At present, it is difficult for college graduates to find suitable jobs, and it is even more difficult for people with disabilities to find employment.
Zezheng, a 23-year-old child with autism, graduated from high school during the epidemic and stayed at home after an intermittent internship at a company for several months. His mother found him a job assembling electronic components on the assembly line, but Dan Zezheng's fine ability was not good, so he usually participated in some fusion activities in the circle to pass the time. All the way from elementary school to higher school, emotionally stable, and willing to work, but still can't find a low-income but stable job, Zezheng's mother feels very pity.
It is so difficult to enter a company in society and integrate into the employment of the general population, is there any other way out for autistic children?
Yes, and there are many successful examples!
The "One Star Brewing" bakery opened by Wenzhou's pedigree father, Hu Wenzhong, has successfully absorbed 18 mentally handicapped people, including autism, into employment, which has attracted national attention. Chen Meirong, a two-star mother in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, took 15 young people (13 of whom are autistic people) to open a rookie post station in the community to deliver express delivery to residents.
Today we are going to talk about the path for parents to start a business and for children to be employed in the circle. Not only do children have a place to go and a stable income, but more importantly, people in the circle know the characteristics of our children, not only do they not discriminate, but they will also give appropriate support, and in a friendly environment, children will encounter much less frustration and it will be easier to build confidence.
As mentioned above, Zezheng has been working for one to two years in an organization run by parents to serve young people, and this organization has provided jobs for 4 young people with autism, including autism, and the future goal is to support 20 young people with different disabilities to achieve sheltered employment.
How did this goal come to fruition, and what did they explore?Today we share the story of a spectrum mom who started a business in the field of autism.
2024 is Cui Linna's third year of entrepreneurship in the field of autism, and her daughter Kexin will also turn 17 this year.
Since the diagnosis, the family has tried various methods for Kexin's ** and visited many institutions, but in the end, because of behavioral problems and hyperactivity, Kexin couldn't even enter a special school, and stayed in a private special education institution until she was 14 years old, until Cui Linna gave up her career and entered the field of autism to start a business.
Kexin and Mom.
The starting point of the business is the sports that Cui Linna is familiar with, she used to know many sports champions when she was a sports reporter at the newspaper and learned about the training methods of different sports.
She has initiated the International Mini Marathon, which is the first public welfare sports project in China to help autistic children participate in social activitiesIt also launched the "Light Up Blue" National Run for Autistic Children, which attracted more than 100,000 runners and more than 7,000 autistic children.
She also teamed up with another genealogy mom to run an older daycare facility featuring sports**, which attracted some older children in Beijing who had nowhere to go during the day. It's just that after the heavy blow of the epidemic, the partners found another way out, and the agency also faced the crisis of being complained by neighbors, having to move out of the community or even disbanding.
In the end, Cui Linna took the teachers who stayed behind and settled in a creative park in Fengtai District, Beijing, to continue her sports career, and the "Infinair Creative Academy" was established, where young people, including autistic children, can play sports, practice self-care, and cultivate vocational skills.
At present, 15 young people have signed up for INFINAIR's day classes and come here every day. In addition, INFINAIR has also opened tennis, air volleyball, art therapy and other courses, adding up to nearly 30 young students.
Under the influence of her parents and teachers, Kexin also fell in love with cycling and running. She loves to swim the most, and she is as comfortable in the water as a fish.
As long as an autistic child can always play a certain sport, no matter what kind of sport, it will be helpful for him. Let him develop an exercise habit, which will become his way of life. Don't focus on the fact that he is an autistic child with a disability, but give him the opportunity to socialize and contact with the outside world like an ordinary person, because autistic children also have expectations for group activities. Cui Linna said.
Athletic Kexin.
In November 2022, ALSO went to INFINAIR and met Kexin and the children who received sports at INFINAIR, at that time, there were two young people with good performance, who had become earning employees from paying students of INFINAIR, and Cui Linna began to pay salaries to the two children.
One of these students was Ze Zheng, who was in charge of student sign-in, meal ordering, and other matters at that time, and handled some daily chores.
After more than a year, recently, I visited INFINAIR again, and Zezheng's work content has been "upgraded", more like an office secretary, he can do**, statistics, shooting and editing**. Cui Linna transferred him to the newly established e-commerce department to assist in the preparation of the live broadcast, and he also appeared many times to introduce INFINAIR's products to netizens and endorse INFINAIR.
At present, the number of young people who receive salaries at INFINAIR like Ze Zheng has expanded to 4. Especially in October 2023, INFINAIR began to test the waters of the live broadcast business, and more and more ...... work that children can participate inMoreover, in Cui Linna's vision, the employment path for autistic children is far more than that!
Ze Zheng (right) works with his colleagues to debug the live broadcast equipment before the live broadcast.
