The Mayor of Mansfield, Cllr Kate Allsopp kindly popped in to our coffee morning in Mansfield recently to say hello to staff, volunteers and local visually impaired people who were meeting to plan the launch of our exciting new social group for visually impaired people in Mansfield.
My Sight Mansfield launches in July
The new social group is being set up thanks to a grant of over £400,000 from the Big Lottery Fund (BLF), which will be used to fund new My Sight Nottinghamshire hubs in Mansfield, Bassetlaw and Newark over the next three years to help tackle the social isolation that all too many visually impaired people experience in these communities in the north of the county and helping local visually impaired people get more out of life.
My Sight Mansfield is the first hub to launch and will open its doors with a new social group, which meets for the first time on 27th July at the St Peter and St Paul’s centre in Mansfield. The new social group is open to anyone in the Mansfield area who has a visual impairment, their families and those who care for and support them.
Exciting programme of activities
The group will offer local visually impaired people the opportunity to meet other visually impaired people for mutual support and friendship over a cuppa and a piece of cake. As the new group develops, an exciting programme of activities will unfold that is likely to include quizzes, local speakers, live music, dancing and day trips to places of local interest.
The group is open to anyone living in the Mansfield area with a visual impairment and the first session is absolutely free of charge. Subs for subsequent sessions will be just £2 and transport to the group can be arranged if needed.
Welcome to Mansfield
The Mayor of Mansfield, Cllr Allsop, welcomed the launch of My Sight Mansfield, saying: “My mum has a visual impairment and I know from first-hand experience how isolating sight loss can make people feel. I’m therefore absolutely delighted to welcome this new social group to the town. I wish My Sight Mansfield every success for the future and hope that it will help local visually impaired people get more out of life.”
Danny Du Heaume, My Sight Nottinghamshire’s Hub Coordinator, said: “It was fantastic to have the Mayor of Mansfield drop into our first every coffee morning, we hope to welcome her again to My Sight Mansfield as the group develops and grows in the weeks and months ahead. The Coffee morning was an opportunity for us to meet up again with many of the local visually impaired people who attended our consultation in Mansfield a year ago. It was thanks to their input that our bid for lottery funding was successful and we wanted to thank everyone involved and let them know that the group would be launching in July.
“We sincerely hope that this initial coffee morning will, over the weeks and months ahead, develop into a vibrant and successful social group for visually impaired people in Mansfield to enjoy.”
If you or someone you know has a visual imapirment and lives in the Mansfield area and would like to find out more about our new My Sight Mansfield social group, please contact Danny on 0115 9706 806.
Will you help us make sure no one in Mansfield faces sight loss alone?
We are also urgently recruiting new volunteers in the Mansfield area to help support visually impaired people in Mansfield, if you have some time to spare and would like to volunteer with us to help us make sure no one in the Mansfield area has to face sight loss alone, we’d love to hear from you. Please speak to Nic on 0115 9706 806.