During these unprecedented times, Sight Support Derbyshire is working hard to ensure that we continue to provide much-needed support, advice and information to visually impaired people and their families across the City and County.
As Government advice has been updated, we have had to make changes to the way we deliver our services. We have had to cancel events and activities, and have now taken the decision to stop all of our home visits and face-to-face services until further notice. Our priority is keeping our service users, our staff, our volunteers and our wider communities safe.
Our offices in Derby and Chesterfield, and in the Eye Centres at Royal Derby Hospital and Chesterfield Royal Hospital are now closed to the public. However, we are continuing to keep our telephone helpline open to offer advice and information, and to signpost you to other local services that may be able to offer help and support.
If you have any questions, concerns, or anything that you think that we can help with, please give us a call on 01332 292262. You may find that you are greeted by our answer machine, but do leave a message and your contact number and we will get back to you just as soon as we can.
Of course we would much prefer to see you in person, at home or at one of our events, but while this isn’t possible our helpline is there to support you as much as we can.
We have had to reduce the number of staff working in the offices at any one time, but rest assured we are all busy behind the scenes, with many of our staff now working from home.
We think we have managed to contact everyone who had a service planned to postpone our visits. We are contacting all new referrals to see if there is anything we can do remotely. No one will be forgotten and we look forward to seeing you at one of our events or activities, or at home, as soon as we can go back to ‘business as usual.’
We will be putting updates on our website. If you have Facebook or Twitter, you can follow us by putting @SightSupDerbys in the search bar.
Finally, the spring and summer is our busiest time for fundraising. As an organisation we rely on the generosity of our members and the public to be able to provide our services. As the coronavirus pandemic has caused us to cancel or postpone our key activities, we are asking you to consider making a donation to our work.
Giving ‘little and often’ through our regular giving scheme helps us to plan for the longer term. Giving a one off donation also makes a big difference and allows us provide much needed to support to children and adults living with sight loss in Derbyshire. We know that these are challenging times, but anything that you are able to give would be greatly appreciated.
We hope that you, your families, friends and communities stay safe.