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$30,000 Goal
The Lighthouse was established during the Great Depression in 1935 with a directive from the Texas Commission for the Blind to create jobs for those with a significant visual impairment. Ms. Lewis organized a small group of workers and trained them in the caning of chairs and production of pillowcases, rugs, brooms, mops and other hand-sewn items. In addition to production workers, legally blind salesmen canvassed the Fort Worth community, going door-to-door in welcoming neighborhoods to sell the locally made items.
Today, the Lighthouse sales team has international reach and uses the Internet to build its customer base. Operations have evolved and now require an advanced set of job skills. Blind and visually impaired employees are trained to safely and precisely operate optical equipment, band saws, foam cutters, strappers, sonic welders, industrialized staplers and manufacture shipping containers, boxes, military supplies, paper goods, drug test cups and eyeglasses. The revenue generated from product sales pays the wages and full benefits of our blind labor force.
In addition to the Lighthouse Industrial Operation, our Client Services team provides unduplicated services to support the 61,000 residents in Fort Worth and surrounding areas who are blind and visually impaired.
As the largest employer of the blind in North Texas, the core mission of the Lighthouse to create job to increase its blind labor force. An astounding 70 percent of working-age blind adults are unemployed, and 80 percent of those are underemployed. The Lighthouse Optical Lab, launched in 2017, utilizes the blind to make glasses for the sighted!
The Lighthouse Promise: Companionship for Life to the Blind
The Lighthouse for the Blind offers unduplicated services at no charge to blind and significantly visually impaired children, youth, adults and seniors to achieve their highest level of independence through competitive employment, specialized training, and client services.
Lighthouse Youth Rehabilitation Program (LYRP) is set to launch in 2024!
The Lighthouse for the Blind in Fort Worth is focused on youth initiatives supporting blind and visually impaired students through its partnership with schoolteachers of the visually impaired (TVIs) to deliver the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC).
In addition to the basic core content taught in class such as math, science, and language arts, the Expanded Core Curriculum is built around nine core components that build the life skills needed for success after graduation:
1. Compensatory skills including Braille, tactile maps/symbols, audio recordings, and screen readers
2. Orientation and mobility (White Cane Training)
3. Social interaction skills
4. Independent living skills
5. Recreation and leisure skills
6. Career Education
7. Assistive Technology
8. Sensory efficiency skills
9. Self-Determination
IN RESPONSE TO THIS CRITICAL NEED...the Lighthouse Client Services Team has designed activities and events that correspond to each ECC component:
Camp Lighthouse
Project BELIEVE
White Cane Day
Cane Quest
Sports Outreach
Vision Screening
Holiday Parties
Social Engagement Solutions
Rehabilitation Services
CCTV Training and Loaner Resources
We are hoping to raise $30,000 during NTGD 2024 to help underwrite the Lighthouse Youth Rehabilitation Program - Thank you in advance for your financial support!
"Lighthouse Promise: Providing lifelong companionship for the blind!"
The Lighthouse is required by law, given our contracts with the federal government and our
association with National Industries for the Blind, to file an Affirmative Action plan every year
reflecting the diversity, equity and inclusion of our legally blind employees and clients, who
are an integral part of underserved and underrepresented community groups.
Organization name
Lighthouse for the Blind (Tarrant County Association for the Blind)
Causes
Social Services
Operating Budget
$3,000,000 - $9,999,999
Counties Served
Denton, Hood, Johnson, Parker, Tarrant, Wise
BIPOC Serving
Black or African American, Hispanic or Latinx
Address
912 W. Broadway Ave.