'We Are Working People'

Possibili-Tees, a New York screen printing shop, is fulfilling its mission to employ people with autism. March 11, 2010
By Shannon Wilder, Contributing Writer

From left to right, Mike Gerace, volunteer Georgette Patti and worker Gregory Perosi work at a manual screen printing press.

Tom Siniscalchi's mission is simple: He provides jobs for people that most employers consider unemployable. Possibili-Tees, the not-for-profit Staten Island, N.Y., screen printing shop he founded in 2007, and now directs, is staffed almost completely by people with autism and other developmental disorders.

Autism affects brain function, impacting development in areas such as social interaction and communication skills. People with autism have difficulty with verbal and non-verbal communication and social interaction. Nonetheless, Siniscalchi says, Possibili-Tees’ 15 official staff members — most of whom work part-time — have no difficulty loading and unloading the shop’s two six-head manual presses, drying and folding shirts, and cleaning screens and tools. They are both taught and supervised by production manager John Moran, who also is autistic.

In addition to the regular staff, there’s a Saturday program that employs six people, all wheelchair-bound — three of whom are blind. Their tasks — with obvious limitations occasionally — include every step in the printing process. “You’d be surprised how easy it is to teach them to do the work,” Siniscalchi says. Additionally, seven high school classes come in during the week to learn the business.

'A Win-Win'
Most of Possibili-Tees' staff came to the shop via an affiliated umbrella organization: The Mission of the Immaculate Virgin (MIV). While the business is secular, Siniscalchi says it remains true to the vision of MIV founder Father John Drumgoole, who purchased farm land on Staten Island in the late-1800s for an orphanage he named Mount Loretto. Boys and, later, girls were housed on the self-sustaining farm and taught trades.

Changes in New York’s foster care system in the 1970s resulted in a shift away from religious organizations as care providers, except for hard-to-place children. Those kids — many of whom had mental disabilities — remained at MIV.

In the mid-1990s, the organization decided the foster care system wasn’t equipped to serve those kids, so it ended its foster care contract with the city, secured funding from the state and began providing care for 21 young adults who were unable to find foster families. Those 21 adults provided the original employment pool for Possibili-Tees; more workers and students come from the local community.

“These kids go to school and in a very protected environment, often with one-on-one care," Siniscalchi says. "At [age] 21, they age out of the system. There aren’t that many programs for them. But if we can get people to work, they’re doing something that’s meaningful. The money they’re making is going right back into the local economy. Their social security benefits go down, so the taxpayer has to love that.

"It’s a win-win," he continues. "My passion is getting as many people to work as possible, rather than have them sit at home and do nothing after graduation.”

Securing Clients
Dave Rubin, the shop’s self-appointed marketing director, knows firsthand the difficulties of finding a job; he has Asperger’s Disorder, a condition many consider to be a mild form of autism. Despite holding a degree in English Literature from the College of Staten Island (“I got a degree in English Lit and would you like a mustard with that?” he quips), he says it took him 10 years to find a job he liked. “The few jobs I could find were boring as the devil,” he says.

Now, Rubin spends his time working the computer and phone lines to secure new clients for Possibili-Tees. “I can support this shop," he says. "I’m selling for us hard-to-hire autistic people. If we weren’t hired here, most of us wouldn’t be hired anywhere. We’re not needy people in hospitals or nursing homes. We are functioning people. We are working people.”

Though the bulk of the shop’s clients are local schools, businesses and social organizations, it also serves organizations that advocate causes similar to its own. For example, Autism Speaks, a research and advocacy organization, is one of Possibili-Tees' biggest clients. At present, the firm is primarily printing T-shirts for participants in its New York chapter’s fund-raising walk-a-thons. These print runs can range from a handful of shirts to several hundred per team, and are specially created for groups of walkers supporting an autistic person.

Siniscalchi has become a workhorse in his quest for clients. Through his work with Autism Speaks' local chapter, he secured a meeting with the organization’s CEO. His goal is for Possibili-Tees to become the official printer for autism walks nationwide. He’ll return 10% of the proceeds to Autism Speaks.

Next on his to-do list is getting the attention of celebrities such as Doug Flutie and Darryl Strawberry, both of whom have personal foundations dedicated to helping people with autism.

Rubin followed Siniscalchi to Possibili-Tees from Special-Tees, a screen printing shop he helped found on Staten Island in 1995. That business was born out of a New York department of mental health grant to create a business designed to put people with mental health issues to work. Siniscalchi — who founded a patient worker program while managing the warehouse for Staten Island-based South Beach Psychiatric Center, before going on to run several successful businesses of his own — seemed a natural fit to lead the effort. When he left Special-Tees following an ownership change in 2007, the shop was averaging revenue of $1.1 million per year.

Now, in its second year  — and first full year of operation — Possibili-Tees’ sales are around $300,000. Siniscalchi says growing up with a developmentally disabled uncle could only find seasonal work or menial jobs helped him see the importance of finding work for those wiling to do it.

As Possibili-Tees takes off, Siniscalchi is beset by requests from locals who want jobs for family members. His reply: “Sure, but we have to sell more shirts.”

Siniscalchi says he is happy to have word of mouth bring customers to the door, but he wants quality to keep them. “I want customers to come to me because we hire people with disabilities," he says. "Then, I want them to see that people with disabilities actually have abilities. I want them to come back because, all things being equal, we’re going to give you a product that’s as good as — if not better than — everybody else.”



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