25 Aug Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired (CCVI) Receives $75,000 Grant from the Sarli Family Foundation

The Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired was recently awarded a $75,000 general operating grant from Sarli Family Foundation to support comprehensive, individualized educational, and therapy program for blind or visually impaired children and their families.

CCVI serves blind and visually impaired children from birth through school age, within a 150-mile radius of Kansas City, regardless of ability to pay.  Services are provided in the home and at CCVI and may include speech-language, physical, and occupational therapies; braille instruction; orientation and mobility; assistive technology; and family support services.

CCVI seeks to provide a rich learning environment that is complemented by robust therapeutic support. The goals are to: monitor the child’s developmental skills; assess, monitor, and maximize residual functional vision; and provide educational and emotional support to families. In addition to measuring progress in developmental skills, CCVI examines the rate of student progress in specific categories including braille literacy, multiple impairments, socialization, and use of assistive technology.

Over the last 68 years, CCVI has educated more than 10,000 children who are blind or visually impaired and their families. Our goal is to help children move toward independence and self-reliance. The agency is the only center in the Kansas City area that offers specialized instruction and therapy for children from birth through the age of six within this distinct population.