Support in the Community for Visually Impaired People in Sheffield

Sheffield Royal Society for the Blind is wholeheartedly committed to making a difference in Sheffield. Central to our activities as a Sheffield charity is our range of support services in the community. Our dedicated staff and volunteers offer a variety of services in people’s own homes to help blind and partially sighted people in Sheffield maintain their independence.

From our Mappin Street Centre and Cairn Home in Sheffield our tele-contact and tele-friend services provide telephone contact with our service users to ensure they are receiving enough support and helping to alleviate isolation. Just a 20 minute phone call from one of our tele-friends can provide invaluable contact to blind and partially sighted people who live alone and are unable to get out easily.

SRSB has a number of Sheffield charity advice workers who can visit our clients in the community and assess support needs and make sure that they are accessing all the help they are entitled to. Our community advice officers offer support including welfare rights advice, benefit claims help and signposting to other vital organisations like Social Services.  

Our Sheffield charity work also extends to befriending services for visually impaired people who may need support, practical assistance or even just companionship in their own home.  From dealing with personal correspondence and having a chat and a cup of tea, to going for a short walk, our volunteers can help those who may feel isolated in their own home.

For carers and those who spend a lot of time looking after a visually impaired person, SRSB’s Hand in Hand service will provide a volunteer to take over care for a few hours at a time. This will give the carer valuable time to get the shopping done or attend personal appointment without the worry of leaving a loved one alone.

At SRSB we are proud of the range of support services we provide for visually impaired people in Sheffield. As one of Sheffield’s oldest independent local charities we have been providing support, friendship and services for over 150 years.  

For more information about our community support in Sheffield please contact Sheffield Royal Society for the Blind on 0114 2722757.

About Sheffield Royal Society for the Blind

SRSB started over 150 years ago with one woman’s devotion to helping the blind, it is now the primary source of services and support for people with sight loss in Sheffield and continues to go above and beyond to try and improve the quality of life for the visually impaired.

SRSB provides opportunities, support, friendship and services to the blind and partially sighted so that they can achieve all that they want to achieve without anything holding them back. At SRSB we want people to know the issues that the people we help have to face every day and hope to encourage a better understanding of why the work we do is so important and why we must continue to do it.

We have two facilities, Mappin Street Centre, located in Sheffield city centre which is accessed by over 300 people every week and Cairn home, our residential care home which can care for up to 30 people; in total we support over 3000 visually impaired people of all ages in Sheffield.

SRSB provide sports and leisure opportunities, self help andsupport groups, children’s services and even training, so we really do have everything covered. The key mission is to allow people to maintain their independence no matter what, so all of these services are equally important.

We are an independent charity, but we also work closely with government departments, local authorities, national charities, local charities and support groups so that the people we help can receive the best support possible in the best possible manner, however we do not receive any grants or funding from these so are heavily reliant on public funding.

Fundraising events are the cornerstone of the Sheffield Royal Society for the Blind because without funds from the public we would not be able to provide all of the vital services that we do. We host and take part in many fundraising events every month, from pub quizzes and golf days to dragon boat races and the Great Yorkshire Run!

For more information on SRSB and the work that we do visit our website and get involved!