Autistics = unrealized potential for the workforce

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I want to touch on this topic because it has affected me personally.
I am on the spectrum and I have what I would describe as a reasonable
amount of work experience. I am also articulate and have fairly good people skills IMO.
That being said, I am on disability benefits currently and it can be frustrating. (It can also feel like a blessing because I am not burdened with having to go to a job where I am not productive and/or miserable)

My point is that many on the spectrum are capable of working and have experience in some way.
Many have skills and abilities that are useful to the real world. Many are educated and hold bachelors degrees or higher,
have technical training or have learned real world skills on their own. (i.e. computer programming)

Yet they aren't productive members of society. Obviously something isn't working. Is it unreasonable to suggest that governments and society as a whole should be more open to ideas of how to accommodate and utilize people on the spectrum? I don't think so. Iimagine how much more prosperous society could be if the roughly 1-2% of people on the spectrum (who statistically are unemployed well over 50% of the time) were actively engaged.

I myself have been on disability benefits for over 5 years. I wish I was involved in an endeavour to be more productive.
I have classical music education (ARCT diploma in piano performance) which has allowed me to teach piano and earn an above average income. I also performed as a musician for over 10 years.
I ultimately left this field as I felt unfulfilled. Perhaps that's a part of my autism condition, but I could not continue to work in music any more at a certain point. I felt I had reached a limit. My other work experience is mainly entry level jobs. I've been a delivery helper for UPS, I've done basic construction labour, I've worked for Costco, etc etc. I am not someone who has only ever held a single job. I've been around many different environments and people.

I see many inefficiencies in society. Particularly government. I'll use the local civic government as an example. I routinely make complaints to report encampments and other garbage/debris to the city I live in. I document these. I have made dozens, likely hundreds of reports over the years. I want a clean community. I notice how ineffective the city is in actually removing the debris and cleaning up in an effective time frame. I have on occasion also volunteered to clean up. (though admittedly it is not very fulfilling, particularly doing it alone)

I've communicated many times with various city councillors about this issue. I've given presentations at city hall as well.

Common sense says that to report an issue and rectify it (something as simple as garbage clean up, i.e. liquor bottles, tents, plastics and other debris you may find in the bushes/trees in your community) is very easy.
.
Yet I notice how unclean my community is. The cycle repeats itself. Often the city will fail to locate the area I have reported for clean up. I can utilize their online portal and pinpoint a location on a map. I can get an event number. Yet weeks will go by and I'll walk past the area and notice that it has been ignored.

Their's no way for me as a concerned citizen to follow up. There's no communication between myself as the reporter of the incident and the park rangers who actually investigae the issue. The structure of how the city runs it's clean up departments is so woefully ineffective that it almost makes reporting new incidents futile.

So what is the solution? Well, I have thought about this for quite some time. I would love to see a more efficient system.
I would love to see the city clean up departments regularly monitor various problematic areas. I would ultimately love to see a more clean environment - that is the ultimate goal.

I'd love to see a civic government that prioritized a clean city.

I have myself considered running for office and even put forward a public platform for mayor in the last election. Yet I was mocked quite bit for doing so (have to have a thick skin). I had next to no chance to be elected and did not run.
I have considered running for councillor where the threshold to be elected is a bit easier.

Yet I'm also not sure I would thrive as a politician because I don't think I would have the patience for endless meetings.

Anyways, this is somewhat of a rant. Or maybe it isn't. I genuinely feel there are a number of glaring issues in society.
And they can be so obvious to correct. Yet little to nothing is done about them.

I know this may sound silly, but I almost feel as if my civic government should hire me and realize 'Hey, this guy knows what he's talking about, let's give his ideas consideration and implement them'.

Maybe I need to ask the city to hire me on a contractual or consultant basis? Yet I am not optimistic this would become a reality as I don't operate a business which they'd acknowledge. I'm just a random person with ideas. Good ideas though which I believe are not being utilized.

Hello 123autism,

I can relate to your struggles with employment. I am also on disability benefits and haven't worked for about 6 months. My reason for my unemployment is more physical health related but I get where you are coming.

I have experience in many areas like yourself but have struggled to stay in any given area of work due to interpersonal issues with coworkers/employers and your run of the mill stress/autistic burnout.

I like your idea of running for the Mayor's office or City Council, from what I hear it sounds like you are very passionate about dealing with homelessness and the filth/debris that are left as a result of their occupation of the area.

