Lighthouse Central Florida Inc.

1) Provide vision-specific educational and vision rehabilitation services to at least 600 Central Floridians whose vision loss affects their daily life; that will lead to age-appropriate school readiness and lifelong learning of young children graduating from our early intervention programs; academic success and mastery of core life skills for children ages 6 - 13 moving onto high school; graduation with a regular high school diploma, mastery of technology, social and core life skills, ready for college or work for teens and young adults graduating from our Transition program; attainment of their individual goals related to technology , mobility and independent living skills for clients participating in our Adult Program Services; gainful competitive employment for adults graduating from our vocational rehabilitation programs and employment services. We are seeking to double the number served to at least 3000 annually within the next three - five years.  2)  While our primary strategy for this impact is education, counseling and training focused on individual living with blindness and low vision and their families (comprehensive professional vision rehabilitation services), we are also working to change the attitudes of community employers, policy makers and community planners to better understand and value the inclusion of our client population and universal accessibility of all systems (transportation, education, digital communication, community design, etc.) As the most common eye diseases are age-related, and our population continues to live longer, we will have dramatically larger numbers of Americans living with significant vision loss. It is important for all of to understand the simple accommodations that will make this societal transition less burdensome, more manageable for all.

Our primary strategy is the provision of comprehensive professional vision rehabilitation services, which includes specialized vision-specific education services and functional low vision training, to individuals living with low vision and blindness to assure they have the skills and tools necessary to live healthy, integrated productive lives. We employ nationally certified, credentialed vision rehabilitation clinical and educational professionals and utilize assessments, curricula, programs, activities and technology that has been developed over decades by universities and national accreditation bodies. Through a collaboration with Ophthalmologists and Optometrists, we are implementing a functional low vision service to reach people whose vision loss may not yet reach the threshold of legal blindness. We are active members, serving in leadership positions, of several national and state organizations dedicated to the rehabilitation and employment of people who are living with vision impairment or blindness, in order to remain current with best practices and collaborating with innovative models and organizations.Our secondary strategy, of equal importance, is to change community attitudes about people who are living with vision impairment or blindness. Through marketing and public awareness campaigns, community education events and more, we seek to enhance the understanding and value of Central Floridians who are living with vision impairment or blindness amongst employers, educators, policy makers and community planners. Intentional inclusion of the VIB community through universal access to transportation, digital information, community events, employment and community design is good business and enhances the quality of life for all.

Lighthouse has 40+ years of growth and experience in serving the community of people whose vision loss is affecting their daily life. Our implementation of the Traction/Entrepreneurial Operating System as our "way of doing business" (now in our sixth year) has given Lighthouse the organizational horsepower and tools for sustainability it needs to grow well throughout the 2000's. Lighthouse has a leadership team with strength, experience and dedication in every aspect of organizational operations and vision rehabilitation, a great Board of Directors which understands its roles, financial stability and a clear vision for developing innovative services and scaling these - in order to dramatically extend our reach throughout the community. While we are well known throughout the human service community and serve clients referred by others, we are actively working to build our partnerships with the medical and educational community and with employers. We partner with all local VIB consumer organizations and the State's Division of Blind Services, Advent Health University, Career Source and the Dept of Economic Opportunity.  We are active members of the National Industries for the Blind, headquartered in Alexandria, VA; VisionServe Alliance, headquartered in St Louis, MO; Florida Agencies Serving the Blind - our CEO, Kyle Johnson, and our VP and Chief Programs Officer, Mike Walsh,  serve on committees and in leadership positions for some of these.

Lighthouse has made tremendous progress in the lives of thousands of people of all ages who are living with vision loss or blindness. As a result of our programs for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, many more children enter kindergarten ready to learn and on track or above their peers. Our Children's Program has enabled much greater academic success as public schools are limited in the amount of vision-specific services they can provide. Teens have benefitted from our Transition program by having years of paid work experience, graduating with regular high school diplomas (as opposed to certificates of attendance as was the norm in past decades); many more are going on to higher education or vocational training. Adults and seniors, most of whom had sight the majority of their lives and now having to make drastic changes to maintain lifestyle, safety, security, etc.are much better able to live independently, reducing the negative impact of their blindness upon themselves and family members and avoiding premature institutionalization. Adults are getting and keeping better jobs following the training they receive at Lighthouse.