One of Dundee’s oldest leading charities has revealed plans to relaunch — and help hundreds of people with eyesight problems in the city.
Dundee Blind and Partially Sighted Society has operated for more than 135 years.
Last week, the Tele reported there were concerns that things were going to change for the worse with the news that the contract for the provision of services for the blind or partially sighted was moving to another group.
However, the society’s new manager, Fiona Finlayson, said it had decided to embrace the changes and aims to move forward in new ways.
She told the Tele: “We have worked with blind and partially sighted people in Dundee since 1879.
“Things are about to change as a result of us handing the statutory service over to North East Sensory Services but as a charity we are continuing as before.
“We are about to launch what we plan to do in the future and we are very excited about it.
“This will give us the opportunity to expand in other ways that will benefit the hundreds of people that come to our centre.
“By the end of this month, we will have relaunched and be right at the forefront of providing somewhere for blind and partially sighted people to go.
“We also want to really raise the profile of the society and promote what we can offer.”
The society operates out of premises in Ward Street, where it moved to in October 2000.
Fiona said: “This building is perfect for accommodating activities for people who can’t see properly and we will continue to make the most of that.
“We want to add more social activities to our calendar, add more activities to our timetable, provide more support groups and improve our advocacy work.
“We really want to raise the profile of the group.
“The changes mean we have lost some members of staff but we will still try to provide groups and activities every day of the week.
“There will be days when there will be no staff in the building over lunchtime but we are trying to keep changes to a minimum, and we are very confident that many groups we currently run will continue with no changes.”
The society currently has around 300 members and Fiona said that while the majority are from older generations, there are younger members too. “That’s one aspect we really want to work on and encourage younger people to come along,” added Fiona.
One younger member who gets a lot out of the group is Channyn Hart, 28, from Woodside.
“I come here every day and really enjoy the companionship,” said Channyn.
“I’ve been coming here since a couple of years after I left Kingspark School and hopefully will continue to do so.
“It would be great if other younger people were encouraged to come along.” Ruth Wardill, 79, who is registered blind, has been attending the centre for around nine years. She said: “I come along a couple of days a week.
“I have been concerned that the changes will detract from what goes on here.
“But we are staying positive and hopefully the charity will continue to move forward without some of the previous constraints.”