I'm a very lucky man. I have a mental disability, yet I work. I work for a wonderful organization called Special Tees, a not-for-profit custom screen printing shop that exclusively employs consumers of mental health services. It's different from other employment situations for the mentally disabled.
It's not an institution for the mentally disabled that happens to provide jobs. It's not a sheltered workshop. People don't spend their days weaving baskets or assembling pens. It's a real business. And in this real business we're not relegated to a mailroom, storeroom, backroom or some other out of sight, out of mind area of the business. We're completely immersed in everything this business does because it exists for us and is run by us.
As custom screen printers, our shop puts images on shirts, hats, tote bags and any other textile thing for stores, clubs, classes, teams, parties, rallies and any other organization or event you can think of.
We have a philosophy at Special Tees. When you're hired by our business, there's nothing wrong with you. We will have hired you from a psychiatric facility but when you work for us, you're "normal," and are treated and expected to function like a normal employee. You are expected to be on time, call in before the shop opens if you are sick, respect your co-workers, follow bosses' directions and everything else expected in a normal shop.
We fired a man because he was often on the street begging for cigarette butts. Normal people don't do that. Such behavior only adds to the stigma we are fighting. We do give mental health some consideration, but only as much as we give any health-related problem. I recently had to take a month off to care for a hernia. When I was well again, my job was secure and I was allowed to return. Normal jobs do this. In the same way, an employee had a bout of chronic depression when his mother died. He spent a month in a psychiatric hospital and an additional month to fully recuperate.
When it was over, his job and position were awaiting him. We allow time for employees to see their psychotherapists. And why not? Normal employers who hire parents give them similar allowances to deal with their children.
We have over twenty employees and our program director Tom Siniscalchi has two assistants, Vincent Bonomi and John Presutti. We expect to gross over $300,000 this year alone! We are the biggest custom screen printer on Staten Island and our customers love us! One customer, knowing our policy of hiring mental health service users came into the store and asked, "Where are they?" It never occurred to him that all the talented and successful screen printers he saw were the mental health service users.
You'll find us at 250 Buel Avenue, just off Hylan Boulevard, Staten Island, NY 10305. Our phone number is 718-980-0987.