09 Mar Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired (CCVI) Receives a $250,000 Grant from the Neighborhood Assistance Program
Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired (CCVI) was recently awarded a $250,000 grant from the Neighborhood Assistance Program to support the Early Intervention Program (EIP) and the Preschool/Kindergarten Program.
The EIP provides regularly scheduled home-based instruction, therapies, and center-based evaluations of the infant and toddler’s developmental progress, beginning as soon as the child is diagnosed through the age of three. The program offers a comprehensive, individualized educational and therapy program for infants and toddlers who have significant visual impairments that impact learning and development. Early intervention teachers and therapists work with parents in regularly scheduled home visits to provide strategies and activities that can be practiced daily and generalized to the world beyond. Examples of services include Orientation and Mobility, speech-language pathology, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and specialized instruction from Teachers of the Visually Impaired (TVI).
CCVI’s early intervention and preschool/kindergarten programs provide individualized educational plans for children in a nurturing environment which addresses their vision needs, their other senses, and all developmental domains. Our ultimate goal is to help children move toward independence and self-reliance. We continually assess and evolve our services and seek to fill gaps in the community that hinder the ability for visually impaired children to be successful in their development and educational careers.
CCVI was founded in 1952 as The Kansas City Nursery School for the Blind. One teacher, assisted by volunteer classroom aides from the Junior League and Delta Gamma alumnae, taught the first class of eight blind, and five sighted children. The school’s name was changed in l982 to the Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired (CCVI). For over 67 years, CCVI has educated more than 10,000 children who are blind or visually impaired, or have multiple disabilities, and their families. The agency is the only center in the Kansas City area that offers specialized instruction and therapy for young blind and visually impaired children, including those with multiple disabilities, from birth through the age of six. Only seven similar programs across the country exist, none of which provide therapeutic services as comprehensive as CCVI’s offerings. Referrals come from physicians and medical personnel, government agencies, and word of mouth.