want the environment and the culture to be set by our employees. And as an executive, you know, I leave it alone. because it's much better that way. And so I'm most proud of the fact that we have people working in all aspects of the company, not just on the shop floor producing shirts, but in our marketing team, in our customer service and design team, in leadership roles and management roles. And I think that upward mobility and moving from just jobs to creating careers for autistic adults has also helped us with retention because we really believe in giving people opportunities from within wherever we can.
00:04:26
Speaker 2: We'll talk about some practical steps in a moment. I want to remind everybody we're speaking with Patrick Bardsley, He is Spectrum Designs Foundation CEO and co-founder, overseeing the day-to-day running of Spectrum Designs and Spectrum Suds. He holds a master's in special education with a concentration in behavior analysis through Long Island University. You're listening to Get Connected on 106.7 Light FM. I'm Nina Del Rio. So some specific practices that you employ. You mentioned this business has a lot of steps. So you have QR codes that help people with tasks.
00:04:57
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. We want to make the workplace as visual as possible, right? And this is true for any good workplace where you want to make it easy as possible for people who learn differently and think differently to navigate. And so we put markings on the floor. We have QR codes for videos of how to operate a machine. We have signage pretty much everywhere. And this has actually increased overall efficiency by 30% in the company. And so to me, it's that principle of universal design where You make an accommodation or an adjustment for one group and it actually benefits all of us. And it's, as I said, it's made us a much more efficient and productive, safe and happy workplace.
00:05:37
Speaker 2: Doing a little bit of reading about workplaces that employ neurodivergent workers, a lot of times it seems like that support for people with autism might be outside the company, but you actually have a licensed social worker as your chief of staff. Support is on staff.
00:05:53
Speaker 3: I think that's the jewel in the Spectrum Designs crown is that we have actually two now licensed social workers as part of our human resource team. We look at human resources and we underline the word human. And we have an approach to it that, again, was originally started for people who are employees on the spectrum who are four times more likely to experience sort of mental health challenges or other comorbidity connected things to their diagnosis. And so, yeah, having a social worker on site to help them. was originally and remains a really strong benefit. And our neurotypical employees benefit from it too, because, hey, they have bad weekends, bad days too, you know, and we all do. And so having a trained person in your human resource team who cannot just help you with your usual human resource tasks, like time off and vacation and things like that, but also how are you feeling? How are you doing? How can we make the workplace better for you? We have something called If you're familiar with the school system, you have an individualized education plan, an IEP that you get when you're in school. Well, we've created what we call the IWP, the individualized work plan. And so that's not something that's punitive. It's really something to say what accommodations, what adaptions can we make to the work environment, to your structure of your day that will make you more successful here at work. And again, we have people who are neurodiverse and neurotypical on these plans. And they've just made us, because what company doesn't want their employees to feel and be the best they can be at work because those people are going to produce the best they can for the company. So again, it seems like a mission-based decision, but it's absolutely a business and a mission-based decision. And that's what's separated us as a nonprofit, I think.
00:07:32
Speaker 2: This makes me think of Billions. I don't know if you watched that show, which was about traders and they had someone on staff even for high level.
00:07:39
Speaker 3: Yes, psychology. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, it's the same principle, right? You know, we're trying to, and again, I think that every human resource department should have someone on staff who understands and can determine and help people who are experiencing, you know, looking at health as health and not separating mental health from health is a big first step. And so that's something we do. We have quiet zones. We don't have sensory rooms. We have quiet zones. We have what we call a buddha booth which is just this little area where you can go and it's soundproofed and and you can just kind of sit there and have a mindful moment and whether you use it or not though that the presence of that communicates that it's okay to not be okay and to talk about it or just need a bit of extra time and at the end of the day that's what you know work doesn't have to i think i think it's a new approach to work that that billions picked up on as well, right? Because as I said, people who are happy or comfortable at work tend to be the highest performers.
00:08:42
Speaker 2: And what do you know about the tenure of neurodivergent and neurotypical employees in any given company and how your businesses compare?
