Now at our offices: Pacific Training Centre for the Blind

We are pleased to welcome to our location on Fort Street The Pacific Training Centre for the Blind,  a nonprofit service organization founded and run by blind people.The Institute hosts training workshops on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings each week, and their managers come in to do administrative work on other days.
Traditional training models use fixed route-based methods which train blind people to use non-varying routes to go to and from specific locations, thus leaving them unable to handle new situations or to explore their world with confidence.

The Institute’s training programs seek to break down barriers that prevent blind people from living independently. Students learn how to survive in the world without help of the sighted. During Institute training sessions participants typically learn the following:

• How to cook a meal on the stove
• The Braille system of reading by touch
• Computer skills
• How to travel with a cane
• Wood working and building
• Employment readiness through job shadowing and entrepeneurial training

The Institute believes that participants can gain confidence in themselves through their own efforts at problem-solving and resolution that will enable them to manage all obstacles in their path.
Confidence-building activities include camping, where participants put up tents, build and cook over a fire, etc. Participants push both their personal limits and their belief it what is possible for blind people to do. Activities are also created that allow our participants to take part in community life.

The Institute believes that participants can gain confidence in themselves through their own efforts at problem-solving and resolution that will enable them to manage all obstacles in their path.
The Institute also works to connect with other community stakeholders to help spread their philosophy in order to instill cultural change in how blind people are viewed.
The Victoria Disability Resource Centre shares space with five other non-profit organizations at our large office space in downtown Victoria, and all of them assist people with disabilities.