Community Resources— and Volunteers

Abstract

Use of community resources and volunteers is, seemingly, a little-used art in this specialized field. It is a recognized tendency on the part of other agencies to refer all blind persons to the specialized agency, even when they have acknowledged community responsibility to offer a particular service which could meet the blind person's need; also it is recognized that frequently there is a tendency on the part of these agencies to shunt blind persons into corners if they do make an effort to serve them. On the other hand, agencies serving blind persons have had the tendency to be overprotective and to hold their clients as close as a poker hand. Again I would say this is a two-way street, and should provide a challenge to us to interpret services; to continue to pressure agencies to extend their services in order to include blind persons with their sighted peers; and to take advantage, with imagination, of all potential resources. Home teachers can serve as consultants on the plus knowledge of needs created by the handicap of blindness, and as referral resources. They can interpret special needs of blind persons, decide ways in which other agencies can assist, and help to develop a different public attitude toward blindness. They cannot do all this unaided; attitudes toward using volunteers and involving other individuals and agencies stem from top administration—possibly they will have to do a selling job there, too!

The role of the volunteer is an important one if the volunteer is properly and planfully recruited, trained and supervised. Volunteers have been likened to “a highway to community understanding.” To paraphrase the Ladies Home Journal cliché—”Never underestimate the power of a woman”—I would say, “Never underestimate the power of a volunteer!”

There is a slowly growing appreciation on the part of staffs of specialized agencies serving the blind of the potential use of other community resources on behalf of their clients. By fostering this change of attitude, and by making full use of our volunteers, we can greatly increase and improve our service to our blind clients.