I was thinking in the meantime while you are waiting for the next municipal election, maybe you could work on the issue yourself. You have written that you have taken upon yourself to clean up from time to time, maybe you could see if people in your neighborhood would like to help. If I know one thing about the government, it is that it hates being rendered redundant, by you and your neighbors cleaning up your are saying with your actions that the local government is useless. I have seen this work in the town that I live in. In a neighborhood close to were I live there was a string of robberies. The people of the community contacted the local police department and asked for more patrolling during the night in their neighborhood. Of course in typical RCMP fashion it fell on deaf ears. So all of the men in the neighborhood deicided start patrolling the streets themselves one night and they ended up catching criminal red handed inside a local flower store. As you can guess the police had some egg on their face after that.

Here is a YouTube video about the incident:



I hope this gives you a bit of inspiration.

Also, I was thinking if you were successful in maintaining a certain level of cleanliness in your area, even if it was just yourself doing the work, that would be a great platform to build a campaign on.

I hope my input helped you a little bit, and I wish you the best in your endeavors.

Cheers,

CFL

Hello Canadian Freedom Lover,

Thanks for taking an interest in this thread. I too am Canadian. I am actually from Edmonton.
It's interesting that you provided the video you did because when the subject of bail reform is mentioned,
I cannot help but think of Edmonton's mayor who was a part of the Liberal governments policy
to allow violent offenders bail. Within the last year or so a violent offender murdered someone while on bail for another offence in Edmonton. It seems to happen far too often.

Anyhow, I take your point about being more proactive. I am certainly capable. To date basically I've done a lot of complaining but not a lot in terms of sweat equity. I am able bodied, so perhaps I need to put up some flyers in my building and post in some Edmonton Facebook Groups about organizing and cleaning up the section of the city I live in.

I might document it in a video log and put it on Youtube. One thing for sure is that if I have any political future, I need to make sure I show what I have done and at least get credit. That's one thing that politicians have to do well - they need to get their names out there and be associated with some kind of meaningful change.

Right now there are at least two encampments in my neighbourhood that I can see visibly, perhaps a third. I would not hesitate to tear them down and remove the contents to dispose of. However, I am aware that some of these dumps have drugs (needles) and you have to be careful. Plus I'd have to tear them down when they are unoccupied. Otherwise the occupants could turn violent.

What I may need is manpower as you mention. I need to do this endeavour with other who share the same concerns.
I could do it alone but I still feel kind of isolated. Maybe though I should just do it alone and people could catch on who support the idea.

If I get attention for this - I might expect some negative feedback because the bleeding hearts would say that I am destroying someones home. In a way they have a point as I would be disruptint someones living space.

So a part of me would feel bad about doing it. But that part doesn't outweigh my desire for a clean community. I just want to walk down the street and in my area without seeing any garbage that doesn't belong there. It's a pretty simple and easy to understand concept and I think a lot of people would agree.

A video I made earlier in the year
about this subject.

I made a post on Twitter https://x.com/edmontonian2000/status/18 ... 3289318691

Maybe I will get out there tomorrow and start doing it by myself.

Yep, I have gloves and steel toes from previous work that required them. I wouldn't use steel toes for this though.
I would just wear runners. Steel toes are uncomfortable generally, IMO.
I have a 'grabber' or whatever those tongue like instruments are called.
It was supplied to me when I asked the city for basic supplies previously.
Yet it is somewhat of a piece of junk. I'm sure I could find a more sturdy one
in a dept. store. The 'grabber' I have currently feels like it could snap in half at any moment.
It's not a quality instrument.

I see your point about tearing down encampments. As a matter of fact, a few years ago I
ran into a situation where I encountered a man who I was pretty sure was living on the streets.
Now in fairness to him he was not bothering me, but I was suspicious of his behaviour and because I was on my way to the police station for a separate matter, I decided to take a knife that he had retrieved from the bushes.

I felt that I was doing the community a service by removing a knife from the streets. Well, the police accused me of stealing his knife. I was not charged but in hindsight I perhaps should have just left him alone. Because of me turning in this knife to the police, it caused them to ignore my main purpose that I had intended to address at the station which was to report a traffic matter. That didn't go down well for me and I suspect my autism played a role in me refusing to leave the police station without being allowed to make a statement.

I won't go into further detail, but as a result of this particular event there was a snowball effect that led to other events
and it was very stressful.

I can attest from personal experience how you have to be careful when interacting with the most vulnerable.

And frankly while there is some initiative from me to do a neighbourhood clean up, I also feel a sense of apathy
because I am very socially isolated and I see no progress on the issue.

Cleaning up garbage is meaningful, but is it really how I enjoy to spend my time? Well, maybe I can stomach an hour or so.
It would be more meaningful with others getting involved.