Sight Support Worthing, the year ahead: reinstating popular activities and planning new ones

If you’re a regular visitor to our blog, you’ll have seen our posts about our objectives for this year. If not, you might like to look back at the one about improving our communication with members and the one outlining our plans to develop our technology for VI service.

Our third post looks at our plans to reinstate popular activities for existing members and plan new ones to reach new participants.  

It goes without saying that our usual activities have been somewhat interrupted and different in the last 15 months or so. It now looks like we can start to return to in-person activities which gives us the opportunity to evaluate what we’ve previously offered (both pre-Covid and during the pandemic), what’s worth keeping and what new and exciting activities, groups or events we should offer.

So one aspect of this objective is to resurrect our regular schedule of events, both weekly or otherwise. We’ve already got our classical music group meeting back at the Centre, and the Art Group is currently experimenting with a hybrid face-to-face and Zoom based group. We’ve a trip to Cycall taking place shortly (and more planned!) and our weekly outings on the mini bus will start shortly. We are also planning to maintain our Chair Yoga sessions by Zoom each week. While in-person activities offer an added social aspect, online get togethers do suit people who aren’t able to get to the Centre for whatever reason. 

In addition to our regular programme we’re also planning to provide activities for the over 30’s who outgrow the young persons’ VI charity support locally. We have noticed a gap in the availability of interesting, inspiring and accessible activities for the over 30’s and we’re looking at ways to fill that gap. If you are between 30 and 55 and interested in sports, music or any other hobbies – get in touch and we’ll look at what we can offer.

We’ve really missed seeing everyone when the Centre has been closed and it’s highlighted how much dropping into the Centre means to our members. The second part of this objective is to adapt the opening hours of the Centre based around the activities we offer. This may mean, for example, that we open longer into the evening to accommodate activities taking place later in the day. Younger members may be more likely to want to socialise in the evening if they’re busy with work or college in the day time. This will be a fluid process that will take time to settle in but we hope it will suit more people, more of the time! 

We hope our plans sound exciting and we will keep you updated as new activities and events are planned. Don’t forget to provide feedback to any member of the team; we are here to provide services and support to our members and we want to get it right!