When we interviewed Cui Linna at the end of 2022, talking about future plans, Cui Linna mentioned one thing: "Try to take children to participate in e-commerce work, such as bringing goods through WeChat mini programs, publishing**, announcements, making posters and short**, etc., to increase students' knowledge and self-confidence, and have basic skills to integrate into society." ”
In the following year, Cui Linna made several attempts to bring goods online, such as cooperating with a company specializing in rice (mainly reflected in the appearance of autism elements in the packaging design) to jointly sell rice;During the Mid-Autumn Festival, moon cakes are sold. These are mainly carried out in the circle of friends, and they are very effective.
Before officially starting the live broadcast business, she went to Guangzhou and signed up for the training course of the "Make a Friend" Business School to understand the underlying logic of Douyin to bring goods.
The first live broadcast was on October 3, 2023, when the teachers were on holiday, Cui Linna set up a corner against the wall in the office to arrange a live broadcast room, and the background was a silk scarf designed by a hand-drawn painting by a young man.
Cui Linna endorses the children's original silk scarves.
I thought, I broadcast without anyone in the live broadcast room, so I didn't think about selling it, and it was a big deal to talk to the air for two hours. She said. On this day, most of her live broadcast room were old acquaintances, family members, parents, and employees of INFINAIR, "There are parents who support the scene, and the effect is better than I expected." Cui Linna was very touched by this kind of support.
Since then, Cui Linna has maintained the frequency of live broadcasts three times a week on the ** number + Douyin account, and 120,000 yuan of sales performance. In the exploration stage, because there is no clear style orientation, the products on the shelves are not only cultural and creative derivative products such as exquisite silk scarves, magic bandanas, frisbees, mouse pads, etc., but also daily department stores and fresh products, such as sweet potatoes, egg tarts, oranges, bath towels, etc.
After a period of live broadcast, Cui Linna found that due to the different platforms (** number, Douyin), the anchor decoration is different, and the crowd attracted is not the same. "When people in the live broadcast room see 'autism', it's hard to think of the (ordinary) silk scarves I sell, but prefer works with children's hand-paintings, and the products can't be too miscellaneous (you have to pay a deposit for each category), and it's best to gather in a large category. She said.
By November, in order to attract fans, Cui Linna increased the frequency of live broadcasts, changing to live broadcasts on Douyin five times a week, and the time was fixed at noon after repeated adjustments. The content not only tells the story, but also sells the product, and does not forget to interact with the audience.
The sales in November were not good, because the positioning of the live broadcast room was not clear, and the sales did not exceed 10,000 yuan. She revealed, "In December, we continued to straighten out the relationship, focusing on sales on Douyin, inviting well-known parents in the circle to share stories, pass on experiences, and do a good job in the output of high-quality content, and the number of live broadcasts is set at twice a week." ”
In December, there was a new change, with the consent of parents and students, INFINAIR's heart youth began to appear in the live broadcast, introducing the products they created, and showing the production process of the products on the spot, such as paper sculptures, and the children created under the camera, with a teacher next to them.
Like many entrepreneurial parents, while recruiting autistic employees, they will also recruit employment counselors to enter the work, as a supplement to ordinary employees and professional strength, so Cui Linna also recruited employees with e-commerce experience to provide guidance for the early work.
The young man demonstrated the paper carving process in the live broadcast room.
We have also taken a lot of detours, we have fired an e-commerce employee, the live broadcast room has been blocked for a month because of a small detail, and the current positioning of the live broadcast room is not clear, resulting in a rapid loss of audiences and so on. She said. In the future, in the area of e-commerce, how to accurately and accurately position, how to maintain fans, how to dredge the entire work process, how to implant young people in the heart, and how to attract traffic and sell things on different platforms, we still have to continue to explore.
At present, the products sold in the live broadcast room of INFINAIR are concentrated in 50 products such as magic headscarves, silk scarves, environmentally friendly coffee cups, paper sculptures, frisbees, and air volleyballs, with strong cultural attributes. In order to avoid the backlog of goods, the production volume of each product is not large, such as a batch of 20 magic bandanas and a batch of 50 silk scarves ......Because it involves the transformation design of the students' works of the cooperative company, coupled with the low order quantity, the willingness of the merchants to cooperate is not strong, Cui Linna often has to talk about many families before finalizing the final production and sales of a certain product.
For our own customized products, we must pay a part of the deposit first, and the manufacturer will confirm the proofing before mass production. A small number of enterprises have a strong sense of public welfare, and will not charge design fees after learning about our situation, and give us a particularly low sales rate**, but most of the ** chain will not consider whether you are doing youth employment. Cui Linna said.
Cui Linna in the live broadcast.
Although the money has not yet been earned, and the product sales are not very popular, because of the opening of the live broadcast section, the young people of INFINAIR have opened up a new angle to understand the world.
