In November 1989, a group of visually impaired people got
together in a variety of meeting places including a Council
of Voluntary Services building and a church hall. They
decided to look for permanent premises and formed a management
committee to plan how the Society would be organised. The
local authority social services department were approached
and eventually a disused, single storey building on the
corner of Birkenhead Park was offered on a short lease.It
had been many things in its time and in 1989 was used to
store old furniture, had a hole in the roof and was in a
poor state of repair. Many hands made light work and in time
the Lodge was repaired, re-decorated and fitted out as a
Resource Centre with cabinets to display equipment. A
Development Officer was recruited who in turn brought in
volunteers to staff the Centre and to visit people in
the community.
The Management Committee is responsible for deciding the
policies and objectives for the Society, meeting every six
weeks at the Centre. Of the twelve members, by Constitution
half are required to be visually impaired, a principle which
is strictly adhered to. The Society took on more staff,
widened its activities and extended the original building to
increase its facilities. There are now nine paid staff and a
number of volunteers who undertake many different roles, but
with still the same aims of encouraging self-help and
independence amongst the blind and partially sighted people
of Wirral.
Over the years we have established links with the
RNIB and other local
and national organisations and can offer a wide referral
service for clients. Locally we have close ties with the
local authority Visual Impairment Rehabilitation Team which
is the first statutory agency to whom people are referred on
registration. The Society is also affiliated to the National
Association of Local Societies for the Visually Impaired
(NALSVI) which includes most of the 170 local Societies in
the UK. |
