PARKLAND, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) — Congratulations to Rising Tide Car Wash on 441, just south of Boca Raton in Parkland. The carwash — which primarily employes adults with Autism — has received national recognition
According to Rising Tide:
Entrepreneur John D’Eri, president and co-founder of Rising Tide Car Wash, a groundbreaking social enterprise in Parkland, Fla., is pleased to announce that the organization has been awarded the SOCAP13 (Social Capital Markets Conference) scholarship. With the scholarship, D’Eri and his son Thomas D’Eri, Rising Tide COO and co-founder, will attend the SOCAP13 Sept. 1-2 Impact Accelerator Weekend/Sept. 3-6 conference in San Francisco, Calif. The annual SOCAP conference is the world’s most successful social enterprise and impact investing event.
Rising Tide, which has a powerful mission to employ adults with autism and inspire communities to redefine their perception of the capabilities that people with autism have, was one of 100 scholarship winners out of 400 applicants worldwide.
“By winning the scholarship, we are being recognized as a leading social enterprise by one of the most established and well-respected social enterprise organizations in the world,” said John D’Eri. “At the conference, we’ll have the opportunity to make connections with potential investors and collaborators to strengthen our organization and increase our impact.”
Rising Tide is actively seeking partners to scale their model for local and regional expansion beginning in 2014.
Rising Tide is the brainchild of the D’Eri father and son team, who wanted to create a supportive environment where John’s son and Thomas’ brother, 21-year-old Andrew D’Eri, a vibrant, lighthearted individual with autism, could thrive and achieve independence. Currently, unemployment among people with autism is approximately 90 percent, and at least 500,000 more individuals with autism will enter the workforce in the next decade.
The high-quality car wash not only aims to be the premier car wash experience on the market, but with 30+ employees, it is one of the largest employers of people with autism in the U.S. It is the largest single store retail employer of individuals with autism in the U.S., and is among the first consumer brands in the nation focused on empowering young adults with autism.
It is a proven fact that people with autism, when instructed correctly, are exceptional at maintaining consistency with tasks requiring repetition and structure. Using this quality of autism to their advantage, Rising Tide and its consultants created an innovative model that breaks the car washing process into 46 distinct steps. Employees work in a mirror image of each other, and are able to thrive off the repetitive structure to produce amazing results.
Over a period of a year prior to opening Rising Tide, the D’Eris worked with Sonny’s Enterprises, Inc., the largest manufacturer of conveyorized car wash systems in the world, to perfect Rising Tide’s processes (which are endorsed by Sonny’s CarWash College). University of Miami – Nova Southeastern University CARD (Center for Autism and Related Disabilities) partnered with Rising Tide to execute its pilot program, completed during summer 2012.
For more information about franchising opportunities with Rising Tide, visit http://www.risingtidecarwash.com/work.
