We are a Registered Charity, incorporated into a Company Limited by Guarantee, governed by a Board of Directors/Trustees who act to set strategic policies and maintain the charitable objects of the association which are to provide services and relief for the education, training, employment and welfare of all visually impaired people living in the County, whether they are registered or not.
For the year 2006/07 the Board comprises:-
Phil Newton a business and sales manager, involved with the charity for several years at local level. Phil is Chair of the Finance Committee.
Mary Cullen who is retired but is active in a wide range of voluntary actvities and is a branch officer and registered sight impaired
Linda Phear an administrative officer, active at local level and is registered sight impaired. Linda has been elected to Chair the Board.
Steve Gosling is a consultant acoustics engineer, with his own business practice and a keen interest in the non profit sector
Ruth Kirby works in the NHS and is a qualified Human Resources manager, specialising in training. Ruth is also a volunteer local committee officer.
Peter Hards who is well known nationally for his work as Leisure Services Manager with the Royal Blind Society. Peter has extensive experience of working in the charitable sight impaired sector.
All Directors go through a rigorous interview and induction process and as volunteers, receive no payment for their work as Directors/Trustees.
The Board ensures that services are maintained and oversee the work of the Chief Executive who has responsibility for managing the day to day running of the association and its staff team.
The Staff Team
Chief Executive: Chris Hedges is a highly experienced executive officer in the non profit voluntary sector and a member of the Institute of Fundraising and ACEVO the professional body for chief charity officers. Chris is responsible for overall management and service delivery for the charity and leads a team of professional staff providing support and services to all sight impaired and families across the county.
The small professional staff team is organised into sections providing Outreach, Resources and Support to Sight Impaired people throughout the county plus Management , Support and Training for Volunteers. Finally there is a small Adminstration and Finance section dealing with the many and varied necessary tasks required to run a modern charitable company.
Organisation
We are the largest organisation dealing with visual impairment in the county of Hampshire, with a presence in every community offering clubs and activities catering for all ages and interests.
There are, on average 4,000 people registered with us at any time, and an average of 600 Volunteers offering their time, skills and energy to assist the association provide its basic services for sight impaired people.
We are listed by the Charity Commission amongst the top 8% of Charities in England and Wales and in Hampshire there is no other organisation as large or so widely available to serve the visual impaired community.
Branches are an integral part of the charity, established and governed by the Charity and run by local voluntary committees to provide clubs and events for visual impaired people in their area.
Essential to the work of the organisation is dialogue with our benificiaries , our service users, and the encouragement of them to become active participants in all aspects of our work.
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The Charity and Branches
