Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Westphalia
| Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired Westphalia e. V. (BSVW) |
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|---|---|
| legal form | non-profit association, self-help organization |
| founding | April 9, 1921 (Westfälischer Blindenverein - WBV), 1997 renaming of the association to BSVW |
| Seat | Dortmund |
| motto | We see further. |
| main emphasis | Self-help organization - self-help for the blind and visually impaired |
| Chair | Swetlana Böhm (Chair) Herbert Kleine-Wolter (Deputy Chair) |
| Website | www.bsvw.org |
The Westphalia Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired V. ( BSVW ) is a registered non-profit association; it was founded in 1921 as the Westphalian Blind Association ( WBV ). It is based in Dortmund . With more than 1,880 members (as of January 1, 2018) and around 10 full-time employees in the Dortmund office and 90 employees in the senior citizen center Blickpunkt Meschede (as of November 1, 2018), the BSVW is the self-help association for the blind , visually impaired and for people in Westphalia at risk of blindness or visual impairment . It is one of 20 regional associations of the German Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (DBSV) . The board and management of the BSVW determine the work program in the regional office in Dortmund. In addition, 165 people volunteer on local boards in 34 regional associations in the Westphalia area. (Status: 2017) You make a contribution on site to counseling blind people.
tasks
The BSVW advises patients with eye diseases. He is also committed to maintaining and improving the social position of blind and visually impaired people in society.
The BSVW fulfills these tasks in particular through:
- Advice on issues arising from blindness and visual impairment arise
- Promotion of education, social and professional rehabilitation
- Participation in and maintenance of barrier-free living space and at the senior citizens' home in the senior center Blickpunkt Meschede as well as in a workshop for people with special support needs (Blindenwerk Westfalen)
- Advice on the procurement of suitable aids
- Maintaining social, cultural and sporting activities
- public relation
- Networking with other self-help organizations and experts such as ophthalmologists , eye clinics, opticians, etc.
- Political work in the field of disability and social policy
- Qualification of voluntary consultants according to the nationwide uniform quality standard
In order to better meet the special wishes and needs of the various professional and interest groups, specialist groups are available to the members.
The Westphalia Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired is formed by 31 of the 34 district groups of the BSVW, which are not independent registered associations. But according to the statutes, the district groups have a high level of practical independence within the limits of their area of distribution. The work carried out exclusively by volunteers in the district groups thus represents the basic work of the association. Sighted women and men also work on the boards. Passing on your own experiences and passing on your own skills has characterized the self-image of this institution from the foundation of the association to the present day.
The regional office of the BSVW in Dortmund acts as the central administration and information point of this association. This is where the association's management and accounting department are based. The website is maintained from here and the HÖRMAL audio newspaper is designed. Board meetings and internal and external training courses are also held in the conference room of the regional office. The employees of the association's nationwide projects also have their offices in the office. The full-time employees manage the facilities of the association, advise the district groups and individual help seekers on social and legal issues, but also on barrier-free construction that arise in the context of blindness and visual impairment.
A national and also a national offer will be mentioned below: “We see further” (WSW) stands for a training project for peer advisors funded by the Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. This acts as a nationwide advisory system. It is regarded as the forerunner of the nationwide project “Blickpunkt Auge”, which in turn was established by the Federal Association DBSV (German Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired). There is also a peer counseling concept behind this funding measure.
The association has been the sponsor of a supplementary independent participation advice center (EUTB) since 2018. The implementation of educational events and rehabilitation measures is also ensured. Furthermore, the contact and cooperation in regional and national organizations for the disabled is an important task of the management.
history
In Westphalia, the blind people of Dortmund founded their first club in 1891. In 1912 these blind people formed their own associations in Bielefeld, 1913 in Paderborn, 1919 in Münster and Lüdenscheid, 1920 in Gelsenkirchen and 1920 and 1921 in Bochum. After all German blind associations had merged in the Reichsdeutscher Blindenverband in 1912, a plan was drawn up in Westphalia to bring about a union of all people with blindness in Westphalia. On April 9, 1921, the Westphalian Blind Association (WBV) was founded in the organ hall of the Provincial Blind Institute in Soest. Eight clubs were represented: Dortmund, Bielefeld, Münster, Lüdenscheid, Paderborn, Bochum, Gelsenkirchen, Soest.
Contrary to the current trend in other blind associations, a self-help organization, the Westphalian Blind Association, was founded in Dortmund. This concern, the creation of an organization organized by blind people for blind people, was a big step in the 20s of the 19th century. While in other Prussian provinces "Blindenführsorgevereine" emerged with the aim of improving the care and support for blind women and men by sighted people, "Help for self-help" was on the program in Westphalia. This decision has become a model of success up to the present day. The board members were advised and supported by the (today's) Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL).
