Home > Project News & Descriptions > The Humber > Cross Cutting Themes > Putting the See into Community Project

The Putting the See in Community Project

Under the name of Foresight, a registered charity, this project is dedicated to working to improve the quality of life for blind and visually impaired people, their family and carers throughout North East Lincolnshire and surrounding areas. 

Based in a refurbished former carpet shop of 473m2, a purpose-built resource centre has been established, which is meeting the needs of a disadvantaged and socially isolated group in the community.  It is now a one-stop shop offering learning, training, volunteering opportunities, information, advice and guidance.  The Centre has advanced IT facilities, incorporating adaptive talking software to meet individual requirements.  It caters for everyone from absolute beginners to advanced users and offers accredited courses including ECDL, CLAIT and digital photography.

The centre also offers many other courses, including visual impairment awareness, creative crafts, first aid, health and safety and child protection.  Non accredited courses are based around helping participants build their confidence and develop their personal and inter-personal skills.

The project provides assistance for the visually impaired in every conceivable way , including Braille, large print and audio formats and therefore helps those who would otherwise be daunted by the prospect of entering a training and learning environment.

Participants are also helped with career information, advice, guidance and job searching, welfare rights, benefits, housing and issues around primary care and independent living, including carers and community safety.  They have the opportunity to try out and purchase equipment specially designed for their needs (e.g. talking watches and calculators).

The greater impact of the project is in raising awareness of disability, proving that it does not need to be a barrier to participation and offering opportunities which raise the hopes and aspirations of participants and make an important difference to their lives.  It is an example of the way in which European funding is helping to bring about real benefits at the grass roots level of the community.

To date the project has assisted two ICT initiatives, one environmental initiative and six networks. Ten organisations have also received assistance. Eight new jobs have been created and five accommodated. Five local residents have been helped into employment and 157 people have been able to access ICT.