New Braintree Business Offers Support for Intellectually Disabled

While creating ACTabilities, a newly-launched effort to sell branded goods representing intellectual disabilities, Kristen Ford-Hernandez debated whether to establish the organization as non-profit or as a business.

In the end, it was the perspective of her son Jaden and his push for a job that encouraged Ford-Hernandez to create a business, where revenue is funneled into building inventory, where students like her son can learn important skills and where a portion of sales goes to support programs like Autism Speaks, Best Buddies and United Cerebral Palsy.

"I don't want to invoke sympathy, I want to invoke empowerment," Ford-Hernandez said. 

Ford-Hernandez and her husband Joe Hernandez own Premiere Pros, a Braintree home improvement company. They have developed ACTabilities – standing for Acceptance, Consideration, Tolerance – over the last two years. Two weeks ago they launched a website where they sell Christmas ornaments, hats, sweatshirts and T-shirts.

Buyers can select a non-profit representing one of several intellectual disabilities, and approximately 10 percent of their sale will go toward supporting that charity. The rest of the revenue will go back into the business.

Ford-Hernandez said she hopes to ultimately pay her workers at least minimum wage, more than what many people with intellectual disabilities receive working through non-profit work programs.

ACTabilities employs 10 people right now, all of whom came to the business through Project PROVE, a Braintree High School initiative for students with special needs.

Jaden, a 17-year-old enrolled in Project PROVE, started asking how he could make money when he was 16, Ford-Hernandez said. There is often a gap between when those with intellectual disabilities begin to feel the itch to work and when they can enroll in work programs, typically at age 22. 

Last week, students working with ACTabilities participated in the Learning Needs Conference at the YMCA in Hanover. There they pitched their business and learned networking skills by asking about others' organizations as well. The students sold clothing and turtle-themed Christmas ornaments that they produced themselves.

Ford-Hernandez originally decided to adopt the turtle as the logo of ACTabilities because of the classic Aesop Turtle and the Hare fable. Her friend Patty Funder, whose daughter with special needs is also named Kristen, suggested a second meaning for the logo:

"Turtles may move slowly on land, but when they get into their home environment – namely the water – they glide along with grace and speed!"

Francis Barry, a Braintree High School graduate, designed the logo, including a thumbprint signifying a specific disability, free of charge.

Next up for ACTabilities will be individualized candles in mason jars with a customized logo for the non-profits that the company has partnered with. Ford-Hernandez and her daughter Amelia, a student at Stonehill College, are also working on a children's book based on a turtle character with special needs.

ACTabilities has taken up much of Ford-Hernandez's time lately, and she is grateful for it. 

"We're throwing caution to the wind and taking our money and trying to build this," she said. "It is so well received. This is what it's all about."

Visit http://www.actabilities.com to find out more.