Central Albertans celebrated a century of change for blind and partially sighted people.
CNIB, a volunteer agency and registered charity that has supported blind or partially sighted since 1918, held a centennial celebration at the Golden Circle Seniors Resource Centre in Red Deer Wednesday.
A CNIB satellite office in Red Deer serves about 1,100 Central Albertans.
The organization “is extremely important … for sharing information about how people can learn to cope with vision loss and give them some hope,” said Janice Gust, coordinator of client support and community services, and low vision specialist.
An office has been in Red Deer for more than 20 years – services were deliverable from Calgary before then.
Gust, who has worked in the Red Deer office for 23 years, said CNIB has changed drastically.
“We’re certainly trying to keep up with the times,” said Gust. “A big thing is keeping up with technology. It seems every week there’s new technology out that our clients can benefit from.”
The amount of clients in Central Alberta is increasing, she added.
“As the baby boomers are aging we’re seeing more and more people affected by vision loss,” Gust said.
Centennial celebrations have been taking place across Canada since early March and will continue until June.
Matthew Kay, manager of rehabilitation services for Vision Loss Rehabilitation Alberta, a CNIB organization, said the organization is excited for the future.
“We’ve gone through a lot of changes in the last 100 years and we have a lot of changes coming up,” he said.
Kay said CNIB has set a few strategic objectives.
“We are focusing on … making sure our clients have technology in their hands to make sure they have the highest level of independence possible,” said Kay.
“We want to make sure all of our clients have the same access anybody with vision would have,” he said. “We’re working hard at making sure all our clients have access to employment, equal opportunities and access to built environments.”
For more information on the registered charity, visit at www.cnib.ca.
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
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