ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla — A St. Johns County business trains people on the autism spectrum to work and adapt to life as an adult. They’re raising money to broaden their impact.
Spectrum Thrift Store owners are heading to the greens to raise money to keep doing what they’re doing and support other ESE job skill training programs in the community.
If you're wondering what that may look like, go shopping there. You may run into employee Jasmyne Dreher.
“When clothes are almost slipping off the hangers, I put the bottom hangers. I put them on good to fix them," she explains.
She’s 25. Dreher sees her job at the thrift store as an opportunity.
“I like helping the customers, sorting clothes and stuff," Dreher says.
Owner Alisa Tillman left her career in 2018 to open the thrift store. She did it for her son.
“I have a son that is on the autism spectrum," Tillman says. "So, and I always wondered what is he going to do when he grows up?”
Tillman views the store as a starting point. She says she and her son loved to buy things at thrift stores and spruce them up.
When the space opened, her husband encouraged her to create a space where her son could learn job skills.
Now, she's working with kids and young adults with autism. While shoppers come in to buy necessities, she teaches the necessities to people with autism.
Not all of the people they train are employees. They may come in as volunteers. The goal isn't for them to stay.
Tillman says the goal is for them to leave the store with the job skills and resume needed to land them a job.
“Most of them don’t even socialize with other kids or other people. Here they get to not only socialize with other people like them, but they also learn on the job retail training," Tillman says. "We’ve gotten 13 of our kids jobs, yeah, in the four years we’ve been here!”
Everything in this store is one-of-a-kind, especially the people.
The golf scramble kicks off at noon on Thursday at Fleming Island Golf Club.
You can shop Spectrum Thrift and support their mission. They have a store in Fruit Cove and a new store in Jacksonville on Old St. Augustine Rd.