Bridget & Daughter Megan, clients: “When Megan was diagnosed, my husband and I felt very helpless. Because of the Sight Center we have tons of hope and we realize that her future is so wide open and that anything is possible.
Visual: (Banner that reads, “Envision the Possibilities - Cleveland Sight Center.”)
Visual : (Banner that reads, “OUR MISSION: To EMPOWER people with vision loss to realize their full POTENTIAL and to shape the COMMUNITY’S VISION of that potential.”)
Michael Grady: “The mission of the Sight Center can be broken down into two words – independence and advocacy. We want to help blind and visually impaired people to be as independent as they want to be. The Cleveland Sight Center has programs that serve newborns right up to programs that serve the oldest of the seniors and depending on what time of the year you would come and visit the agency we have upwards of 30 active programs.”
Chappelle, client : “The first time I came to the Sight Center it was, was a good feeling, and the support was here. These people knew our problems. They would cater to what I want. I found a caseworker. I felt like I was home.”
Visual : (Banner that reads, “More than 38 million Americans age 40 and older are estimated to experience blindness, low vision, or an age-related eye disease.” – Archives of Ophthalmology (Vol. 122))
Michael Grady: “The Cleveland Sight Center has a long, rich history and during that history, we have shifted, as they say in the business, paradigms. And the shift went from taking care of people to allowing people to learn to take care of themselves. Technology has played a tremendous role in that paradigm shift. We at the Sight Center need to get that technology out to the blind and visually impaired community, whether they’re working age, whether they’re seniors or kids.”
Xavier, client: “I know how to do a lot of things, but I didn’t know where, where to go where I could apply them and be accepted as a visually impaired person. The Career Department was able to come in and find a place, teach those people, you know, and sort of, aid them in how to deal with a blind person as their employee.”
Visual: (Banner that reads, “Working-age individuals who are legally blind experience an unemployment rate of 70%.” – American Foundation for the Blind.)
Michael Grady: “The Cleveland Sight Center has everything under one roof so that, if you are an elderly person that needs services, you don’t have to go anyplace else for visual rehabilitation than right here at the Sight Center.”
Mary, client: “It’s the loneliness you feel as the world gets darker around you, and mine is getting darker. And it’s the fright, you get scared, you’re frightened. And you say, ‘What’s going to happen to me? I want to stay independent.’ The Sight Center is there, will help me and it has helped me throughout this period of my life. I couldn’t begin to tell you how much.”
Visual: (Banner that reads, “The risk of getting age-related macular degeneration is nearly 30% for those over the age of 75.” – National Eye Institute.)
Michael Grady: “Many, especially the seniors worry about their Medicare, their Medicaid and whether it pays for it. Unbelievably, Medicare and Medicaid does not pay for vision rehabilitation, but not one client is turned down for service.”
Xavier, client: “You know they are positive in the way that they want to make sure that whatever you want, whatever you see in your head, and whatever you see yourself doing, they … whatever they can do to help you do it, and if they don’t really know they … they’ll find the persons who do know.”
Michael Grady: “The Sight Center is all about education and we also have been very involved with prevention. Last year we screened almost 15,000 children and adults.”
Visual: (Banner that reads, “Vision loss results in a total financial burden of $35.4 billion annually in the USA.” – Archives of Ophthalmology (Vol. 124))
Visual: (Eye Chart)
Visual: (Banner that reads, “Cleveland Sight Center, FUND FOR THE FUTURE.”)
Gordon Safran, Pre-Campaign Planning Committee Chair: “The Sight Center has been around since 1906 and we’ve been in our building since 1964. We’re going to do what, what is needed for the community – the best we can with the best of funds we can. We are looking for the funds for the future in that we can do more servicing, we can get more adaptive technology, we can get more staff. It’s got to be a state of the art building for the 21st century. It’s very, very important if we are going to continue to do this work that we started one hundred years ago.”
Michael Grady: “This organization could not be what it is today without the volunteers, without our boards, without our women’s auxiliaries, without the clients, without the staff, and without people in this community that see that and are willing to either support us through volunteer hours or through their precious resources.”
Visual: (Banner that reads, “1 in 9 people over the age of 65 experience serious vision loss.” – Vision Loss Resources)
Xavier, client: “I don’t think thank you is enough. I mean it’s, it’s a thing where all the things that they do, they add up to so much.”
Bridget & Daughter Megan, clients: “Words really can never express enough of the thanks to the Sight Center for all they’ve done for us.”
Mary, client: “We need them very much.”
Chappelle, client: “Thank God for this place and the people here. I always come back. I’m out … I’m out in the world, but I always come back.”
Visual: (Banner that reads, “Thank you to our Board, Staff, and Volunteers for their extraordinary dedication, and to our Clients for their perseverance and trust. Special thanks to all of those who participated in making this video.”)
Chappelle, client: “They do care and I care about them. They have provided and helped me in so many ways, yea.”
Visual: (Banner that reads, “Please call 216-791-8118 or visit us at www.clevelandsightcenter.org for more information.”)
Visual: (Text line that reads “Second Story Productions.”)