00:08:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I do know the retention rate. I think it was a study from Accenture a few years ago, and retention rates were consistently 10% higher for companies that were neuro-inclusive. Ours is always in the 90 percentile, if not higher. People who do leave Spectrum Designs tend to, you know, it's maybe just not their passion. And that's OK. But we hope we've given them skills that can, you know, soft skills that can translate to other places. But, yeah, the benefits to the company from retention to company image to company and staff satisfaction is now, thankfully, more. well-documented for businesses to be considering this because, you know, the younger generation in particular on their interviews and when they're looking at companies, they're not just measuring a company by its share price or its, you know, its value to its investors, but, you know, what is it doing to help people and planet, its own people, the community, and how is it operating? And I think this movement is one that is only going in one direction.
00:09:52
Speaker 2: My guest is Patrick Bardsley. He is the CEO and co-founder of Spectrum Designs, a custom apparel company based on Long Island that is... also a non-profit employing a workforce that is 70% autistic. You can find out more at spectrumdesigns.org. You're listening to Get Connected on 106.7 Light FM. I'm Nina Del Rio. And we were just talking about these amazing benefits within the company, but yet you are also a business So how do you balance mission and profit as a nonprofit?
00:10:21
Speaker 3: It's a tough balance. Uh, we do sort of look at the nonprofit thing as a, as, um, it's obviously a tax designation, which is beneficial, but really it's about transparency for us. We want people to be able to look at how we're operating, go online, look up our financials, make sure that they can see that we're operating truthfully. And, and, and that's really important to us because we can show that, but also, um, Yeah, we're a business. We keep the lights on with our sales. We can have the greatest mission in the world, but we never wave that kind of charity flag and say people should work with us because of our mission. Because there's a saying in the UK that charity starts at home. And I think what that means is that people have their own things and they inherently have to take care of themselves first. If they have extras, then they'll give. So we never expect people to pay more to work with spectrum designs. We never expect people to sacrifice quality. We never expect people to sacrifice customer service. If anything, we have to work harder to compete with the big companies because we do sort of sometimes feel like we're swimming upstream when people have maybe misconceptions or stereotypes around capability. I've had people say, well, you're a nonprofit, so you're going to be more expensive or I know the nature of your workforce, but can you guarantee the quality? And so those are little, those kinds of microaggressions that we sort of, but then that makes us, that drives us even more to put out a product that challenges those stereotypes and those misconceptions. And I say to our team all the time, like, this is so much more than a t-shirt. You are sending a message out into the world of capability and take that seriously and And it's still a T-shirt. But, you know, we balance that all the time.
00:12:02
Speaker 2: As regards to transparency, how does having an open environment for discussing neurodiversity benefit your, you know, employers or managers anywhere?
00:12:10
Speaker 3: I just think, you know, what we found, it's quite incredible. You know, we never, of course, we never ask on an interview, you know, someone's diagnosis or anything like that. But we've had people that we, you know, really didn't know or whatever. And then a few weeks later, they'll say, oh, by the way, I have something I want to disclose. And that, to me, is a huge message of that we've created a safe environment for people where they maybe gravitated towards us originally, and now they've disclosed it. And I think, again, neurodiversity is so widespread now that any company with more than X amount of employees, it's already in your company. So just address it. Let's talk about it. Let's have a conversation and make it comfortable because... as a kind of recurring theme we're saying here is like, you want employees to be happy and safe and stay with you and feel good about where they're working. And that begins with conversation and creating an environment where people feel safe to share what they might need or how they think or learn differently at work and not feel ostracized or that they're an inconvenience as a result. And I think if you just flip that script, you'll see that conversations happen very naturally.
00:13:20
Speaker 2: You're very involved in this work. You are also chairman of the board at NYSID, which is New York State Industries for the Disabled. They're responsible for more than 4,700 jobs for New Yorkers with disabilities. They earned $ 79 million in wages in 2023. So for someone listening, we also want to talk to business owners, someone who wants to take practical steps. Where would you start? Where to go for assistance to do something like what you're doing?
