Community Star of the Week: Spectrum Designs Foundation

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As much as Spectrum Designs Foundation offers consumers, from apparel printing, to homemade granola and snacks, to laundry and dry cleaning services, they offer their employees something more.
Spectrum Designs Foundation - made up of Spectrum Designs, Spectrum Bakes and Spectrum Suds - offers opportunities through employment to individuals with autism.

"Spectrum Designs] was really set up as a social enterprise business with a social mission to employ teens and young adults with autism an give them a place to learn skills," Patrick Bardsley, CEO and Co-Founder of the foundation, said.
An estimated 1 in 59 adults in the United States are born on the autism spectrum and the population is 70-90% under, or, unemployed, according to the Foundation's website. To combat that, Bardsley and two parents - Stella Spanakos and Nicole Sugrue - formed a pilot program for New Yorkers with disabilities to have steady employment. What started as a t-shirt printing shop in Manhasset has grown to multi-faceted social enterprise, with over 50 employees and two 8,000 square foot locations in Port Washington and Pleasantville, NY. Of the Spectrum workforce, 75% are made up of New Yorkers with disabilities.
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"They were looking at what was out there for their children after they'd graduated high school and went beyond when the school bus stopped coming and they didn't like what they saw," Bardsley said. "High unemployment rate, around 80%, maybe higher 10 years ago. The lack of opportunities and real life experiences for these individuals were really apparent."
Part of Spectrum's mission is to provide opportunities to an underserved part of the population, as there are few after resources and options available for those with autism - and their families - after school ends. Additionally, they want to showcase what these individuals are capable of and change the perception around autism and its limitations.
"Our mission is two-fold. It's about creating jobs, in the print shop, the bakery, or the laundry room, but the second part is challenging misconceptions and changing patterns and norms and showing and demonstrating what people with disabilities and neuro-diverse individuals can do," said Bardsley. "Every product we put out has that stamp of this is what someone with a disability can do."
Bardsley sees work as so much more than just a paycheck. While the economic benefits include more money being put back into the community and less being drawn from social security, there are all of the things people take for granted, like a sense of community that a workplace provides.
Bardsley has seen people come out of their shells, form friendships - some for the first time - rent apartments and have families connect by extension. Some of Spectrum's employees have found a path to independence, a ripple effect from getting an opportunity.
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"From very small things like someone saying this is my first paycheck and I'm going to spend it… to people's whole lives being transformed through friendship, or living, or their own self-worth and realizing they are valued and know they have a role to play and are an important member of a team," Bardsley said. "We all take it for granted until we realize there are people who never experience that."
Spectrum Designs is still a business-first and wants to be known for the quality of their goods and services, in addition to its social mission. They've worked with clients including Northwell Health, Special Olympics New York and Blue Line Deli to name a few and have proven adaptable, pivoting and utilizing their infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The foundation used its supply chain to procure masks, gloves and hand sanitizer during the height of the pandemic, ethically pricing it out for the community. The print shop decorated masks, the laundry service donated over 2,000 lbs. of laundry to first responders and the bake business donated 3,000 granola bars to hospitals like Elmhurst and Northwell.

Spectrum Suds has been providing contact-free services for the elderly, Spectrum Designs has produced over 4,000 safety jackets for Metro North and MTA employees and Spectrum Bakes is launching a new granola bar soon - just a sampling of what their workforce is able to do.
"It's recognizing the power of neurodiversity and that the world needs all types of minds," Bardsley said.
Ten years, 80,000 hours of meaningful work and $1M in wages generated for New Yorkers with disabilities and Spectrum has not strayed from their mission of providing opportunities and showcasing the capabilities of those with autism.
"We still have two co-founders who are parents," Bardsley said. "Them looking at their children and thinking would this be good for them, having a horse in the race has allowed us to stay true to that mission to this day."