Spotlighting the NEW Programs at the Lighthouse

EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT

Shirlee Crandall, Introducing the New

Health and Wellness Program!

Shirlee Crandall has worked in the Adults and Seniors Program at the Lighthouse as an independent living skills trainer since October 2016. The Adults and Seniors Program provides individuals 23 years and older with vision loss the skills, tools, and resources needed for maintaining independence in their homes and community. During the pandemic, the program adjusted their training to be accessible online and have achieved impressive results. In late 2019 the Adults and Seniors Program began a new service called the Health and Wellness Program. The program will include these 7 crucial steps: Healthy Eating, Being Active, Monitoring, Taking Medication, Problem Solving, Reducing Risk, and Healthy Coping.

Shirlee is excited to begin providing resources to those with prediabetes and diabetes in order to help them manage their needs and concerns. It will be a hybrid program combining assistance from RN’s and the Lighthouse in order to ensure the consumers are receiving adequate training and resources for their specialized needs.

Shirlee is grateful to prioritize health and wellness in this new program. There are also some new additions to the Health and Wellness Program developing this year! Diabetes Education is coming to the Lighthouse in April and a new Health and Wellness Club will follow soon thereafter.

We are so thankful to have Shirlee on our team and we are so excited to watch the future and growth of the Health and Wellness Program!

COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS

Altus Base Supply Center Awarded

with Eagle Leadership Award

Congratulations to our Base Supply Center team at Altus AFB in Oklahoma for being recognized by Wing Leadership with the "Order of the Eagle." We are the first ever recipients of this award. This award recognizes outstanding support to military personnel and their mission.

The Lighthouse is proud to have this honor and we offer a huge congratulations to our team over at Altus AFB.

The 23rd Annual Low Vision Expo Recap

The Adults and Seniors Program partnered with the Low Vision Resource Center/Owl Radio to assist them in providing the 23rd Annual Low Vision Expo on a virtual platform.

The Expo is well known for bringing many resources for the visually impaired together in one place. With technical expertise from our Vocational Rehab Services Program, and extra staffing support from our Children’s and Adults & Seniors Program, it truly was a team effort! Attendees were able to participate in speaker sessions as well as visit 30 individual vendor rooms.

This year's event was held on March 26th and had close to 200 attended, 300+ registered, many of whom were able to access recordings of presentations, and 3 facilities hosted watch parties for their residents. We had attendees from 11 states across the nation and 2 from foreign countries. We even had some first time Zoom users who were trained through our program to utilize the service.

Here are some comments from those attending the conference:

"I believe you did well and I learned a few things about Zoom that I hadn't used before."

"the hosts did an amazing job navigating us all so huge Kudos to them!!"

"I really enjoyed the sessions and all the happy and helpful folks...it's been a fun and educational experience...thank you!"

Thank you to everyone who attended and made this Annual Low Vision Expo such a wonderful and successful event! We look forward to next year's event.