Problem addressed

In Romania, neurodivergent adults — including those with autism, ADHD and other neurodevelopmental conditions — face near-total exclusion from the labour market. A 2025 national study by Autism Voice and MKOR research agency found that approximately 90% of neurodivergent adults in Romania are unemployed or economically inactive, significantly above the European average (where only 10% of autistic adults are in full-time employment, compared to 74% of the general population).

This exclusion is driven by four interconnected problems:
At the individual level, neurodivergent people often lack structured support to identify their strengths, navigate recruitment processes and transition into the workplace. Standard hiring practices — unstructured interviews, implicit social communication expectations, sensory-unfriendly environments — systematically disadvantage them, regardless of their actual capabilities.
At the employer level, 65% of Romanian companies have no neurodiversity policies in place (MKOR, 2025). HR teams and managers lack practical knowledge, tools and confidence to adapt recruitment, onboarding and team management practices to include neurodivergent employees.
At the structural level, few protected or supported employment options exist in Romania for neurodivergent adults who are not yet ready for the open labour market. The gap between therapy/education and real employment remains largely unaddressed.
At the societal level, public narratives around neurodivergent adults remain dominated by deficit-based framing — focusing on limitations rather than potential. This shapes employer attitudes and reinforces stigma, reducing the demand for inclusive hiring before it even begins.
Together, these four dimensions create a systemic exclusion cycle that wastes significant human and economic potential and perpetuates dependency on social protection systems.

Innovative solution

Work Aid Kit responds to each of the four dimensions of the problem with a dedicated, integrated component — creating a systemic solution rather than a partial intervention.

To address individual exclusion, the programme offers structured vocational evaluation, individual counselling and career coaching for neurodivergent adults, supported by a national CV database of 38+ profiles across 7 sectors. Candidates are matched directly with interested employers, bypassing the barriers of standard recruitment processes.

To address employer unpreparedness, Work Aid Kit offers a professional B2B inclusion package: neurodiversity awareness workshops, tailored DEI training for HR teams and managers, and consultancy on adapting recruitment and onboarding practices. This positions inclusion not as a charitable act, but as a viable and valuable business decision — grounded in 18+ years of clinical and applied expertise in autism and ABA therapy.

To address the structural gap in supported employment, the programme operates a protected work unit (UPA) — a microgreens farm where neurodivergent adults engage in real, paid, structured work in a supported environment. This creates an essential bridge between therapeutic support and open-market employment, an option that is rare in the Romanian context.

To address the societal narrative, the programme runs "Recrutează Atipic" — a national media awareness campaign broadcast across 22 radio stations and 6 TV channels, designed to shift public and employer perception from deficit-based framing to capability-based framing of neurodivergent adults.

What makes Work Aid Kit genuinely innovative is the deliberate integration of all four components into a single, coherent ecosystem — simultaneously creating employment, changing employer behaviour, supporting individuals and reshaping public narratives. No comparable multi-component model exists in Romania, and few exist at this

Key results and benefits

Since its launch in May 2024, Work Aid Kit has scaled up significantly within Romania. Geographically, the programme has expanded from its initial base in Bucharest to reach institutions and companies across multiple regions, including Suceava, Constanța, Iași and other cities, through university partnerships and employer training sessions. Sectorally, the programme has grown from individual vocational support to a four-component ecosystem covering employer DEI services (100+ companies, 15 universities), a protected work unit with 3 employees with disabilities (MicroGreensFarm), and a national media awareness campaign broadcast across 22 radio stations and 6 TV channels. The number of neurodivergent individuals supported has grown to 120+, with 10 successful employment placements achieved within two years of operation.

Results are reported across the four components of the Work Aid Kit ecosystem, covering activity since the programme launch in 2024:

Individual support: Over 120 neurodivergent individuals have received structured vocational evaluation, individual coaching and career counselling through the Work Aid Kit ecosystem. A national database of 48+ neurodivergent candidate profiles has been built through "Interviuri Atipice" — the second phase of the Recrutează Atipic campaign — covering 7 professional sectors (IT, HR, Design, Logistics, HoReCa, Administration, Psychology) and enabling direct employer-candidate matching.

Employer services: Neurodiversity training, DEI workshops, guides and practical materials have been delivered to over 100 companies. University outreach has reached 15 higher education institutions across Romania with training sessions and neurodiversity resources. Notably, 4 companies have already implemented paid internships for neurodivergent candidates as a direct result of the programme, and 10 neurodivergent young people have been successfully employed — a concrete, measurable outcome achieved within approximately 2 years of operation.

Protected work unit (UPA — MicroGreensFarm): The sheltered employment unit is operational with 3 employees with disabilities currently working in a structured, supported setting — producing microgreens and demonstrating a replicable model of supported employment that bridges therapeutic support and open-market work.

National media campaign ("Recrutează Atipic"): The campaign generated coverage across 22 radio stations and 6 national TV channels, bringing neurodivergent employment into mainstream public discourse and driving measurable growth in employer interest and awareness.

In approximately two years of operation, Work Aid Kit has demonstrated that a multi-component, ecosystem-based approach to neurodivergent employment is both operationally feasible and socially impactful — supporting over 120 individuals, engaging 100+ companies, placing 10 people into employment and creating 3 sheltered jobs, all within a single integrated programme.

Potential for mainstreaming

Work Aid Kit has strong potential for mainstreaming at both national and European levels, for several reasons.

The model is modular and evidence-based. Each of its four components — individual vocational support, employer DEI services, protected work unit and public awareness campaign — can function independently or as part of the full ecosystem, allowing other organisations to adopt the elements most relevant to their context and capacity. The programme is grounded in 18+ years of clinical expertise in autism and ABA therapy, supported by a national research study (MKOR, 2025) that provides a replicable methodology for evidence gathering in other countries.

The problem it addresses is pan-European. The near-total exclusion of neurodivergent adults from the labour market is not specific to Romania — across the EU, only 10% of autistic adults are in full-time employment. This makes the Work Aid Kit model directly relevant to organisations working in disability inclusion, supported employment and social innovation across Europe, particularly in countries where neurodiversity employment policies are underdeveloped or fragmented.

The protected work unit (UPA) model is physically and operationally replicable. A microgreens farm requires relatively low infrastructure investment, can be adapted to different settings and geographies, and provides a practical template for organisations seeking to create sheltered employment for neurodivergent adults.

The B2B employer services component is commercially scalable. By framing inclusion as a business value proposition rather than a charitable obligation, Work Aid Kit creates a self-sustaining revenue model that reduces dependence on grant funding and increases long-term viability — a critical feature for any innovation seeking to mainstream.

Autism Voice is actively seeking European partners to exchange knowledge, co-develop tools and explore pilot transfer of the Work Aid Kit model to other national contexts, in alignment with the European Disability Strategy 2021–2030 and the ESF+ priorities on active inclusion and employability.