Community Organisations

Person with visual impairment being guided across the street

180,000 blind and partially sighted people find it hard to go out alone. Together we will change that.

 

The new My Guide service is a partnership between Guide Dogs and community organisations, which helps people with sight loss get out of their homes and back into the community. My Guide aims to reduce the isolation that many people with sight loss experience, helping to rebuild their confidence and regain their independence.

How does it work?

• Guide Dogs works in partnership with your organisation to engage with blind and partially sighted people

• Guide Dogs works with you to recruit volunteers and deliver VISION 2020 endorsed training to enable them to confidently guide blind and partially sighted people

• Service users and Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checked volunteers are then matched by your organisation

• Service users and volunteers work in partnership for three to six months, setting clear goals together

• During the partnership, volunteers regularly guide service users to social and leisure activities, e.g. the shops, a café, or even the local bingo

• At the end of the partnership, select My Guide volunteers train up members of the service user’s community (e.g. family, friends, members of local clubs) to support their ongoing independence

• Guide Dogs supports you to deliver the My Guide service, ensuring a consistent standard across the UK

What’s your organisation’s commitment?

• Recruiting and training volunteers (with Guide Dogs’ support)

• Implementing safeguarding procedures, including CRB checks

• Delivery of the My Guide service

• Registering all trained volunteer on the central My Guide database*

• Supporting the service user’s ongoing independence by ensuring community members/relevant groups are in place to help them after the partnership ends


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Benefits of working in partnership with Guide Dogs

• Guide Dogs will work with you to overcome the barriers you may have in setting up the My Guide service. This may be practical support or short term financial assistance (e.g. volunteer expenses or training venue costs)

• Help with promoting My Guide, including an online marketing, communications and fundraising toolkit

• Assistance with recruiting and training volunteers

• Ongoing support with the delivery and management of the My Guide service

• Joint fundraising and public relations opportunities

• Consistent standard of training for volunteers, a centralised database of endorsed volunteers and support with mobilising them to events


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How to get involved

To register your interest in My Guide or for more information, please contact us:

Disclaimer:

* All trained volunteers will be registered and basic data (including their name, contact details and postcode) will be stored on a central database. This will ensure quality standards and also enable volunteers to be mobilised to events. Guide Dogs will hold the database but any partner organisation or event organiser can request that volunteers are contacted. Information on the database will not be used to communicate any other Guide Dogs activities, to recruit for fundraising or for any other volunteering opportunities. Volunteers will not be contacted by third parties and all information will be stored in accordance with the Data Protection Act.



Person with blindness being guided up the stairs by a sighted guiding volunteer
Sighted Guiding, stairs

Read how Catch22, trained their young volunteers to be sighted guides

Catch22 NCS Partnership is a fun and challenging summer activity programme for young people. They encourage young people to meet new people, try new things and make a difference in your local communities. Read how the young volunteeers trained to become sighted guides to blind and partially sighted.