Non-Profit Spotlight: VIPS-Visually Impaired Preschool Services

non-profit spotlightBy Angela Arlington

Visually Impaired Preschool Services (VIPS) Indiana is a nonprofit organization that serves children, ages birth to 3, who are blind or visually impaired and their families. Through its mission, VIPS empowers families by providing educational excellence to young children with visual impairments in order to build a strong foundation for reaching their highest potential. VIPS provides children with ongoing early intervention, educational activities, and engaging environments. VIPS has created a network of teachers of blind/ low vision, blind/low vision specialists with extensive vision-specific training, and certified orientation and mobility specialists who enable these children to maximize their skills for development, academics, and, most important, life. VIPS providers travel to homes, daycare facilities, community settings, and even hospital rooms to work one-on-one with children and their families. VIPS helps children succeed in all areas of development, including cognition, concept development, language development, independence skills, social skills, and more.

VIPS Indiana is now led by Regional Director Meredith Howell, a former VIPS parent whose legally blind child was served by VIPS. Her ability to connect with families who have children with vision loss like her daughter makes the organization unique in its authenticity.

Sensory room

“VIPS in Indiana was founded because a mother of a legally blind child could not find ongoing early intervention services in the state,” Howell explained. “She and a teacher of blind/low vision students knew Indiana’s youngest children with blindness/low vision were chronically underserved, so they started the Indiana location of VIPS. The VIPS home office is based out of Louisville, Kentucky. VIPS has been serving children in Southern Indiana for over 35 years; however, a substantial expansion in Indiana happened in 2011 as a result of a gap in services for young children with vision loss in the state. VIPS Indiana began with a caseload of just eight children; since then, that number has soared to over 1,000 children across the state. VIPS has worked diligently to build a network of specialists and will continue to expand with the goal of ensuring that every young Hoosier receives the vision-specific early intervention services that are critical to their learning and development.”

Toddler Town

“When a child is born and diagnosed with blindness or low vision, the child’s family needs specialized early intervention to help them cope with the reality of their child’s vision loss,” Howell continued. “Often, parents grieve for the sighted child they expected. This can lead to difficulty bonding and increased stress for both parents and children. VIPS gives the support and knowledge to empower the parents and help them move through the various stages of grief. Ultimately, the goal is to help the parents realize that they are capable of parenting a child who is blind and give them the confidence to feel more comfortable interacting with others in the community.”

CVI Den

Jack

Early intervention is based on the premise that the home is a child’s first learning environment and that the parent is a child’s first teacher. “Learning to parent a child who is blind is a challenging task for typically sighted parents. A VIPS teacher can equip parents with the skills and insight necessary to help them bond with and teach their children,” Howell said. “More importantly, a VIPS teacher can show parents that their child can and will learn, just in a different way. VIPS equips parents with educational resources and tools that will help them teach their child long after a home/virtual visit is over. A VIPS teacher can open up a whole new world of hope and possibility for a visually impaired infant and her family.”

In addition to the critical support offered in the home, VIPS now offers more onsite programming thanks to the newly constructed Simon & Estelle Knoble VIPS Family Resource Center

(FRC). The FRC is filled with resources, caring and trained professionals that understand the development of children with vision loss, accessible equipment, adapted materials, and—most importantly—hope. The FRC includes large activity rooms, a sensory room, a parent lending library filled with braille/tactile books, an ophthalmology/ optometry office, a teletherapy room, an adaptive outdoor playscape, and an accessible Toddler Town, and more. It is located in Line Lofts on the east side of downtown Indianapolis, the first affordable multifamily housing development in Indiana designed to meet the needs of low-income seniors and adults with visual impairments. As part of this incredible facility, TWG (The Whitsett Group) carved out 6,300 square feet on the first floor for VIPS. This location offers convenience to all families served across the state, located just off all major interstates. While the building just officially opened in April, new programming such as VIPS Cane Quest, Summer Adventure Camp, monthly parent support groups, and more are already underway.

Family Resource Center

Supporting VIPS: There are a lot of ways to support VIPS because the organization is a smaller agency.

“A donation of time, talent, or treasure is always welcomed!” Howell said. “VIPS is always looking for volunteers to make tactile items for welcome bags and braille thank you cards and to carry out tasks related to the Family Resource Center, such as window cleaning. In addition, volunteers are occasionally needed to care for children while parents are connecting with other adults. One can always make a donation. Operating dollars are always needed since new children get referred every single week. Another great idea is to host a supply drive for VIPS – new black towels, jingle bells, rice, pom poms, etc., are always needed.”

Check out VIPS’s Amazon Wish List. Follow VIPS on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and even Pinterest. Simply talking about VIPS can be helpful as raising awareness is a critical part of the mission of the organization. And finally, participate in any upcoming event VIPS is hosting. Be sure to visit https://vips.org to see all of the latest VIPS happenings!

“The critical services and support VIPS provides is an opportunity to be a catalyst for transformative change and self-sufficiency in young Hoosier children who are blind or visually impaired,” Howell said in conclusion. “Laying the foundation during the early childhood years can increase a young child’s potential throughout their educational career and into adulthood. With appropriate early intervention, young Hoosier children with vision loss can learn and thrive.”

VIPS teacher of the blind and low vision with our daughter, Lola J.

Testimonial: “The early intervention that VIPS provided for Jack has impacted his life in countless ways. What Amy [VIPS Teacher of Blind/Low Vision] did so well was to help us adapt our existing routines in ways that supported Jack’s vision development and cortical visual processing. Amy’s multi-sensory approach with the intentional use of more comparative language significantly improved Jack’s ability to process images over time. It is difficult to imagine where we would be without VIPS—as I tell anyone who will listen, VIPS made everything okay again. Despite his MRI scans and the gloomy prognosis from when he was born, Jack is thriving as a toddler. We owe so much of his success to VIPS.” -Brittany, Mother of Jack