Funding is for projects that support and empower children and young people who are blind and vision impaired with the tools to live independent and fulfilling lives.
The work needs to build social, digital and self-advocacy skills, so that vision impaired children and young people feel connected with each other, with their sighted peers, and with the wider communities around them.
There is particular interest in applications from organisations who are collaborating in order to share best practice, deliver at scale or meet previously unmet need.
Social connections
- Programmes that encourage children and young people to forge long-lasting friendships and connections over time. This could involve connecting vision impaired children with one another based on shared interests or with sighted young people in their communities.
- Programmes that develop social skills that will ultimately facilitate and increase connections confidence in getting out and about, interacting in different places and with different people, engaging in group activities and pursuing hobbies and interests. This might be through creative or cultural activities.
- Physical activities, including exercise and sports-based programmes that bring people together and facilitate improvements in well-being, resulting in young people feeling more confident and physically comfortable in getting out and about and being active.
Digital inclusion
- Programmes that increase young people’s confidence in using technologies that can facilitate independence when out and about. This could include training and / or demonstrations of navigational apps.
- Projects that use technology in innovative ways to improve self-confidence and encourage creativity and connection. This might include programmes to experiment with podcast creation, video editing, or experimenting safely with social media.
- Projects that provide technology training to lay foundations for employment and volunteering opportunities.
Personal resilience and self-advocacy
- Programmes that equip children and young people with the skills to confidently and safely navigate different environments, and interact with others, including articulating the reasonable adjustments or support they need.
- Workshops for parents and families to explore entitlements for younger children in education and beyond, and to offer advice for accessing different levels of support.
- Services to help children and young people and their families through specialist counselling or psychological support.
This is not a definitive list of projects. The funder welcomes applications that present additional innovative and creative ideas for projects under these three key priority areas.