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In 1959, a group of parents of high school students with disabilities in Northern Virginia created a nonprofit organization devoted to helping those young people find meaningful employment. In its first year, it employed 26 people. Today, Linden Resources employs and provides job placement for nearly 400 people with intellectual, physical, or mental health disabilities as well as veterans with combat-related disabilities.

Providing these services to people throughout the Washington, DC metro area, Linden Resources operates 16 federal contracts and provides contact centers; copying, collating and mailing services, fulfillment, and secure document destruction for government and commercial clients. Recently, Linden Resources started providing fulfillment services for OAR, namely packaging and mailing resource materials requested by parents, teachers, and others across the United States.

If you think that Linden Resources sounds like a for-profit company, you would be right and wrong. There are plenty of for-profit companies with similar businesses, but Linden Resources’ mission is to focus on supporting people with disabilities, including those with autism, to find and keep employment. As CEO Linda Chandler notes, “We provide support services for people with challenges, helping them learn how to do their jobs and increase productivity so that they can have competitive employment. We follow up with absenteeism or lower productivity and help the employees get back on track.”

“Outsourcing resource fulfillment to Linden made sense first as a business decision,” says Mike Maloney, OAR executive director. “But after learning about the mission and most important, the makeup of workforce, it directly related to OAR’s ongoing initiatives to support employment opportunities for adults with autism.  The fact that it extends to persons with other disabilities as well makes it even more gratifying.”

Chandler was excited to learn of OAR’s Hire Autism employment initiative and sees it as one more source of potential employees. She encourages parents in the metro DC region to contact Linden Resources if their child is seeking employment. A workforce specialist works with young adults and their parents to create an employment plan that starts with an assessment of skills and interests. There is no charge for services if the young adult is being supported through a county or state human services agency. There is a fee for private placements.

Her advice for young people with autism looking for their first jobs is to find internships that will enable them to learn the social norms of different workplaces and to get exposure to different kinds of work so they can figure out what they like to do and how they can succeed.

As Chandler explains, the goal should not be just to find a job but to launch a career. “When young people think of it that way, it provides extra motivation for them to succeed.”