Society for the Blind – A Best Places to Work Winner!

I am excited to share that Society for the Blind has been selected as one of the 2020 “Best Places to Work,” a joint project between the Sacramento Business Journal and Quantum Workplace. This four-county survey and awards program was designed to identify, recognize and honor the best places of employment in the Sacramento region that are benefiting the economy, its workforce and businesses.

Being named one of the “Best Places to Work” is a wonderful accomplishment. The award program was open to all publicly or privately held companies with at least 10 employees. A large portion of the assessment was based on an employee engagement and satisfaction survey, which was used to evaluate employees’ workplace experience and company culture.

I believe that Society for the Blind’s staff is a testament to the skills, capabilities and resiliency of people living with vision loss. We are all committed to providing a welcoming environment for each person who comes through our doors and is facing the challenges of losing their vision. Since mid-March, that same welcoming spirit has come through via Zoom and phone-based services.

Our team of 35 dedicated professionals provides training in blindness skills, teaches individuals with low vision how to best use their remaining eyesight, provides low vision eye healthcare, offers myriad support groups, and provides a 24-hour telephone reading service to keep people with vision loss informed and engaged in their communities. Half of our employees, including all our teaching faculty, are blind or have low vision.

We have seen an increase in requests for our services over the past six months. By offering remote classes and support groups, we are now able to serve people living in Redding and Red Bluff. We have engaged kids in our CareersPLUS summer youth program throughout California and from other states. As these young people return to their virtual classrooms, our After-School academy is ramping up to ensure they have the accessible technology and academic assistance they need. Society’s Access News Telephone Reader program has been an important resource for people who are not able to read print materials. More than 2,300 people use Access News to stay up to date on news, entertainment and other issues in their communities.

The staff at Society for the Blind meet every challenge with a can-do attitude. From remote instruction to music group jam sessions on Zoom to porch drops of accessible technology, we work together so that people living with low vision or blindness know they have a place to go where they can thrive. I could not be more honored and proud to be a part of this wonderful organization.