Youth Programs

We put this video together to serve as our report to the NFB of Colorado’s 2020 Virtual Convention October 29-31. We wanted to show the creativity of our staff and determination of our blind students of all ages to obtain the blindness skills that mean independence, which are necessary despite this pandemic. In fact, the importance of independence and blindness skills is even more critical than ever. Since filming and first showing this video, we have again moved our Independence Training Program (ITP) to be virtual until after the first of the year, while also discontinuing in-person (and socially-distanced) training sessions with our blind seniors. Clearly whether blind or sighted, resilience is a key to coping in 2020 and beyond. And resilience is something we at the Colorado Center for the Blind and in the National Federation of the Blind have some experience with.

https://youtu.be/TSU7-eTRrbo

(Editor's Note: We don't blame you for wondering what is up with our summer programs for youth. The coronavirus and the subsequent shutdown orders put us into a scramble, affecting not only our youth programs, but seniors and the Independence Training Program, too. Here's an announcement from our Youth Services Director Martin Becerra-Miranda that should clear things up.)

by Martin Becerra-Miranda

Each spring, as plans for our Summer Youth programming come together, Executive Director Julie Deden eventually exclaims, “This is going to be the best summer program ever!” Her positivity, encouragement, and support have not wavered one bit through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Who?

Blind students of all ages and their families

What?

CCB’s bi-weekly FAST Zoom call

When

Friday, June 5, 2020 at 7:00 pm MDT

Where?

We will hold this meeting on the Zoom Meeting platform

Join the Colorado Center for the Blind this upcoming Friday, June 5, 2020 at 7:00 pm MDT for our bi-weekly FAST (Fun Activities and Skills Training) Zoom meeting. Our last meeting was a Game Night; we played a few rounds of “Trivia” and a couple of other rounds of “Heads Up”. Unsurprisingly, everyone who participated did a great job! We weren’t keeping score but the competitive juices were flowing for sure.

Editor's Note: Here's some news from Youth Director Martin Becerra-Miranda. He's been busy hosting lots of Zoom meetings for our staff and ITP students for the past month. But he's also had time to think about what he wants to do with our FAST (Fun Skills Activities and Training) for youth, and maybe, just maybe, he misses the real energy of working with kids. So we're going virtual with FAST starting this Friday!

Who?

Blind students of all ages and their family members

Where?

This will be a virtual meeting on the Zoom platform

When?

Friday, April 24, 2020 at 7:00 PM

Observing “Social Distancing” guidelines doesn’t have to mean being socially disconnected. The Colorado Center for the Blind FAST program will therefore host a virtual get-together every other Friday evening at 7:00 PM., starting April 24.

Colorado Gives Day 2019 is December 10, and it’s the tenth year of this highly successful program to encourage online giving to Colorado nonprofits like the Colorado Center for the Blind. And we’re proud that we’ve been a part of Colorado Gives Day from the very first!

Sure, we’ll gratefully accept donations any day, any time, but Colorado Gives Day on December 10 gives all of us some distinct advantages. Let’s mention, um, 10 of them!

The date of our annual FAST Thanksgiving activity has been changed from earlier dates you may have seen.

Who?

Blind students of all ages, families and teachers

Where?

Colorado Center for the Blind, 2233 W. Shepperd Ave. Littleton CO, 80120

When?

Saturday, November 23, 2019 from 10:00AM – 2:00PM

Early each year, more than 500 blind Americans tap their canes across Capitol Hill in the District of Columbia to keep appointments at the offices of every member of Congress. It is the Washington Seminar of the National Federation of the Blind, and it is how we make our legislative concerns and priorities known to those who have been elected to serve us. It is how we, the blind, make our voices heard, and doing so is the foundation of our democracy.

For the 2020 Washington Seminar, The Colorado Center for the Blind will assist up to 3 blind Colorado high school students to travel with the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado to the annual Washington Seminar February 10-13, 2019. The scholarships will include the costs of air travel, lodging at the Holiday Inn Capitol and a food allowance. We typically fly on the Sunday before the Washington Seminar begins, returning late on Wednesday.

Can’t wait for Halloween to get here? Want something to do on a Friday night? Never been on a scavenger hunt? Well, come and join CCB for a Friday night of fun! We’ll have plenty of activities to test your problem solving skills, mental mapping techniques, spatial awareness, and most of all, your Cane Travel abilities.

We hear tails of what lies beneath the poolroom, or where that screeching down the north hallway comes from, but don’t let those minor obstacles stand in your way. After all, you have goals to achieve, places to be and treats to find.

• A fun and spooky scavenger hunt.
• Bobbing for apples, a fun twist on a good old classic.
• Pumpkin decorating
• Mummy Wrapping, not a rapping mummy.
• A presentation for parents on the ins and outs of independent travel techniques.

And we’ll have pizza, too!