00:13:45
Speaker 3: Well, I think what a lot of businesses don't know is that there are agencies, um, human service agencies across New York, across the country that, um, they are tasked with trying to place people, uh, in, in employment. There's also state run agencies too. And so that service is provided to you as a business owner for free, including job, job coaching, job support, um, resume review, all of that stuff. So, um, get connected with a local, um, agency if, if you're serious about this. Um, That would be my practical advice. I suppose my psychological or my philosophical advice, I should say, would be more around just presume competence and make a start. Get past the fear of, oh, what if it doesn't work out and I don't want to be the company that has to dismiss someone with a disability? I think that is a huge barrier that we have to just talk about. And when I talk to Spectrum employees, you know, the recurring theme is always, We want to be treated like everyone else. That's our main line. And if that means that we're not performing and we have to get fired, that's okay, you know, fire, you know. And so I think so many business owners are fearful of that and it's just need to push beyond that fear and begin. And you certainly won't regret it.
00:14:55
Speaker 2: Spectrum Designs recently also opened a location in New Jersey. What is next for you?
00:15:00
Speaker 3: We'd like to continue creating more branches of Spectrum Designs. Of course, we want to grow our impact. We get so many emails weekly, daily from people, family members, individuals seeking employment, asking us to set up a Spectrum Suds or a Spectrum Designs in their local community. We want to do more. Of course, with my accent, I'd love to set something up in the UK. That's a big dream, Spectrum UK. But yes, in the short term, I think we're really proud that we were able to get set up in New Jersey. It's working really well. It created 10 jobs in the first month. of operating, which is tremendous. Those are 10 new jobs in a neuro inclusive environment. And we just want to do that more. And on top of that, the more I know that we can do directly for the people we support, the more I hope we and others inspire other businesses and other members of the community and the state and elected officials to see the value in, in giving people an opportunity and not just the nonprofit, warm and fuzzies of doing a social good, but also the economic, the very clear economic value of turning a trainee into a taxpayer, of generating income tax, of lowering the need for social security, and that money being spent in their local communities where previously it wasn't available. That is a, we like to talk about it as a hand up, not a handout.
00:16:25
Speaker 2: My guest is Patrick Bardsley. He is the CEO and co-founder of Spectrum Designs and Spectrum Suds. You can find out more at spectrumdesigns.org. Thank you for being on Get Connected.
00:16:36
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me.
00:16:38
Speaker 1: This has been Get Connected with Nina Del Rio on 106.7 Light FM. The views and opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the station. If you missed any part of our show or want to share it, visit our website for downloads and podcasts at 106.7lightfm.com. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Get Connected with Nina Del Rio, a weekly conversation about fitness, health, and happenings in our community on 106.7 Light FM.
00:00:14
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to Get Connected. A recent survey of autistic adults found that nearly half don't feel it's safe to disclose their autism at work. But at one nonprofit in Port Washington, that concern is non-existent. Fifteen years ago, my guest, Patrick Bardsley, started Spectrum Designs, a custom apparel company with just two employees and a sewing machine in a barn. Today, Spectrum Designs operates four locations in New York, New Jersey, and Florida, serving clients including Google, and is on track to generate $ 10 million in revenue this year. Spectrum Designs is also a nonprofit employing a workforce that is 70% autistic. Patrick Bardsley, thank you for being on Get Connected.
00:00:52
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me.
00:00:53
Speaker 2: You can find out more about it at SpectrumDesigns.org. Let's go back to the beginning, actually, Spectrum Designs and its genesis. Where did everything begin?
00:01:03
Speaker 3: They say necessity is the mother of all invention, and that was true for Spectrum Designs. We looked at the high unemployment rate for adults on the spectrum and just felt like that was unacceptable. And so we said, why don't we start creating those jobs and creating a company and companies that could that could create careers for autistic adults. And so the brand and merchandise company of Spectrum Designs was born. And thankfully, we've had a good amount of success ever since.
00:01:29
Speaker 2: Back to the introduction, nearly half of employees don't feel comfortable talking about their autism at work. Why does it matter if employees can't be open about their autism or any other neurodivergence in a workplace?
