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January 7th, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Virtual Support Group. Held online.

January 8th, 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. Readers Choice Book Club. Held online.

January 13th, 11:00 – 12:00 p.m. Virtual “Question Connection!” Held online.

January 14th, 12 – 1:30 p.m. In Person Mobile Technology – What’s new in low vision technology. Held at our office.

January 18th, 11:00 – 1:30 p.m. Deafblind Club. Held at St. Peder’s Church.

January 21st, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. Virtual Technology, -Apple iOS Accessibility Features and Upgrades. Held online.

January 22th, 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. In-Person Support Group. Held at our office.

January 27th, 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Virtual Support Group. Held online.

January 28th, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Winter Party! Held at Sunrise Bank.

January 31st, 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Movie day! Join us to watch “CODA.” Held at our office.

December 3rd, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Virtual Support Group. Held online.

December 9th, 11:00 – 12:00 p.m. Virtual “Question Connection!” Held online.

December 10th, 12 – 1:30 p.m. In Person Mobile Technology – Using Smart Home Devices. Held at our office.

December 11th, 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. Readers Choice Book Club. Held online.

December 17th, 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. Virtual Technology, – Using Siri and Apple AI. Held online.

December 18th, 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. In-Person Support Group. Held at our office.

December 21st, 11:00 – 1:30 p.m. Deafblind Club. Held at St. Peder’s Church.

December 30th, 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Virtual Support Group. Held online.

Each month the Minnesota Access Alliance publishes a calendar with upcoming accessible arts and culture events. These events ensure that everyone can enjoy them. Mark your calendars for these fantastic shows:

Calendar of Accessible Arts Events by VSA Minnesota (mnaccess.org)

Good day members of the Vision Loss Resources community

I hope this update finds you well as we launch into 2024.

A new year brings new challenges. As you may have heard, Blind, Inc., the Twin Cities other large provider of services to blind and low vision clients, paused their operations and are no longer operating. That leaves VLR as the Twin Cities only comprehensive provider of services. Our student enrollment has grown and I’m pleased to report that we are ready and willing to take on this new challenge.

We’ve already started to modify our workspace to ensure that we have the right mix and type of classrooms for our students and instructors. We’ve even changed our parking lot configuration to make it easier for the additional Metro Mobility buses as they drop off and pick up students and staff!

I’m excited to report these changes as it shows the confidence that the state has in VLR as a training provider. I’ll report in as the year progresses on our training workload and our staff, but for now know that we are taking on this challenge and I know that we will rise to the occasion.

And of course, we couldn’t do any of this without your support. While State Services for the Blind compensates us for the training we provide, we only get paid when a student is here. So, if a student calls in sick, or is otherwise unavailable for training that day, we don’t get paid even though our instructors obviously still need to be compensated, the lights need to stay on, etc. This creates a situation, as it has for years, that means we must independently raise the funds to cover the difference between what we receive from SSB and what it costs to operate our business. While we are financially leaner (both in employees and our overall costs) we still need your generosity to keep providing the great training we provide, day in and day out.

Please take a moment to consider a donation. You can donate online via credit card or send us a check in the mail. Know that every donation, and every amount, is critically important for us and we appreciate your support.

I look forward to updating you on what I know will be a challenging but rewarding year. We make a difference in the lives of our students and I know that our instructors will succeed, as they do daily, in setting up our students for the independence that we all strive for in our lives.

With sincere thanks and wishing you a great January!

Matt Kramer

President

Visit this link to check out our 2023 Annual Report!

Vision Loss Resources is recruiting board members to join our board of directors. VLR is innovative nonprofit, serving low vision, blind, and deafblind Minnesotans while at the same time operating a fully for-profit competitive packing company (Contract Production Services). We seek board members with experience in human resources, manufacturing, and sales to help guide our growth and who have a passion for serving fellow Minnesotans.

If interested, contact Matt Kramer at MattK@vlrw.org for more information.