Mission
Ventures ATL is a nonprofit whose mission is to provide opportunities for meaningful and sustainable employment to qualified adults with autism or other developmental differences.
Ventures ATL is designed to address an important issue – Approximately 80% of these adults are unemployed (or underemployed), while at the same time, there is a strong demand for people with the skills these adults possess. While these adults may face several challenges in the job market (limited “soft skills”, transportation barriers, diminished community support in adulthood), they often have a relatively strong ability to perform the essential functions of many jobs. Ventures ATL bridges the “supply and demand gap,” enabling our employees to derive the personal satisfaction of meaningful employment and providing qualified resources to our business partners. We enable adults with autism to have access to a career path that is not otherwise available to them.
Operational Model
The Ventures ATL model differs from those of other organizations in Atlanta that support the employment goals of such adults. The Ventures ATL approach is not based on a placement model but rather the concept that we employ these adults as we operate a portfolio of businesses that line up with their strengths and interests. In that respect, we take a fundamentally different approach that is designed to complement the existing efforts in the Atlanta market.
There are two aspects of sustainability that are essential to the operating principles of Ventures ATL. First, we operate businesses for which there is expected to be substantial and sustainable commercial demand for the services and products we provide. Second, the businesses we operate will provide jobs that line up with the abilities and interests of the individuals we employ. This is designed to ensure that our employees will have a strong chance of deriving long-term success and job satisfaction.
We recognize that engaging with Ventures ATL may have a certain corporate social responsibility element by providing jobs to an underutilized but capable domestic resource. However, it is critical that our engagements with customers support their primary business objectives and specific needs. We are committed to providing high quality services at a competitive price in areas of need for our clients.
While we are structured as a nonprofit, we believe that our organization’s enduring success is tied to our application of disciplines and practices typically found in successful for-profit business enterprises. Therefore, we will maintain a focus on identifying areas where the skills of our employees can be deployed to produce true business value to our customers in areas of genuine commercial demand.