TEWKSBURY – Sitting in a cubicle at Tewksbury Police headquarters Thursday morning, intern Michael Bono had unwavering optimism and a nearly constant smile on his face as he scanned police documents and entered data for the police department.
Bono, 25, lives with autism, which affects his social skills but by no means prevents him from making his way in the world. Through the Autism Higher Education Foundation, Bono landed an internship with the Tewksbury Police Department and for the past three months has been helping with some of the clerical tasks that make up a police department.
“I love it,” Bono said enthusiastically about his job and gave two thumbs up.
Bono works a few hours a week with the Tewksbury Police Department, but has recently found other employment opportunities. He started at Shriver Clinical Services in Wakefield, where he did similar work. He also works as an accounts payable clerk at Bioprocure in Burlington.
“Then I did an internship at the Woburn District Court,” Bono said.
Jeanne Bono, Michael Bono's mother, said she wanted her son to have a good resume when he finished school and began looking for potential employers who would be willing to work with people with disabilities. So far, Michael has had positive experiences with all the employers he has worked for, Jeanne Bono said.
“They were incredible, really,” she said.
Outside of work, Michael Bono takes singing lessons at the Real School of Music in Andover and is the lead singer of his band The Rock Star Graduates, which has performed throughout Massachusetts.
“The last performances by me and my band members were the Best Buddies Challenge in Cape Cod and the Lexington Battle Green BBQ Festival,” said Bono.
The Autism Higher Education Foundation works primarily with Massachusetts courts to provide work experience for teens and young adults with autism. The foundation has tried to expand its work beyond the courts, but other agencies often refuse to participate. Fortunately for Bono, the police department in his hometown of Tewksbury quickly agreed to take him on.
Tewksbury Police Chief Ryan Columbus said he first became involved with the foundation when job coach Lisa Marie Noke-Kearney approached the department in hopes of convincing them to hire Bono.
“She sent me the email, and as I recall, it was a long email, but I read the first two lines and I was like, 'Of course. Let's do it,'” Columbus said. “It was just so rewarding to work with him. He's just such a good guy.”
Columbus pointed out the differences between a corporate environment and a police department, which are largely based on the fact that the police essentially deal with everyone in society, at least to a greater extent than an office worker.
“We treat everyone with dignity and respect, no matter what the situation,” Columbus said. “I just felt like it was a very easy thing to say yes to.”
In a phone call Friday afternoon, Noke-Kearney said she has worked with Bono for years and that it is wonderful to watch him learn and grow through these employment opportunities.
“Through his work in court, he acquired skills that he was able to translate into practical experience,” Noke-Kearney said.
Noke-Kearney said she hears the word “no” quite often when she approaches agencies and organizations to ask them to participate in her program. However, when she approached the Tewksbury Police Department, she had the opposite experience.
“That's never happened to me before. I emailed Chief Columbus and less than a minute later he responded and said yes,” Noke-Kearney said. “It's amazing how working in the courts and all the skills he learned there directly translated to his work in the police department.”
Columbus said he hopes Bono will soon be on the department's payroll for his work Thursday, and he would like to use the opportunity to educate Tewksbury officers about neurodivergence and policing.
“I've been thinking about the possibility of Michael asking a simple question at roll call, such as what it would mean to him to be stopped,” Columbus said. “What would you want to tell that officer?”
Columbus pointed to the Blue Envelope Initiative recently implemented by police departments in Massachusetts, which allows people with autism to store their driver's license and registration in a blue envelope in their vehicle, which they can then show to a police officer when they are stopped. The idea is that officers will be trained to recognize the meaning of the envelope to avoid misunderstandings between the officer and the person being stopped.