00:01:41
Speaker 3: I think inclusion is just so important. And for adults, inclusion in the workforce and being employed is so much more than just the paycheck, right? It's access to routine, structure, self-worth, friendships, all of these things that come from just having the opportunity to be included. And so obviously at Spectrum Designs with 70% of our over 100 person team being on the spectrum, it's creating an environment and a culture that is so obviously inclusive, but also where the difference and diversity is not just sort of tolerated, but celebrated. And that creates an incredible culture that from top to bottom, just a wonderful place to be.
00:02:23
Speaker 2: Your background is in special education. So, you know, you knew what you were kind of going for. But again, why did you choose custom design specifically? What is it about that business model that you thought might be malleable?
00:02:34
Speaker 3: Well, it's a commodity that you can have customers from, you could ship all over the U.S., all over the world. But particularly for those on the spectrum, there are multiple steps involved that, you know, inherently there's repetition, but there's also creativity. There's variety. It's fun. It's an environment that no two days are the same, but there is obviously built in repetition. And initially our first customers were people who were, you know, on the spectrum or doing walks or fundraising efforts for, for those on the spectrum. So it was the autism community. And then it sort of graduated out to, people who were maybe connected directly, and then the degrees of separation went away. But it's still obviously a big part of our mission is a big part of how we've grown the business.
00:03:18
Speaker 2: You've also managed to keep people, you know, you have a high retention rate.
00:03:23
Speaker 3: You know, I think it's it points to that the culture as well, you know, and having a place where where people are just kind of you can come as you are. And that creates a culture and an environment that people gravitate towards. And this is something that I think every company should be looking at, not just obviously us as a unique case. But of course, you know, we have a number of employees that have been with us a long time. They love where they are. I think the other side of that coin is that maybe they don't like their opportunities somewhere else, right? They're because of the high unemployment rate, but we don't rest on that. We want the environment and the culture to be set by our employees. And as an executive, you know, I leave it alone. because it's much better that way. And so I'm most proud of the fact that we have people working in all aspects of the company, not just on the shop floor producing shirts, but in our marketing team, in our customer service and design team, in leadership roles and management roles. And I think that upward mobility and moving from just jobs to creating careers for autistic adults has also helped us with retention because we really believe in giving people opportunities from within wherever we can.
00:04:26
Speaker 2: We'll talk about some practical steps in a moment. I want to remind everybody we're speaking with Patrick Bardsley, He is Spectrum Designs Foundation CEO and co-founder, overseeing the day-to-day running of Spectrum Designs and Spectrum Suds. He holds a master's in special education with a concentration in behavior analysis through Long Island University. You're listening to Get Connected on 106.7 Light FM. I'm Nina Del Rio. So some specific practices that you employ. You mentioned this business has a lot of steps. So you have QR codes that help people with tasks.
00:04:57
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. We want to make the workplace as visual as possible, right? And this is true for any good workplace where you want to make it easy as possible for people who learn differently and think differently to navigate. And so we put markings on the floor. We have QR codes for videos of how to operate a machine. We have signage pretty much everywhere. And this has actually increased overall efficiency by 30% in the company. And so to me, it's that principle of universal design where You make an accommodation or an adjustment for one group and it actually benefits all of us. And it's, as I said, it's made us a much more efficient and productive, safe and happy workplace.
00:05:37
Speaker 2: Doing a little bit of reading about workplaces that employ neurodivergent workers, a lot of times it seems like that support for people with autism might be outside the company, but you actually have a licensed social worker as your chief of staff. Support is on staff.
00:05:53
Speaker 3: I think that's the jewel in the Spectrum Designs crown is that we have actually two now licensed social workers as part of our human resource team. We look at human resources and we underline the word human. And we have an approach to it that, again, was originally started for people who are employees on the spectrum who are four times more likely to experience sort of mental health challenges or other comorbidity connected things to their diagnosis. And so, yeah, having a social worker on site to help them. was originally and remains a really strong benefit. And our neurotypical employees benefit from it too, because, hey, they have bad weekends, bad days too, you know, and we all do. And so having a trained person in your human resource team who cannot just help you with your usual human resource tasks, like time off and vacation and things like that, but also how are you feeling? How are you doing? How can we make the workplace better for you? We have something called If you're familiar with the school system, you have an individualized education plan, an IEP that you get when you're in school. Well, we've created what we call the IWP, the individualized work plan. And so that's not something that's punitive. It's really something to say what accommodations, what adaptions can we make to the work environment, to your structure of your day that will make you more successful here at work. And again, we have people who are neurodiverse and neurotypical on these plans. And they've just made us, because what company doesn't want their employees to feel and be the best they can be at work because those people are going to produce the best they can for the company. So again, it seems like a mission-based decision, but it's absolutely a business and a mission-based decision. And that's what's separated us as a nonprofit, I think.
