Giving Thanks for Our Partnerships
Another year has entered its final turn, and it is with gratitude and appreciation that I look back over 2018. It has been a year filled with exciting changes and growth.
I am grateful for new partnerships that enabled Society to improve its operations and provide more services to our students and patients. This was the case for our retail store, which North State Assistive Technology took over in February. Now our store has a wider array of products on display, and people can shop online.
I appreciate our partnerships with sister agencies, Alphapointe and New View Oklahoma, which are working with us to create employment opportunities for our students.
Over the past year, we partnered with the Capital Area Development Authority (CADA) to put up large print and Braille signage on all of CADA’s buildings on the Midtown Grid in Sacramento. This means that our students and others in the community living with vision loss can more easily and independently identify businesses and navigate Midtown.
On November 3rd, Society for the Blind, North State Assistive Technology, and the California Braille and Talking Book Library presented the 2018 Resource and Technology Fair. More than 200 people attended the event, which featured 20 exhibitors from organizations, educational institutions and assistive technology companies.
Later this month we will co-host, along with United States Association of Blind Athletes (USABA), some 65 blind and visually impaired runners and their guides for a dinner at Society for the Blind. This is the fifth year that we are partnering with USABA and local volunteer and blind marathon runner, Richard Hunter, to provide an opportunity for blind runners from across the United States and other countries to meet their guides before they run the California International Marathon.
What these examples all point to is that we can do so much more when we work together. I am deeply grateful for the many opportunities we have had this year to partner with other agencies and organizations to bring resources, information and opportunities to people living with low vision and blindness.
May this season of gratitude and abundance continue to inspire each of us to extend our hands in partnership, so we can create more opportunities and bring renewed hope to people with vision loss.