Fish,Chips,Chatter
2
The Pitch
Problem statement
Yorkshire Coast Sight Support have 80 ish regular visually impaired local attendees to our resource centre. Some come to our social groups held 4 days per week, others call in when passing for a chat or advice the remainder call in when they need help assistance training or support. What we miss is the opportunity to get as many members as possible in one place at the same time to reaffirm friendships, make new friends, chat, enjoy smile. The closest we get is our Christmas lunch with 50 ish attending the closest we have ever been was a fish and chip lunch funded through a group of young fundraisers with 80 attendees. We would love to do this again the smiles and laughter were unforgettable.
Solution
A lack of social inclusion is not only common with anyone with a visual impairment in our area, is a national problem. COVID has brought new levels of lack of confidence economic problems has resulted in reduced levels of public transport and a fear to "not buy what we don't need" to quote one of our regulars. We have worked with our clients to rebuild confidence our regular attendee levels are back to pre COVID but we need a lever a carrot something special to get our remaining clients out, mixing chatting and laughing. Some have forgotten what its like to chat, laugh and smile its so long since they were with friends. Our goal is to have an unforgettable event hear laughter see smiles.
Why are we best placed to deliver?
The small team at Yorkshire Coast Sight Support have worked hard to ensure our centre is safe, clean, comfortable and our visitors feel safe. Following COVID many of our regular attenders took a lot of persuading to come out of isolation. Through phone calls from our team and the people attending our social groups our overall client numbers have steadily grown and are now back at 98% of our pre COVID numbers and our social groups back to 75%. We would now like to give all our clients a special treat. Our last Fish and Chip lunch in 2018 has been talked about almost as an historic event one we would like to repeat in early 2023.
Focus Areas
Delivery plan
Budget breakdown
| Fish and Chip lunch | £795 |
Beneficiaries
70 people
Expected impact
The memories of our last fish and chip lunch have become set in the history of YCSS. Some of our older clients have sadly passed away but our newer clients, who missed the event ask "is it true did you really take 87 visually impaired people for lunch at the same time in the same place?" the answer is "yes, and the chatter was almost deafening". We have clients who formed new friendships at the lunch, talked on the phone all the way through COVID and now meet up, some times for fish and chips. Social isolation and depression is very common in both our newly diagnosed and long term clients. On diagnosis people hear "you are going blind" rather than the full explanation then as the condition progresses and peoples sight gets less they do less trust less mix less but worry more. Our job is to make life easier and better, more enjoyable and less stressful these are goals the impact almost immeasurable other than smiles and laughter replacing depression and stress.
Track record
Our Resource Centre has become known as the place to come in the Borough if you are visually impaired (VI) care for someone with VI want to know more about VI or need accessibility equipment, training or advice associated with VI. We have referral mechanisms with Social Services, Council Sensory Teams, GPs Opticians and Eye Clinics across the Borough. We partner many other local charities some VI connected like Blind Veterans or Guide Dogs others who have VI members. A common quote we hear from our clients is "I wouldn't know what to do if it weren't for you lot" another is "thankyou". Our Hospital Trust has quoted "there wouldn't be any support for the VI residents in the Borough if YCSS weren't there". We have arranged many trips and outings but our greatest achievement is our referral network its taken over 80 years to be where we are now and we still need to keep moving forward but less VI people are falling through the net and getting help than there were but there are still more