But last month, the 40-year-old Genest, who now lives in a group home in Plymouth, won the award for most improvement among the workers at the Karlins Center. And he even got up in front of hundreds of people to accept the honor. He grabbed the microphone and said "Hello!" and hugged the worker who was honored along with him at the center.

His mother said she has seen steady improvement in his social skills over the years he has been at the Karlins Center, in Plymouth, which serves adults with a variety of disabilities but specializes in helping those with autism.

At the center, they work on social and motor skills and in many cases do basic factory jobs for pay.

The center is one of a few in the country designed especially to work with adults with autism. More than half of its clients have autism, while others have "autistic tendencies," said Sue Fries, manager of the center.

The center expanded this fall to serve 20 more people, bringing its capacity up to 50, and immediately filled the spaces. It once again has a waiting list.

The center is part of Opportunity Partners, an organization that provides employment, housing and education to people with special needs, including other developmental disabilities. Most of those enrolled at the center live in Hennepin County; the county government has an agreement with the center to provide the services at a cost of about $82 per day per client, funded by a variety of federal, state and local programs. Other counties also can get clients enrolled by working through Hennepin County.

The clinic maintains a minimum of one supervisor for every four workers.

Tailored for autism

Phyllis Genest said that when her son was diagnosed with autism in the late 1960s, there wasn't much understanding of the disorder. "We didn't have the help that they have today," she said.

Autism is a brain disorder that begins in early childhood and persists throughout adulthood, according to the National Institutes of Health. It has three trademark features: difficulty with communication, impaired social interaction, and repetitive behaviors or narrow, obsessive interests.

There are no universal symptoms of autism; it shows up in different ways in different people. People with higher-functioning autism often seem to be "normal" but have difficulty in social situations, while those on the other end of the spectrum can attempt to shut themselves off from the world entirely.

The Karlins Center is equipped to address the needs of most adults with autism, Fries said. She said the center -- which opened in 1986 in Minnetonka and moved to its site on Nathan Lane in Plymouth in 1996 -- did not start off with the goal of specializing in autism. It began to take on that emphasis when the need became clear.

People with autism often experience "sensory overload." They can become confused and frustrated with too much happening around them.

At the center, they can go into a relaxation room when they need a break. The room is decorated with an underwater motif with black lights, fish paintings on the wall and lava lamps.

When Genest was first enrolled at the center, the relaxation room was the first place he would go. He would spend time there being soothed by a vibrating chair before venturing out into the work area, his mother said.

Later, he spent his days either going to classes or taking field trips to places like the YMCA or nearby restaurants. Each class is designed to help clients with another skill, such as ordering food for themselves.

Participants also can earn a paycheck in the in-house work program, usually by doing jobs such as filling and sealing packages of small goods, which helps them learn fine motor skills.

In the month since Carrie Wittenberg enrolled at the Karlins Center, she has already become one of its quickest workers.

Wittenberg, who lives in group home in St. Louis Park, was working recently on putting cardboard backings on packages of camping gear just before the packages were heat sealed in a machine. Often, she was ahead of the cycle and could spend moments of free time joking with her supervisor, Trina Kauhaihao, and the others on the assembly line.

Occasionally, Kauhaihao has to remind the others to stay on task or find replacements when the workload becomes too much.

Wittenberg, who celebrated her 27th birthday last Tuesday, doesn't have autism but does have cerebral palsy, epilepsy and some mental disability, said her mother, Linda Wittenberg.

Carrie is thrilled to have a job because she gets to earn money and spend it on items such as Disney movies, her mother said. It's given Carrie, and her parents, hope for the future.