- I think the biggest misconception
within the autistic community is that it's a monolith.
That it's a community in which there are no social skills,
there are no communication skills.
(uplifting piano music)
This is unbelievably frustrating
for somebody who has the potential
and yet is not getting an opportunity.
There is a subset of this population
that is very strong and really uniquely adept
at processing data that can be used
by artificial intelligence products.
What if the right talent pool was right
underneath our noses the whole time?
Is there a way for us to level the playing field?
- Do you remember this trip?
- Yes.
- Where was it?
- London.
- That's pretty fun.
Brandon and I are about nine 1/2 years apart
and we're kind of like your typical brothers.
I was a young kid, loved to mess around with him,
liked to kind of be his protector.
When somebody in the community turns 21,
you often hear this concept called the services cliff.
Now that's when somebody receiving education
or social supports,
which have been funded by the state government,
will actually lose those supports,
effectively, they fall off the cliff.
When my mother passed away, a little over four years ago,
it was this kind of jarring moment of--
you can't just rely on that support structure anymore.
You have to become the support structure
and that really was a spark.
Professionally, I was a data scientist
and I understood the challenges
that went into artificial intelligence.
They're looking for people who are detail oriented.
They want people who are able
to really handle complex data and information,
and these are characteristics that are hallmarks
of folks who are in the autism community.
(mouse clicking)
- Have you had a job before, Albert?
- A true job?
Nah, no.
- So this is your first job?
Like first full time real job?
- You could say that, yes.
Definitely.
- So Daivergent really took off in the summer of 2018.
That's when we really started to get corporate clients
who resonated with our message,
who saw that there was a need.
- Daivergent will be a way for us to go
and attract a talent pool that we don't have right now.
So it's more than social good, it's also business good.
- We currently have about 850 folks across the U.S.
that are in our candidate pool.
- The more members we have on our platform,
the more data we have around what they enjoy,
they don't enjoy, what they do well with,
what they don't do well with.
When hiring manager looking for people to get a job,
we can say confidently this is the kind of tests
they want to do or that they'll be good at.
And for those members, here's a way to get there.
- When we see Daivergent,
we really see it as a work readiness platform.
It's really a stepping stone for folks to use,
and show a set skills that they've built,
to be able to actually get that career
that they're really aspiring towards.
- My name is Danielle Levine
and I am a remote data specialist at Divergent
and I am a student on Kingsborough Community College.
I've worked with them since August of last year.
It's pretty awesome because they feel like
they could trust us, whatever they have.
They don't like underestimate us.
They believe in us.
- Everybody does have that unique gift.
And the question becomes, what is the avenue you use
to really unlock that?
Part of our role is sometimes just saying
there's still that opportunity that's there,
when someone feels dejected,
when someone feels frustrated
after having really been passed over for many, many years.
So what we do is we provide this as the equalizer.
Now you can also have that line on your resume,
trainings that you can highlight on a CV.
And that's gonna be all the difference
when someone's looking at an entry level job.
- Let's go!
Brandon turning 21 puts a bit of a clock on the wall for me,
but my hope is that by the time he falls off that cliff,
we are still gonna be able to catch Brandon.
That's, I think, what drives me, is that we can catch people
before they come off,
but there's already a pool of talent that's there,
that we need to just really enable.
- Hey, thanks for watching our video!
We hope you enjoyed it.
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