00:07:32
Speaker 2: This makes me think of Billions. I don't know if you watched that show, which was about traders and they had someone on staff even for high level.
00:07:39
Speaker 3: Yes, psychology. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, it's the same principle, right? You know, we're trying to, and again, I think that every human resource department should have someone on staff who understands and can determine and help people who are experiencing, you know, looking at health as health and not separating mental health from health is a big first step. And so that's something we do. We have quiet zones. We don't have sensory rooms. We have quiet zones. We have what we call a buddha booth which is just this little area where you can go and it's soundproofed and and you can just kind of sit there and have a mindful moment and whether you use it or not though that the presence of that communicates that it's okay to not be okay and to talk about it or just need a bit of extra time and at the end of the day that's what you know work doesn't have to i think i think it's a new approach to work that that billions picked up on as well, right? Because as I said, people who are happy or comfortable at work tend to be the highest performers.
00:08:42
Speaker 2: And what do you know about the tenure of neurodivergent and neurotypical employees in any given company and how your businesses compare?
00:08:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I do know the retention rate. I think it was a study from Accenture a few years ago, and retention rates were consistently 10% higher for companies that were neuro-inclusive. Ours is always in the 90 percentile, if not higher. People who do leave Spectrum Designs tend to, you know, it's maybe just not their passion. And that's OK. But we hope we've given them skills that can, you know, soft skills that can translate to other places. But, yeah, the benefits to the company from retention to company image to company and staff satisfaction is now, thankfully, more. well-documented for businesses to be considering this because, you know, the younger generation in particular on their interviews and when they're looking at companies, they're not just measuring a company by its share price or its, you know, its value to its investors, but, you know, what is it doing to help people and planet, its own people, the community, and how is it operating? And I think this movement is one that is only going in one direction.
00:09:52
Speaker 2: My guest is Patrick Bardsley. He is the CEO and co-founder of Spectrum Designs, a custom apparel company based on Long Island that is... also a non-profit employing a workforce that is 70% autistic. You can find out more at spectrumdesigns.org. You're listening to Get Connected on 106.7 Light FM. I'm Nina Del Rio. And we were just talking about these amazing benefits within the company, but yet you are also a business So how do you balance mission and profit as a nonprofit?
00:10:21
Speaker 3: It's a tough balance. Uh, we do sort of look at the nonprofit thing as a, as, um, it's obviously a tax designation, which is beneficial, but really it's about transparency for us. We want people to be able to look at how we're operating, go online, look up our financials, make sure that they can see that we're operating truthfully. And, and, and that's really important to us because we can show that, but also, um, Yeah, we're a business. We keep the lights on with our sales. We can have the greatest mission in the world, but we never wave that kind of charity flag and say people should work with us because of our mission. Because there's a saying in the UK that charity starts at home. And I think what that means is that people have their own things and they inherently have to take care of themselves first. If they have extras, then they'll give. So we never expect people to pay more to work with spectrum designs. We never expect people to sacrifice quality. We never expect people to sacrifice customer service. If anything, we have to work harder to compete with the big companies because we do sort of sometimes feel like we're swimming upstream when people have maybe misconceptions or stereotypes around capability. I've had people say, well, you're a nonprofit, so you're going to be more expensive or I know the nature of your workforce, but can you guarantee the quality? And so those are little, those kinds of microaggressions that we sort of, but then that makes us, that drives us even more to put out a product that challenges those stereotypes and those misconceptions. And I say to our team all the time, like, this is so much more than a t-shirt. You are sending a message out into the world of capability and take that seriously and And it's still a T-shirt. But, you know, we balance that all the time.