Some young people don't understand what "live broadcast" is, and they don't know how to watch the camera, so they need the teacher to guide "Mom is here, look at Mom", and the child knows to look at the camera. A child with better ability like Ze Zheng can not only introduce the inspiration of his work**, but also take the initiative to try on the product and introduce the characteristics of the product.
Zezheng's biggest problem when he was in school was that he couldn't communicate, couldn't express, couldn't say if he was wronged, and sometimes his classmates bullied him or deducted the mistakes he made, and he didn't know how to justify himself. I felt that while helping him complete his compulsory education, I should also integrate into this circle for social and self-care training, otherwise the quality of life in the future will be worrying. Zezheng's mother said.
So, starting from the air volleyball class, while insisting on sports, Ze Zheng began to participate in INFINAIR's employment practice and engage in some simple work.
At the beginning, he was in charge of ordering food, and from that time on, his communication skills improved very quickly, because he had to communicate with classmates, teachers and people from the catering company, which involved everyone's expenses and what to eat, and he needed to think about what to say in detail, and I found that he couldn't do it before because of a lack of opportunities to practice. Mom said.
INFINAIR students learn to take care of themselves and fold clothes.
In an inclusive and supportive atmosphere, Zezheng was not so anxious, and in 2021, his ability was highly recognized by his teachers and he officially became an employee of INFINAIR. Now he is subordinate to the e-commerce department, responsible for shooting and editing**, and often proudly says to his mother: "Mom, don't think that shooting ** is a very simple thing, you have to find an angle, this angle is very tricky, and I have to use my body as an assistant." ”
In the past two years, his communication skills have improved, and he is full of positive energy, very confident, and has a lot of confidence in doing things. Zezheng's mother commented.
It is not only Ze Zheng and other 4 older employees who have benefited, but also the pure natural essential oil soap made by the young people is also one of the sales productsA magic headscarf costs less than 20 yuan, but each one has a handwritten blessing from a young man;In addition, they can also work in product packaging, among other things. Cui Linna is also in contact with more merchants to transform the students' works into products with sales value.
Dalong used to work as a cleaner in the hotel, but he was not happy, after arriving at Yingfei, he found self-confidence in **, and is currently our teaching assistant, teaching staff playing African dance, singing and vocalizing. He is now very motivated, and he will take the initiative to ask to participate in training when he has teaching meetings, as if he is a teaching assistant. I will also make a lesson plan for the teacher to revise.
Han Lun was almost 30 years old when he came to Yingfei, and he had 6 years of work experience before, and he did cargo sorting work in a company, which was relatively simple, but in the area of career empowerment, the company did not consciously promote him. He is now working as a teaching assistant in the second class of youth. Moreover, we found that Hanlun's voice recognition was very high, and we opened a recitation club for him. ”
Haoxuan's characteristics are different from Zezheng, he is better at socializing and communicating, he took over Zezheng's class, and edited the daily ** into a small ** and sent it to the group;Meals are ordered for students every dayIt's also good to make posters;The birthday party of the students is all Zhang Luo, who has a birthday will send blessings in time. ”
INFINAIR students participate in the alumni brand festival of Peking University.
This is the current situation of the other three employed young people in INFINAIR in addition to Zezheng, which is gratifying. In the future, Cui Linna's goal is to support 20 young people with different levels of impairment to find their own advantages and rely on the Internet to achieve sheltered employment.
For example, students with unique voices like Han Lun, Cui Linna is doing dubbing or audiobooks for them. One of the students in the youth class is only 12 years old, and Cui Linna is training him to be a commentator, and parents or leaders will introduce them to the functions of different courses when they come to visit INFINAIR.
We launched these young people, not to beautify them and enhance their abilities, but to help them find a career direction and cultivate them, so that they can earn a living even if they are not in INFINAIR, with moderate support or without support and shelter, which is the original intention of INFINAIR's professional practice. In the future, not only autistic people with better abilities like Zezheng, but also children with autism of different ages and degrees can also achieve sheltered employment through support and training. Cui Linna said.
Finally, Cui Linna told us that INFINAIR has recently obtained the certification of social enterprise: "Compared with simply doing public welfare, business is more efficient and more sensitive to social issues”
Ze is a silk scarf designed by his paintings.
In the live broadcast business, Cui Linna also hopes to get more external support:
1.I hope that more brands can come to contact and cooperate, INFINAIR can do sales and design, and enterprises can also customize patterns.
2.It is hoped that capable caring enterprises can do the title and give financial support to reduce the rent pressure of INFINAIR, so that parents can also pay less tuition.
3.In terms of design, if children's works want to become a circulating commodity, designers are also needed to develop and transform them, and it is hoped that companies with professional design backgrounds or individual designers can cooperate to complete this matter, and teachers can focus more on teaching.