How One New Jersey Businessman Helped Bridge the Autism Services Cliff

As Rutgers-New Brunswick's community center for adult autism services officially turns 5, a major donor recalls the journey that brought his family to this moment

John Vaccaro (second from left) receives the Donor Honoree Award at the Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology's 50th Anniversary Gala.

For New Jersey businessman John Vaccaro, raising a son with autism has meant years of legal battles, epic school commutes and relentless advocacy - hardships he said no family should have to endure.

Thanks in part to his partnership with the Rutgers Center for Adult Autism Services and a community center he helped to fund, fewer families have had to.

"Do I feel let down by the system? 100,000%," said Vaccaro, whose son, Frankie, 28, was first diagnosed at age 3. "We know many families who have kids with autism that cannot provide everything that we can. I shudder at that thought."

New Jersey has some of the highest rates of autism in the nation, and the need for adult autism support is increasing. While autism isn't a new disorder - the first diagnosis was made in 1943 - research has largely centered on children.

When autistic children age out of the school system at 21, they approach what experts refer to as the autism services cliff: the abrupt drop-off of funding and support.

The Rutgers Center for Adult Autism Services has been helping people make this transition since its founding in 2016. Today, the center - a critical component of Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology's Autism Training Hub - provides employment and integration into the Rutgers community, support services for Rutgers students and assessment and psychological services for autistic adults.

Inquiries come in daily from families looking for places for their adult child. Christopher Manente, the center's executive director, said support from donors has been crucial to helping Rutgers meet this need.

"As the father of a young man with autism, John Vaccaro saw firsthand the barriers that many autistic adults face after they leave school," Manente said. "Rather than accept those challenges, he saw an opportunity for innovation and became one of the earliest and most foundational supporters of Rutgers Center for Adult Autism Services."

In 2005, with their own cliff looming, the Vaccaro family began a series of moves to get Frankie the care he needed. The New York residents relocated from Brooklyn to Staten Island for Frankie to attend the only special education middle school in their vicinity at the time.

After graduation, they drove him four hours a day, five days a week, to a private high school on Long Island. They did this for seven years. Vaccaro sued New York City every year to get reimbursed for school fees, he said.

Eventually, they moved to New Jersey to be closer to the headquarters of the family business, Bettaway Supply Chain Services, where Frankie was working under the tutelage of his parents.

That final move proved fortuitous. Around the same time, the Rutgers Center for Adult Autism Services announced plans for a new building, which would include job training and coaching, behavioral support and other day services.

Vaccaro had previously partnered with the Rutgers Business School to provide internships to students in supply-chain management. He used his connections to reach the autism team at the graduate school.

His objective was twofold. First, as a parent, he wanted to try and secure a place for Frankie at the Rutgers autism center.

But as a businessman with employment goals for the autism community, he also wanted to support the expansion of the center with a new, state-of-the-art facility. Vaccaro viewed it as the perfect solution. Adults with autism need a future that doesn't depend on their parents. The center's mission was to provide it.

Frankie was accepted to the program in 2019. The following spring, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the shutdown of many Rutgers programs, Vaccaro launched job training at Bettaway to help the center's displaced adults maintain their daily routine.

"As I walked through my warehouse every day, I saw the opportunities, and I thought to myself, 'How could I not do this?'" Vaccaro told FreightWaves in an interview at the time.

The Vaccaro family (left to right: John, his son Frankie, and his wife Laura) in the living room of the Rutgers Center for Adult Autism Services.

A ribbon cutting for the Rutgers center that Vaccaro helped fund was held in September 2021.

Vaccaro remains committed to supporting autistic adults. He works closely with We Make: Autism at Work, a New Jersey nonprofit organization that facilitates neurodivergent employment. He also supports recognition events for Rutgers Center for Adult Autism Services staff.

Frankie, meanwhile, is thriving. He is employed through the autism center's day program at a campus pizza parlor, a job Vaccaro says his son adores.

"Frankie's doing great," his dad said. "He has a job, is getting a paycheck. And he's doing something he loves."