Solutions -
Our Agency Brochure
“The LightHouse provides people with the tools to live a rich life.”
The LightHouse Offers Solutions to Living with Vision Loss The goal of the LightHouse is to help individuals find solutions that make living independently with vision loss a reality. We are committed to the idea that blindness and self-reliance are not contradictory.
Our main focus within the field of vision loss is on adjustment to vision loss. Cure and prevention are not always possible. Many individuals must learn ways to continue to live a full and active life with limited sight or complete loss of vision.
The LightHouse provides clients the tools to live a rich life through a menu of rehabilitation programs and access to services – employment, recreation, education, information and the environment.
Programs and Services for Independent Living
The LightHouse provides programs in five broad service areas:
Training and Skills Development
Employment and Technology Skills
Information and Resource Services
Education and Lifelong Learning
Training and Skills Development promotes the quality and availability of independent living skills training options for blind, deaf-blind and visually impaired individuals. Through rehabilitation teaching, orientation and mobility training, adjustment counseling and self-advocacy training, blind and visually impaired individuals learn the skills needed to live independently within the community. Whenever possible, Training and Skills Development takes place within the home community and in the native language of the client being served
Programs:
-Daily Living Skills Instruction:
Living with Vision Loss Class, Cooking Skills Class, Braille Instruction
-Individual Orientation and Mobility Training
-Self Advocacy Training
-Low Vision
Employment and Technology Skills are important tools for independence among blind and visually impaired individuals. With an over 70% unemployment and underemployment rate, employment looms as a major concern of the community. The LightHouse works to promote jobs and to train individuals in securing and holding a position in the work force. Technology is the key to the future for the blind and visually impaired and the LightHouse maintains cutting-edge assistive devices, equipment and training. The LightHouse provides on the job accommodation and support services to employers who hire visually impaired employees. Orientation to the worksite, converting print documents into accessible formats and labeling work areas and equipment with large print or braille labels are samples of these services.
Programs:
-Access Technology Training
-Utilization of the Technology Lab, and Computer and CCTV Kiosks
-Youth Employment Services and Internships
-Deaf-Blind Employment Services
-LightHouse Industries
-Employment Opportunities at the LightHouse
Through our Information and Resource Services area, the LightHouse provides blind and visually impaired people living in Northern California with resource options and information needed to live independently with vision loss. Whether it is information and referral, one-on-one consulting and counseling through Client Support Services or access to aids and appliances at Adaptations, the LightHouse Store, the LightHouse is a critical source of both information and tools for independence.
Programs:
-The Help Desk
-Resource Counseling
-Audio-cassette and Descriptive Video Library
-Assistive Aids from Adaptations, the LightHouse Store
Through Access to Information Services, the LightHouse connects the individual to the visual world he or she lives in. For some, this means receiving materials in braille or recorded format. To others it might mean personal and programmatic access through the use of a trained volunteer. Some individuals need comprehensive information on the greater field of vision loss by receiving newsletters and other publications in alternative formats.
Programs:
-The LightHouse Website, www.lighthouse-sf.org
-News Reading Services
-The Lantern – a monthly consumer newsletter
-Braille Transcription and Recording Services
-Volunteer Matching Services
Education and Life-Long Learning is designed to increase educational and recreational opportunities for individuals with vision loss of all ages and backgrounds. This effort includes direct programs in the educational and recreational arena. It also includes partnerships with other community agencies with the goal of increasing their capacity to accept blind and visually impaired clients. Another component is the use of the LightHouse’s Enchanted Hills Camp facility.
Programs:
-The Adult Educational and Recreation Program
-Youth Services
-Enchanted Hills Summer Camp Program
Solutions:
That Touch Your Life
That Come With the Gift of Time
Unique to Each Individual
You Can Be a Part Of
Solutions that Touch Your Life
Vision loss is a reality that will touch most of our lives. Seven percent of Americans report experiencing some visual impairment while another 47% of the population will have either a relative or an acquaintance with vision loss. Among adults, 17% of persons over 45 and 21% of persons over 65 experience loss of sight.*
*Leonard, Robin Statistics on Vision Impairment: A Resource Manual, 4th Edition. Arlene R. Gordon Research Institute of Lighthouse International, September 2001.
