Pacific Training Centre for the Blind Society
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Mission Statement
The Pacific Training Centre for the Blind is committed to empowering its students to achieve independence, employment, equality and first-class citizenship by offering cutting edge blindness skills training based on a positive, proven, world-renowned model. Teachers instil a belief in blind people’s own capabilities and in the limitless possibilities open to them by adopting a non-custodial approach (i.e. it is not about sighted people doing things for blind people; it is about blind people doing things for themselves, and it is about blind teachers working with blind students to increase skills and confidence).
About This Cause
The Pacific Training Centre for the Blind (PTCB) is an award-winning, accredited, grassroots charitable organization, (Charity Number: 846673085RR0001) currently based in Victoria, BC. The organization is community-focused, accountable to the people it serves, and the vast majority of its funds are spent on direct program delivery. The PTCB currently serves blind, deafblind and low vision adults in Greater Victoria of all ages, from young adults to seniors. The PTCB has accreditation from the Commission on the Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities and is currently the only CARF accredited blindness-service provider in British Columbia. The organization's Blind People In Charge program has received ABC Life Literacy's Canada Life Literacy Innovation Award. PTCB is one of the only organizations in Canada that offers regular, intensive, group-based blindness skills training to blind, Deafblind, and low vision adults. Instructors are blind or Deafblind and have a wealth of lived experience with the positive approach to blindness. They provide non-visual training in: tactile skills, including Braille; orientation and travel training with the long white cane; daily living skills such as cooking and cleaning; and technology such as computer and iPhone use without sight. The goal of the PTCB is for students to gain the skills and confidence to increase their independence, improve their quality of life, take part in their community, and find gainful employment Or self-employment. The PTCB delivers programs using the non-traditional Structured Discovery model of teaching, where students are encourage to problem solve and to take charge of their own lives and learning. Students with some remaining vision wear learning shades, a comfortable covering over the eyes, which help them to build confidence and focus on using their other senses. The PTCB was founded in 2011 and has been providing services since 2014. The idea of the centre took root years before in the minds of blind people who wanted to address the high unemployment rate (75% nationally), isolation, and severe lack of intensive rehabilitation available to blind people across the country.