Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself, and also share with you our extraordinary Tiegerman Programs, including the vocational training program that we have developed in conjunction with our strategic partnership with Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger (PVH) – a strategic partnership that we have had in place for over 10 years.  One that is unique and provides our students with life-changing skills. Join me as I share my story.

I grew up in the 1950’s when there were no special education services for children with disabilities, with a younger sister who had a traumatic brain injury. It was a formative experience that changed my life to watch my father work with my sister day in and day out, over a 12-year period. She was transformed and I was transformed by the commitment, persistence, and love shown by my father to my sister.   The result was that I have had a Mission over the past 40 years to recreate that experience for every child attending Tiegerman Schools and Tiegerman Community Services. 
Tiegerman is a life cycle agency that provides educational and vocational services starting in the preschool years and going all the way through adulthood.   We presently have five school programs soon to be six in New York City and Long Island.  We also provide adult services consisting of community outreach programs and residences for adults with developmental disabilities.

My mission of independence and work readiness is to ensure that all of our high school students have the opportunity to reach their potential to lead an independent and fulfilling life.  It is important to know that approximately 85% of the students who graduate high school with a developmental disability have significant problems in finding and maintaining employment in community based settings. Tiegerman High School was specifically designed to provide Work Ready opportunities to meet the challenges of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).   So let us see how DEI works in our Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger stores.
Once students graduate from most regular programs, there are few, if any, training opportunities to help them navigate the complexities of work settings.  So many times, and it is not surprising, many students fail.   Not at Tiegerman.  The Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger stores provide our students with direct learning and training on front-end as well as back-end operations, in a typical retail setting.  Our vocational program also includes opportunities for internships in typical retail stores, such as the Calvin Klein store in Deer Park, New York. 

The success of this program has been so overwhelming that we have created Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger stores in our Middle School Program in Glen Cove and our Autism Program in Woodside, Queens. What’s next – our goal is to have a Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger store in every school.  The program has enabled hundreds of students with disabilities the extraordinary opportunity to become Work Ready to one day work in a setting such as stores similar to the ones in Deer Park – perhaps a flagship store.  Our students have grown up in these stores, handling the products and wearing what the CK and TH label.  They are fabulous consumers and have become wonderful advocates for Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger products. 

Our students love working in our model stores and our families love watching their children work in the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger stores.  Our vocational program has become a model that we believe can benefit and can be generalized to disability communities throughout the world.  Tiegerman is interested in developing such a model and prototype that partners businesses and charities which benefits individuals with disabilities.

But this is not the end of our story, it is the beginning of a long life long path.  There are many young people with disabilities who do not have the benefit of Tiegerman’ s High School because they present such extraordinary challenges, that they have been sent away to residential schools out of State.   We have been so successful as an educational agency, that we decided to open a series of residential placements/homes for adults with disabilities.  We are now working on our third residence with each residence housing six young men returning to Long Island, from out of state. It is our mission and job to reintroduce these young people back into society, with the goal of reintegrating them into community based activities and jobs. The PVH Holiday Register Campaign has supported the construction and development of three residential homes on Long Island! 

We will continue expanding Tiegerman so that our population grows from 750 to 850 children and adults with developmental disabilities.  We have a mission – it is lifelong service along the lifecycle continuum.  Our partnership with Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger (PVH) has made this all possible with their generosity and partnership. We are here!  We are part of the PVH philanthropic mission.  If you would like to visit one of our stores in our schools please contact us – we love to help our customers make a wise fashion decision!  We look forward to visiting with you at a school or in Deer Park – stop in and say hi!

Warm regards,
Dr. Ellenmorris Tiegerman, Ph.D.
Founder and CEO