Each of us likely knows or will know someone whose health, well-being and self-image is affected by visual impairment. But a full, independent life is certainly possible as demonstrated by the thousands who have received services from the LightHouse.
The LightHouse has been a resource for the blind and visually impaired community for over 100 years. One thing has been clear from the beginning: we simply cannot do what we do without the generous support of our donors and volunteers.
Solutions that Come With the Gift of Time
Volunteers are invaluable members of the LightHouse community. Volunteer opportunities are available throughout the Bay Area, with the possibility of extension into additional northern counties.
One of the most rewarding opportunities we offer is joining our Personal Services Volunteer (PSV) program. A PSV works one-on-one with a blind or visually impaired individual who needs assistance with everyday activities or may just appreciate your companionship.
Other volunteer opportunities include support for our Education and Life-long Learning service areas, clerical assistance to LightHouse staff, special committee work and Board membership. We also have recording and broadcasting openings through our Access to Information Program.
Solutions Unique to Each Individual
The LightHouse understands the needs of an older person who loses vision at age 60 due to macular degeneration are as unique as the needs of a young person blind from birth who has just relocated to a new community. Through the LightHouse’s expertise, we provide a broad range of services specially adapted to each person. In doing so, we reach a population that is diverse in culture and generation, and we address vision loss in its myriad of forms.
Rehabilitation and access are at the crux of the LightHouse’s mission. Rehabilitation can be as simple as learning to make the home environment safe. Access can be as basic as reading personal mail or food labels. Both of these are critical components of a rich and independent life.
Solutions You Can Be A Part Of
The LightHouse’s important programs and services continue with the support of generous people like you. LightHouse relies on donations and grants from individuals, corporations, businesses, foundations and government agencies. There are a number of ways to support the LightHouse, including:
Donations – The LightHouse would be happy to assist you in making a gift via cash, check, credit card or electronic funds transfer. Stocks and bonds, personal and real property and some types of in-kind gifts are also accepted.
Planned gifts or bequests – we can discuss with you the importance of planned giving and estate planning and refer you to outside professionals in the field.
Special donation programs – you can support the LightHouse by participating in programs, such as our car donation program, that partially fund LightHouse programs and services.
Tools for Living Independently – Adaptations, the LightHouse Store Adaptations, the LightHouse Store, has supplied the Bay Area’s blind and visually impaired population with essential adaptive aids and appliances for over 18 years. Adaptations’ products enhance day-to-day living, making activities such as reading, taking notes, using a watch, cooking, playing Scrabble or traveling around the city accessible to individuals with vision loss. Most of our products are easy to use and others can be used more effectively (and sometimes more safely) with proper training. LightHouse Rehabilitation Specialists are available to help clients develop the skills and confidence needed to use these tools.
“The LightHouse has been a resource for the blind and visually impaired community for over 100 years.”
“Vision loss is a reality that will touch most of our lives.”
The LightHouse is About People and Places
The LightHouse serves people of all ages and degrees of vision loss throughout Northern California. In addition to our headquarters in San Francisco, we operate a satellite office in San Rafael and offer programs in Alameda, Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. We also work in cooperation with the Vista Center for the Blind to serve clients in San Mateo County. Our Enchanted Hills Camp, located in Napa, is the only camping facility for blind and visually impaired children and adults in the Western United States. The LightHouse has a community board and professional staff, 40% of which are blind or visually impaired individuals. Fifty percent of the management staff is blind or visually impaired.
LightHouse is a private, not-for-profit agency and is tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The California State Department of Rehabilitation certifies the LightHouse rehabilitation services each year. The agency’s finances are audited annually by an outside, certified public accounting firm.
