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Ocala Style June 2019 Issue Reprinted with permission A Vision FOR THE FUTURE By JIM GIBSON

T he Florida Center for the Blind is a beacon of light for those living in the shadowy world of the visually impaired The center provides rehabilitation on site classroom training and oneon one in home instruction for those in need The Ocala based nonprofit organization serves eight counties utilizes a staff of 14 and provides services for 220 people Our primary goal is to provide independence for persons with visual impairment or blindness says President and CEO Anissa Pieriboni We provide services for clients from birth to end of life and each age group has its own unique set of needs Each of our services is custom designed to provide specific instruction to our clients so they can function successfully on their own in a sighted world There is no cost for those served by the center and it has nine programs to assist the visually impaired and blind the Children s Program Transition for Teens Independent Living Skills Vocational Rehabilitation Job Readiness Orientation and Mobility Access Technology Braille Instruction Enrichment Classes and Information and Referral Pieriboni says that all of their programs are very important but three in particular stand out the Children s Program Access Technology and Independent Living Skills Our Children s Program helps provide a foundation of information for all visually impaired children but especially for those who are born blind or lose their sight at a very early age she says Research shows that 85 percent of what we learn comes through sight If you watch a sighted baby looking at the world around them they observe and mimic the actions they see When a child doesn t have the ability to observe it s obvious that this puts him or her at an early disadvantage We teach visually impaired and blind newborns and young children to learn to interpret the world around them by using their other senses Most of this learning comes through touch so we teach them how to feel their world how to learn by shape and texture It s this foundation that will enable them to properly process the world they live in for the rest of their lives Through Access Technology clients are taught to use the latest technological advances to explore and interpret their world For example companies such as Apple have provided programs like VoiceOver to give vision impaired persons the ability to use a cellphone to make calls read and answer emails and access all the information provided by the internet We search out the latest programs or devices available and instruct our clients how to utilize them to their fullest extent Independent Living Skills are taught both here at the center and in the client s home Since our main goal is independence we consider this service to be of vital importance We go into the client s home and teach him or her how to live their best and most comfortable life while coping with the demands of blindness Something as simple as marking a microwave oven with small braille stick on tabs can make a world of difference in ease of daily living The center also works in conjunction with local school districts to teach school age visually impaired children Instructors from the center travel to area schools and on a set schedule take the children out of their regular classes to provide special instruction in areas such as braille orientation and mobility and access technology The only drawback to this approach says Pieriboni is that when students are taken out of regular classes for instruction by our staff they fall behind in whatever is being taught in their absence WE PROVIDE SERVICES FOR CLIENTS FROM BIRTH TO END OF LIFE AND EACH AGE GROUP HAS ITS OWN UNIQUE SET OF NEEDS The Cost Of Helping Pieriboni says that the Florida Center for the Blind is funded primarily by the Florida Department of Education Division of Blind Services The state agency provides the center annual funding for 142 of its 220 clients This money is meant to provide for 100 percent of each client s needs but Pieriboni says that it ends up providing closer to 60 percent Also the center is serving 78 more individuals than the funding it receives This leaves a substantial shortfall in funding which she says is made up through private donations foundation grants and one annual fundraiser The center s annual budget is close to 600 000 with 92 000 in private contributions donated in 2017 We try to utilize every cent we receive to directly help our clients she says This means that we plan expenditures very very carefully Expenditures can

Renderings provided by Florida Center for the Blind mean money or it can mean manpower Our resources are so limited and we try to use our staff for one reason only to help the visually impaired So when it comes to fundraising we only have one main event each year Every October we host Dining in the Dark an event designed to let the public experience for a moment what the visually impaired experience every day of their lives In conjunction with the Ocala Police Department and the Marion County Sheriff s Office SWAT teams we serve dinner in complete darkness to those attending The SWAT team members wear night vision goggles and the public experiences the trials of eating a meal using only touch and to a certain extent sound Each year the event directly raises around 10 000 to help fund the center but the awareness it generates leads to further donations throughout the year Looking Ahead During the Dining in the Dark event in 2018 the center announced a planned 10 million expansion Presently the center is housed in two modestly sized buildings on NE 22nd Avenue The one story buildings contain its offices and a small training center Pieriboni says the expansion will triple the size of the present facilities and will take place during three phases of construction Phase 1 will include a welcome center that will contain all of our administrative offices she says This center will also include a fully staffed store that will sell a wide range of devices created to assist the visually impaired Trained staff will not only find the most effective device for the client s needs they will also instruct the client in its proper use This area of the new center will also house a school that will teach children from preschool through third grade The intent is to teach the children there five days a week much as they would be taught in the public school system and then assimilate them into area public schools in the fourth grade Pieriboni says that the school will eliminate the problem of taking the children out of their scheduled classes in

where the visually impaired could improve motor skills such as walking or riding a bike in a safe environment It would also be used for programs such as yoga goalball a soccer type game that uses a ball which emits a beeping sound other sports activities and a meeting place for large groups of people The architectural design has been completed and we are putting together a steering committee to help Florida Center for the Blind serves People of all ages who are vision impaired in both eyes Those whose visual impairment cannot be corrected with glasses contact lenses or surgery Those whose visual impairment results in difficulties performing daily activities Photography by Lisa Anderson the public school system and therefore help speed up their education Having our own school would allow the center to provide intensive training early in the child s life so that assimilation into the public school system would be seamless and less stressful We always work closely with visually impaired children s parents teaching them braille and attempting to involve them intimately in their child s education she says Having our own school will only enhance that connection We believe that the parent is the No 1 instructor always They want to help their child in any way possible but many times they feel helpless We want to help them help their child Phase 2 will include a dormitory with job training The dormitory would allow clients to come to the center to stay during weekdays and then return home on weekends Pieriboni says that job training would be intensive and clients would receive months worth of instruction in just weeks It would also enable instructors who now spend countless hours traveling to clients homes to spend that time teaching instead We also hope to partner with local businesses so that once a client is trained he or she will have a job in the community waiting for them says Pieriboni We are willing to customize Anissa Pieriboni our training to accommodate local or state businesses Jobs in phone centers raise the needed funds Pieriboni says We re excited or on manufacturing assembly lines are about the future and looking forward to expanding our ideal for the visually impaired and we hope to find services to such a valuable part of our community a business niche that will help clients statewide live If you would like to volunteer your time or donate independent and productive lives to the Florida Center for the Blind please visit their Phase 3 will be a multipurpose building for website at www flblind org or call 352 873 4700 enrichment classes It would be a gym type building