00:12:02
Speaker 2: As regards to transparency, how does having an open environment for discussing neurodiversity benefit your, you know, employers or managers anywhere?
00:12:10
Speaker 3: I just think, you know, what we found, it's quite incredible. You know, we never, of course, we never ask on an interview, you know, someone's diagnosis or anything like that. But we've had people that we, you know, really didn't know or whatever. And then a few weeks later, they'll say, oh, by the way, I have something I want to disclose. And that, to me, is a huge message of that we've created a safe environment for people where they maybe gravitated towards us originally, and now they've disclosed it. And I think, again, neurodiversity is so widespread now that any company with more than X amount of employees, it's already in your company. So just address it. Let's talk about it. Let's have a conversation and make it comfortable because... as a kind of recurring theme we're saying here is like, you want employees to be happy and safe and stay with you and feel good about where they're working. And that begins with conversation and creating an environment where people feel safe to share what they might need or how they think or learn differently at work and not feel ostracized or that they're an inconvenience as a result. And I think if you just flip that script, you'll see that conversations happen very naturally.
00:13:20
Speaker 2: You're very involved in this work. You are also chairman of the board at NYSID, which is New York State Industries for the Disabled. They're responsible for more than 4,700 jobs for New Yorkers with disabilities. They earned $ 79 million in wages in 2023. So for someone listening, we also want to talk to business owners, someone who wants to take practical steps. Where would you start? Where to go for assistance to do something like what you're doing?
00:13:45
Speaker 3: Well, I think what a lot of businesses don't know is that there are agencies, um, human service agencies across New York, across the country that, um, they are tasked with trying to place people, uh, in, in employment. There's also state run agencies too. And so that service is provided to you as a business owner for free, including job, job coaching, job support, um, resume review, all of that stuff. So, um, get connected with a local, um, agency if, if you're serious about this. Um, That would be my practical advice. I suppose my psychological or my philosophical advice, I should say, would be more around just presume competence and make a start. Get past the fear of, oh, what if it doesn't work out and I don't want to be the company that has to dismiss someone with a disability? I think that is a huge barrier that we have to just talk about. And when I talk to Spectrum employees, you know, the recurring theme is always, We want to be treated like everyone else. That's our main line. And if that means that we're not performing and we have to get fired, that's okay, you know, fire, you know. And so I think so many business owners are fearful of that and it's just need to push beyond that fear and begin. And you certainly won't regret it.
00:14:55
Speaker 2: Spectrum Designs recently also opened a location in New Jersey. What is next for you?
00:15:00
Speaker 3: We'd like to continue creating more branches of Spectrum Designs. Of course, we want to grow our impact. We get so many emails weekly, daily from people, family members, individuals seeking employment, asking us to set up a Spectrum Suds or a Spectrum Designs in their local community. We want to do more. Of course, with my accent, I'd love to set something up in the UK. That's a big dream, Spectrum UK. But yes, in the short term, I think we're really proud that we were able to get set up in New Jersey. It's working really well. It created 10 jobs in the first month. of operating, which is tremendous. Those are 10 new jobs in a neuro inclusive environment. And we just want to do that more. And on top of that, the more I know that we can do directly for the people we support, the more I hope we and others inspire other businesses and other members of the community and the state and elected officials to see the value in, in giving people an opportunity and not just the nonprofit, warm and fuzzies of doing a social good, but also the economic, the very clear economic value of turning a trainee into a taxpayer, of generating income tax, of lowering the need for social security, and that money being spent in their local communities where previously it wasn't available. That is a, we like to talk about it as a hand up, not a handout.
00:16:25
Speaker 2: My guest is Patrick Bardsley. He is the CEO and co-founder of Spectrum Designs and Spectrum Suds. You can find out more at spectrumdesigns.org. Thank you for being on Get Connected.
00:16:36
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me.
00:16:38
Speaker 1: This has been Get Connected with Nina Del Rio on 106.7 Light FM. The views and opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the station. If you missed any part of our show or want to share it, visit our website for downloads and podcasts at 106.7lightfm.com. Thanks for listening.
