Program to add 500 jobs for people with disabilities

Kregg Berk, a 49-year-old with autism, had been working part-time customer service jobs but wanted his first full-time job.

“I was looking for a career change,” said Berk, who started working fulltime at the Arizona Department of Economic Security last year. “Now I look forward to my job every day.”

Berk is one of the first people to get a job through a new Arizona program that trains and places people with disabilities in software development, data analysis, cyber security and back office administrative jobs.

The program is called Phoenix Precision Project and it’s being led by nonprofit community developer First Place and a Delaware IT and administrative firm.

The goal of the project is to create as many as 500 jobs for people with autism and disabilities during the next three years.

The next goal for First Place and its government and private partners is to create 1,000 jobs for people with autism by 2025.

About 75 to 80 percent of people with autism in the U.S. are unemployed or underemployed, according to Ernie Dianastasis, CEO of The Precisionists.

“When properly assessed, trained and employed, people with autism and other developmental disabilities are high-performing in critical and challenging jobs,” he said.

Gov. Doug Ducey joined other Valley leaders to announce the program at central Phoenix’s First Place, apartments developed for adults with autism, on Tuesday.

“Arizona is a place where opportunity for all means just that,” Ducey said. “What we are doing here should be a model for the rest of the U.S.”

The Precision Project plans to open an innovation and technology center in the Valley in the next few months and add 10 additional business and government clients by year end.

Already, the Arizona Department of Economic Security, SRP and Mobile Mini are part of the program. They’re working with firm The Precisionists Inc. to use its disability employment model to create the jobs.

The firm also has employment centers in Wilmington, Delaware and Nashville. Exelon Energy, Independence Blue Cross, Pfizer, UBS and Vanderbilt University all work with Precisionists in those areas to hire employees with autism and disabilities.

Michael Trailor, director of DES, said that agency currently has five employees from Precision and plans to hire another six.

The state isn’t providing any subsidies or funding beyond paying employees it hires through the Phoenix Precision Project.

Denise Resnik, founder First Place AZ, began working to bring the Precision project to Arizona two years ago.

“Precisionists is providing unique employment solutions that complement the innovative housing options and community opportunities we are developing,” she said.

The first residents of First Place in central Phoenix, the first apartments for adults with autism in Arizona, moved in last summer. Many of the residents have jobs and use nearby light rail to travel to them.

First Place also provides classes to help residents and non-residents with autism find jobs and live independently.

Zachary Brown, a 20-year-old with autism, has taken classes through First Place and its partners.

“My job requires attention to detail, and I have discovered over the years that’s my strongest skill,” said Zachary Brown, who is part of the Precision program and works in the record management group at SRP.