About Sam's Fund

Our son Sam was killed by a careless driver in 2023. He was an amazing young man, always kind and caring, with an infectious appetite for life and desire to connect with other people. Sam was also on the autism spectrum. He was quirky, found interpersonal relationships challenging, and sometimes had difficulty managing his emotions. He struggled to succeed at college or to compete for the jobs that interested him.

Sam’s challenges are all too common. 80% of young adults with autism are unemployed. Existing educational and support systems are not designed to equip people like Sam with the practical and social skills that employers are looking for. Far too often, these young adults struggle to find a sense of direction. They can feel isolated and lose the sense that society cares about them, lacking the stabilizing influences of a steady job or dependable social network. Sam’s Fund gives young adults with developmental challenges the opportunity to find social support and build job skills they need to contribute to and be thriving members of society.

Our current focus is supporting ZABS Place, a non-profit thrift shop in Charlotte, NC. At ZABS Place, young adults with development challenges are given a job, a coach, and a skills curriculum personalized to their capabilities. Some of the talented workers are on the floor helping customers and stocking merchandise, while others are posting items for sale on eBay or Etsy. Other workers, for example those who are non-verbal, work in the warehouse sorting and cleaning the day’s donations. Each employee has a set of personalized tasks to master and job coaches systematically track their progress over time. ZABS’s objective is to help these capable young people master skills that ultimately enable them to compete for jobs at businesses like Marshalls, Walgreen’s, the Board of Elections, or even the NASCAR Hall of Fame. ZABS has graduated over 300 young adults and it is an amazing team and organization.

Currently, places like ZABS are few and far between. ZABS has a long wait list of young adults who want to join the training program and the organization’s capacity is limited by the number of job coaches they can afford to hire. The coaches are the critical ingredient in training, day-to-day oversight, and helping these young adults apply for permanent work post-ZABS. Sam’s Fund has set a goal to help ZABS hire 4 new coaches in 2025 so that the store can support 52 more young adults. You can learn more about ZABS from this profile from the Today Show.