3 CEOs Pledge to Help Create 1 Million Jobs for People with Special Needs
Three CEOs have launched a campaign to help create 1 million jobs and leadership opportunities for people with autism, Down syndrome, Cerebral Palsy and other intellectual and developmental differences by 2025, ABC 7 News reporter Catherine Thorbecke, shares. The Chief Executives of Autism Speaks, Best Buddies and the Special Olympics jointly announced that they would pledge to provide stable jobs for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder and special needs. ABC 7 News reports that the three Chief Executives are partnering with the Entertainment Industry Foundation [LINK] and an outside monitoring group to keep them on track with the ambitious goal.
“Basically what it is is an inclusion campaign designed to create pathways to these employment opportunities and leadership opportunities,” “From our perspective, what we are focusing on is the leadership skills and the training that happens on and off the sports field and playing field, these are skills that you can directly transfer in the community and in the workplace.”
Anthony Shriver, the CEO of Best Buddies, said that 1 million jobs may seem like a high target, but relative to the “overall workforce” it is a very achievable goal. “We are trying to get less than 1% of the jobs out there,” Shriver told ABC 7 News.
We hope that more chief executives and CEO’s come out in support of this pledge to provide qualified special needs adults with the same job opportunities as their cohorts. We applaud Autism Speaks, Best Buddiesand The Special Olympics for coming out strong in support of special needs affected individuals!