Edited Press Release
(SAN FRANCISCO, CA) LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Northern California's oldest and largest nonprofit serving the blind, today announced
a major initiative to aid hundreds of East Bay blind and visually impaired students affected by the scheduled closure of the Oakland Lions Center for the
Blind.
"This week we're signing a long-term lease to quadruple the size of our Alameda County office, effective August 31, 2016, the announced date of the Lions
Center closure" said LightHouse CEO Bryan Bashin. Throughout its 114-year history the LightHouse, though headquartered in San Francisco, has served students
mostly from the nine-county Bay Area outside of San Francisco proper. Recognizing the unmet needs in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, the LightHouse
first opened a satellite office at Berkeley's Ed Roberts Campus in 2011, providing employment, tech skills and mobility training. In 2014 the California
Department of Rehabilitation awarded the LightHouse a key contract to serve older blind adults in Alameda County. Today's announced expansion will allow
the organization to support up to 30 teachers for working-age blind and visually impaired people in Alameda County, where most LightHouse students live.
The new Ed Roberts Campus training facility will complement the greatly expanded teaching capacity of LightHouse's new 40,000 square-foot Market Street
headquarters in San Francisco, opened just three months ago. The Ed Roberts Campus, built directly on top of Berkeley's Ashby BART station, houses a renowned
group of disability organizations in a safe and transit-friendly location. Nearly a dozen progressive disability organizations have discovered that the
Ed Roberts campus is an ideal place to gather people with disabilities, and their friends and family.
Shortly after the Lions Center closes, the expanded LightHouse staff will take up the slack by teaching braille, adaptive computer skills, personal and
home management, how to find employment and Orientation and Mobility to hundreds of students throughout the east bay.
"While we're sorry the chaos around the Lions Center closure has affected several hundred blind students in the east bay," Bashin said, "the new extra
capacity of the LightHouse and its 100 plus employees will provide them services and to fulfill our organization's core mission to train and empower all
of the region's visually-impaired residents."
The LightHouse has chosen to announce its new expanded Berkeley office in advance of the Lions publicized closure to allow time for current Lions students
to plan for a seamless continuation of their studies in September. Displaced blind students, rehabilitation counselors and concerned families can contact
the LightHouse directly to arrange for uninterrupted training. Former students of the Lions Center for the Blind are welcome to continue their studies
at any LightHouse facility. To make arrangements please contact LightHouse Rehabilitation Counselor Debbie Bacon at 415-694-7357, or email her at dbacon@LightHouse-sf.org.
