West Cumbria Society For The Blind
West Cumbria Society For The Blind
Lowther Street
Whitehaven
CA28 7DG
Cumberland
We are a local independent Charity supporting visually impaired people of all ages throughout West Cumbria (Copeland and Allerdale) to cope with living with sight loss.
To achieve this aim we have a range of support services:
Resource & Information Centre Services
Our drop-in Centre is open Monday to Friday 9:00 am to 4:30 pm. Visually impaired people of all ages, their family members and carers are welcome to call into our Resource Centre. No appointment necessary. Our friendly staff and volunteers are always on hand to provide advice, guidance, referrals to other support organisations, financial benefits advice and emotional support.
We stock a wide range of independent living aids:
Big button telephones
Talking clocks and watches
Liquid level indicators to help stop overfilling cups
Daylight lamps
Magnifiers
Electronic reading aids
UV glasses to protect against glare
Talking measuring jugs and scales
Talking bathroom scales
Tactile marker to make household appliances easier to control
And much more.
Home Support Service
Our home support service provides vital emotional support to housebound visually impaired people. This service also allows us to take our range of services out into the community.
Support Groups
We organise social activities throughout the area. Our group members can enjoy a varied range of activities such as: guest speakers, bingo, dominoes, cards, musical entertainment etc. Members also receive practical and emotional support from our staff, volunteers and from each other to enable them to feel more socially included.
Telephone Befriending Service
Our telephone befriending volunteers contact visually impaired people on a regular basis to provide emotional support and advice.
Copeland Talking Newspaper
We work alongside the Copeland Talking Newspaper team. The Copeland Talking Newspaper is a completely free service run by volunteers. Members are provided with an MP3 USB player on free loan and each week members receive a USB memory stick containing the week’s local news.
In addition to the above we:
- provide piano lessons to blind and partially sighed children
- attend low vision clinics in both Copeland and Allerdale
- offer a range of services to assist with DWP, CASS etc enquiries
- offer demonstrations and events to assist our clients and the community with advice and equipment to help blind and partially sighted people, live a more comfortable and fulfilled life.