Renfrewshire Visual Impaired Forum (RVIF) has secured more than £19,000 to support its work over the next two years, with help from Shopmobility Renfrewshire volunteers.
The forum will hold its meetings at Beechwood Community Centre after facing the loss of its regular venue at the Disability Resource Centre in Paisley.
Nicola MacNeil, chairperson of RVIF, said: “This is great news for RVIF. We were facing the loss of our regular venue – the Disability Resource Centre in Paisley – due to budget cuts by Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership (RHSCP) and were struggling to decide what to do next.”
The situation was raised with Shopmobility Renfrewshire’s office manager and fundraising officer, Karen Miller. She spoke to the organisation’s chair, Councillor Kenny MacLaren, and both offered their services as volunteer fundraisers for RVIF.
Karen said: “We’ve transitioned to a new business model while navigating major challenges, and securing five years of staff funding from the National Lottery Community Fund is a massive validation of our resilience and vision.
“We thought we could share our experiences and skills to help get the RVIF onto a sound financial footing.
“In practice, Kenny identifies the most relevant funders and I complete the application process with team input, it’s a system that is working well for us and has also helped to raise over £19,000 so far for RVIF.”
Councillor MacLaren added: “Like many people I was extremely disappointed by the cuts from the RHSCP and the impact it would have on local groups like RVIF. Working collaboratively has unlocked a lot of value and efficiency for RVIF’s longer term sustainability.”
Nicola said: “It’s amazing that within only six months Shopmobility Renfrewshire’s support we have achieved such great success.
“It was a steep learning curve understanding the funding process so that the help from Karen and Kenny was invaluable. We also input into their comprehensive accessibility surveys across Renfrewshire.
“With our funding and future secured for the next two years, we’re all looking forward to holding our meetings at the Beechwood Community Centre who have been fantastic in welcoming us to their venue.
“Hopefully this will help RVIF to grow and develop, meeting the needs of those in Renfrewshire who are blind or visually impaired.”
For more information about the forum, email renfrewshirevif@gmail.com or visit its Facebook page.