Don Bennetti was newly retired when he volunteered to help the Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center at Rutgers–New Brunswick find employment for its adult clients.

The Edison widower understood the need. The youngest of his three sons had been diagnosed with autism more than 20 years earlier, when the condition was believed to affect one child in 20,000. Today the incidence of autism spectrum disorders is far greater – some specialists say it affects one child in every 150.

The Douglass center, affiliated with Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, serves children and adults with autism spectrum disorders and their families. Bennetti’s son began attending one of its programs when he was 5 years old.

Finding employment for autistic adults isn’t easy. Bennetti, a former bank executive, decided to create a cleaning and general maintenance company to employ them. He put together a business plan and incorporated the firm. Then he dug into his own pocket to pay for insurance, a payroll service, and uniforms.

“I wasn’t looking to make money. I was just hoping to break even,” he said. “I just really wanted to give back to the center, because of what they had done for my son.”

Staff at the Douglass center held a contest for a catchy name and declared a winner: “Men With Mops.”

That was in 2005. Men With Mops (MWM) limped along until this fall, when Christopher Manente, a teacher with a gift for promotion, joined the center’s staff. He papered the campus with flyers promoting MWM (“Got Leaves? Let us help”) and began soliciting area businesses. The company took off. Advertised services include household cleaning, outdoor maintenance, and running errands.

“Right now we’re backed up on raking jobs,” Manente said last month.

Manente, a Rutgers University graduate and U. S. Army veteran, is one of two staffers who coordinate the Douglass center’s adult program. Six of the program’s 22 clients are employed Men with Mops, earning $7.50 an hour. And one of them, despite the company’s name, is a woman.

Manente is frank with customers about workers’ disabilities. “I tell them it may take us a little longer to do the job, but we guarantee it will completed to their  satisfaction,” he said. A job coach drives the crew to the job site and remains to supervise.

For clients, having work can be transformative, said Sandra Harris, executive director at the Douglass center.

“Some of these young men and women not only have autism, but also have some degree of mental retardation. So life is pretty challenging for them,” she said. “Up until the age of 21, it’s federally mandated that they be provided with a relatively rich educational experience. But the resources available to them later are much more limited.”

John Penyak, 26, loves the job, said his mother, Suzanne. “The money is not a big deal for him. What is a big deal, is hearing people say, ‘John, that’s great. You’re doing a good job,’” she said.

Despite having limited speech, her son makes his desire to leave for work crystal clear, Penyak said. Even as a small child, he liked to clean and trailed his mother when she was housecleaning, wanting to vacuum. John's development appeared to be normal until around 18 months, when Suzanne and her husband noticed his speech was changing. At the age of 3 he was diagnosed as delayed, but the diagnosis was vague. At 5 he began attending the Douglass center. “He expresses that he likes the work. He’s very happy, and so are we,” she said. “Thank God for the program. So many of these kids are thrown away after they’re 21.”

Don Bennetti has returned to his former career. His son Luke, 29, works at a restaurant.

But Bennetti remains president of Men With Mops and is on call from 4:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. daily at 908-930-7525 to handle calls from potential customers.

"If our guys and girl(s) can do it, we’ll take it on,” Bennetti said. “I tell people, ‘Don’t give us a job. Give us an opportunity to show you what we can do.’”