VICTA stands for Visually Impaired Children Taking Action and is a charity that is aimed at visually impaired children and young people up to and including the age of 29. Have a listen to the video below to hear more about our experience with them.
They organise a great range of activity weekends and family days, all of which are specifically aimed at certain age groups. They publish the different events and state what age range these are suitable for such as 18+, 14 – 17 etc.
The events are set up to allow visually impaired people to have fun, try out new experiences and meet other visually impaired people. They do this by organising various events aimed at different things such as the blind driving break which was a weekend away in Thetford where various activities were undertaken by quite a large group of visually impaired individuals. There are also other things such as family days where people of any age and sight level can go.
A secondary effect of the events that VICTA organise is an improvement of independence. This is due to the volunteers that support the individuals at these events allowing them to try to do everything on their own first as opposed to them going there and everything being done for them. If help is required the volunteers are always amazing and helpful, if they have time they will show you how to do whatever it is before doing it.
Another amazing thing that VICTA do is they also offer grants on products that will benefit visually impaired people, such as laptops, screen readers, magnifiers and other useful equipment. They do this if you complete the application form online providing a sufficient justification as to why you need the piece of equipment and what changes it will make to your life.
A link to the VICTA homepage can be found below.