03 Nov The Stanley H. Durwood Foundation Awards $20,000 Grant to the Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired (CCVI)

Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired (CCVI) recently received a grant for $20,000 from the Stanley H. Durwood Foundation to fund incentives for teachers to gain their TVI and/or O&M certification as an investment in CCVI’s future and the long-term success of our patients.

CCVI will incentivize up to ten teachers to earn their TVI, O&M, or dual certification.  Newly certified TVI’s and O&M’s will receive a $5,000 bonus for each certification earned up to $10,000 per individual teacher.  These incentives recognize the value CCVI places on attracting and retaining the skilled specialists essential to the school’s success.

Given the extreme national shortage of O&M therapists and the rarity of dual TVI/O&M certification, it is imperative that CCVI take the lead in attracting and training these individuals.  The unique skills these teachers and therapists offer to the children served by CCVI are essential to the continuum of services across early intervention and early learning programming.  One of the biggest challenges faced by CCVI is the recruiting and retainment of Teachers of the Visually Impaired (TVI’s) and Orientation and Mobility Therapists (O&M’s).  These specialists are in extremely high demand.  CCVI must offer competitive packages in order to attract new specialists or encourage existing teachers to earn their certifications.

CCVI’s target population is children who are blind or visually impaired, from birth through school age, within a 150-mile radius of the agency. CCVI teachers, therapists, and specialists provide services in the core program areas including the Early Intervention Program (birth to age three), the Preschool/Kindergarten Program (ages two to six), and Outreach Services primarily for school-age children.