Royal Society for Blind Children

RSBC has been providing services to vision impaired children in London and the South East for 177 years. We support children and young people living in London and the South East who, from early years into adulthood, need additional support to address a number of practical, social and emotional issues that prevent them from leading self-fulfilling lives. We currently work with 1200 vision impaired young people, 130 volunteers, over 50 different employers, 30 local authorities, hospitals and schools and colleges. Our main projects include: Employability Programme: Whilst 71% of the general public is in employment, just 1 in 3 people that are registered blind or partially sighted are in work. For those that lose their sight in childhood 90% will not work more than 6 months throughout their entire lives. Young people with vision impairment are likely to live their lives on benefits, often at or below the poverty line. Work is clearly crucial for financial independence, but it also provides self-confidence to those that may have spent much of their lives reliant on others. Without significant intervention, these young people will be condemned to an adult life of dependency, social isolation and depression disengaged from their local community. Employers are normally unreceptive to offering vision impaired young people work placement opportunities based on perceptions that they will need intensive support or that they do not have any work that a vision impaired person could do. In the last year through our Employability programme we reached 97 vision impaired young people across London. The services are delivered on a rolling basis over building confidence, providing practical skills and learning on how to cope with the challenges that lie ahead, including breaking down and addressing concerns potential employers may have, identifying the mainstream support employers can access for adaptations and developing compelling dialogue for use at interviews and in written form. The programme is a mix of 1to1, group work and mentoring. The four key elements of the service are; basic skills; vocational assessment; employability skills; and voluntary placements. 1-2-1 work includes confidence building, CV production, personal statements, job roles, goal setting and personal development plans. Sport Without Limits: Many of the vision impaired young people we talk to tell us that they are regularly excluded from sports at school and are rarely invited to join in with their sighted peers which makes them feel isolated and compounds their lack of confidence. Sport and exercise have been proven to significantly increase health, wellbeing and self-esteem while fostering social, organisational and leadership skills. Sport is rightly encouraged in children of all ages and ability, yet for blind and visually impaired children it is much harder to participate, despite the fact that they have so much to gain from joining in. RLSB’s sports programme aims to fundamentally improve the lives of blind and partially sighted 11-25 year olds by supporting them to access, engage and participate in regular sport and exercise outside school hours. We provide one-off and regular sporting activities with team games, peer-support, 1:1 coaching and skills training to enable them to overcome the barriers and challenges of their disability. Participants try new things, make friends and have fun in a safe space with people who have similar needs and experiences as themselves. Social and Peer Groups: A child who is born vision impaired will struggle to develop essential organisational, social and leadership skills. They will struggle during school years and are at a significant disadvantage achieving independent and self-fulfilling adult lives. RLSB provides services which seek to specifically develop confidence and skills which allow children and young people to socialise and take part in community activity. Our social and peer groups aim to create social groups where young people access all that the community and the capital has to offer. We are successfully running six social and peer groups in different boroughs reaching over 90 young people from across the capital. RLSB facilitates the young people in the group to decide a programme of activity for themselves and supports them to achieve it. The groups meet twice a month, once to go out as a group to wherever they have decided - the cinema, a museum or gallery, a meal, bowling. Once to meet and have a session where they can gain specific skills or get information and advice from experts on relevant issues such as accessible technology, accessible transport in and around London, DLA. The ultimate aim is to create a cohesive social group who are able to meet independently with minimal input from RLSB community workers.