For six years, every Charity Charms order has passed through the hands of the team at SEEDs for Autism. They’re not a vendor. They are our production partner – and the reason “Made in the USA” means something specific when we say it.

The hands behind every charm

When you order a charm program from us, here’s what actually happens after casting: your charms travel to a workshop in south Phoenix, where adults on the autism spectrum attach jump rings, assemble bracelets, card products, and pack orders – all while building vocational skills as part of a structured training program.

That’s not a feel-good footnote. It’s the production model we chose on purpose.

SEEDs for Autism was founded by Mary Ann LaRoche, inspired by her younger brother Paul, who was diagnosed with autism in the early 1970s. She watched him struggle to find work that respected what he could do and built an organization she wished had existed for him. Their motto says it plainly: from learning to earning.

Walk into the SEEDs facility, and it’s a wonderland of handmade craft and innovation. A metal shop, screen printing, ceramics, sewing, and even a culinary program. Participants rotate through departments, discovering skills and interests while practicing workplace fundamentals, including communication, time management, and quality control, that make employment possible. 

The team produces more than 400 handmade items, many available in their online shop. Assembling Charity Charms products is just one department among many – and after six years, they know our products as well as we do.

SEEDs opened a new chapter within the last year with the Garden of Treasures, a gift and thrift boutique just down the street from their main facility.

It’s two stores in one: a resale shop with furniture, home goods, books, and clothing – and a gift shop stocked with the handmade items SEEDs participants create on-site. Students run the floor, work the register, and stage the displays. The thrift shop is the training program, in retail form.