THE JOB: As parents of an Autistic son, my wife and I have dreams for Dustin Sweeney and his friends. Dustin has always been very task oriented, and the big question is - How can we apply Dustin's abilities to a work setting as he transitions out of school?
Video #1: Today, Dustin Sweeney is a Professional Dog Biscuit Baker at Invictus Enterprises, and he is getting paid for his work!! Invictus empowers a heretofore untapped work force, and the Team @ Invictus is seizing the day. This video shows what autistic individuals can do in a work setting, and it proves that having a purpose in life creates happiness for the bakers and their parents.
Video #2: While the first video offers a feel-good story about the bakery -- we need sales!! The scrumptious artisan dog biscuits are flying 'off the shelves' at the Invictus Online Store, and 'Oscar the Salesman' is selling "NoBones About It" dog biscuits on dog-shop to dog-shop sales calls around New York City.
THE COMMUNITY - Invictus has created the "special sauce" that is very hard to articulate in a Blog post. I often say that "Surfers Healing is my business model" , offering 1-3 day surf clinics for Autistic surfers. Everyone, almost everyone, loves the beach, so that is arguably an easy setting to attract and bring people together to create a community around surf, sand, sun, and fun. But how do you create a community in the "real world" of work? At Invictus, parents, workers, staff, and friends all gather to "bake the biscuits" for 3 hour sessions. In today's world, three hours straight of focusing on one thing is a long time. For the Autistic population, three hours is a REALLY long time. Creating a work-based community may inherently be more challenging to create than one based on surfing...but Invictus is off to a great start:
THE PRODUCT - With absolute conviction, I can say that the "No Bones About It" dog biscuits are a great product! Don't buy them to be supportive of Dustin (but thank-you for the support), buy them because they are awesome and your doggies will love them!!