After the blind people had been supervised by the educational institutions up until then, the blind women and men in Westphalia were able to take their fate into their own hands and look for ways and means to eliminate or to eliminate the negative consequences of blindness in economic, social and cultural terms mitigate. The main task in this early period was public relations among the blind people themselves, who gradually stepped out of their isolation and joined the association. They wanted to actively contribute to their livelihood and no longer depend financially on social benefits. For the classic workshops for the blind, which were initially run by local associations, the sales department of the Westphalian Blind Association (WBV) was founded in 1929. In 1934, to streamline the buying and selling organization, the social welfare association for the blind was created, which in 1938 was renamed “Westphalian work for the blind (WBA)”. This association stood as an "aid organization of the state welfare association" under the direction of the respective governor (later: director of the regional association Westphalia-Lippe). Initially, all working people were grouped together.
In 1942 the typists and telephone operators as well as the masseurs founded their own specialist groups, which remained assigned to the WBA until 1969. After that, they moved to the WBV as a specialist group for office jobs and medical-therapeutic professions, while the craft businesses remained as departments under the umbrella of the WBA. The range of tasks was constantly expanded: In 1984, the three self-help organizations for the blind implemented their own rehabilitation courses in North Rhine-Westphalia for the needs of those people who go blind in old age or for whom retraining measures were not possible for other reasons after going blind. The aim of these measures was to achieve social reintegration after going blind through basic and advanced courses, even without professional retraining. The relearning of everyday skills was the focus of the further training. The association "Westfälische Blindenarbeit e. V. “was dissolved in 1993 after most of the workshops for the blind and the foundation of the Blindenwerk Westfalen gGmbH were closed.
An association's own guide dog school
was founded in Dortmund in 1935. When the demand for guide dogs decreased in the 1970s, the school was closed. Private guide dog schools have taken this mobility aid for the blind up to the present day.
The office of the Westphalian Blind Association and the Westphalian Blind Work Association in Kreuzstr. 4 in Dortmund was bombed on February 20, 1945. The building at Hamburger Straße 48, built in 1939 as a workshop and warehouse, was destroyed on October 6, 1944. The office was housed in Witten Bommern, Auf Steinhausen, until 1955. In 1956 the new house with workshop, warehouse and apartments for blind people as well as offices for the clubs in Märkische Straße 61-63 were moved into in Valbert. The barrier-free renovation of the entire building took place in 2007/2008 and the former workshop is now a place for barrier-free conferences and training courses. The apartments are rented to people with all types of disabilities.
Senior center in focus Meschede
In order to be able to care for blind and visually impaired people in old age, a retirement and recreation home was built in Meschede in 1927, which was expanded to include the care area after the termination of the offers in the Stukenbrock social work in 1952. The house was modernized in the 1980s and rebuilt from 2011 to 2016 with ongoing operations. Today the “Senior Center Blickpunkt Meschede” is a modern care facility with 80 places in single rooms and eight barrier-free service apartments.
The house in Meschede was transformed from a rest home into an old people's home, which is why a new solution was sought for a place to relax. The conference and recreation center in Meinerzhagen-Valbert, which opened in 1965, was expanded as "Haus Valbert" into a conference and meeting place in the following decades. For many years, education and recreation were key focal points of this institution. In 2000 the house was closed due to unprofitability. The facility was transferred to the spin-off "Blindenwerk Westfalen gGmbH" in 2004/2005 and has been a workshop for people with disabilities with an attached dormitory since 2006.
Until the 1950s it was not possible for the craftsmen in the workshops for the blind to live independently; they were housed - also as families - in dormitories. Therefore, from the mid-1950s, WBA and WBV built rental apartments as part of publicly funded social housing. The residential buildings were primarily built in the immediate vicinity of the workshops, which were often newly built at the same time. From these assets, the BSVW drew the funds for the establishment and expansion of the Blindenwerk Westfalen gGmbH at the Hagen and Valbert locations. In the meantime, these apartments serve, among other things, to secure the association financially. (Source: Impact report 2017)
Furthermore, the Westphalian Blindenverein e. V. in cooperation with the Blindenverband Nordrhein e. V., and the Lippische Blindenverein e. V. on the establishment of the Blind Center Bad Meinberg-Lippe gGmbH. In 1964 the inauguration of the Bad Meinberg health home for the blind took place. The BSVW left the company in 2000 and then the North Rhine Association of the Blind (BSVN) in 2001. The Lippische Blindenverein e. V. (LBSV), who had already become the majority shareholder, managed the company alone until its bankruptcy in 2014. Thanks to a private initiative, the hotel operations could continue until 2016. Since then, the blind associations are no longer responsible for the facility. The Aura Bad Meinberg closed on February 28, 2017 after bankruptcy. The house in Bad Meinberg was bought by a private investor.
Membership in committees and associations
- Disabled and Rehabilitation Sports Association North Rhine-Westphalia (Advisory Board)
- Foundation for the Blind for Westphalia (Advisory Board)
- Westphalia Society for the Blind (shareholder)
- German Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired (Association Day and Board of Directors)
- German Association for Public and Private Welfare (membership)
- The Paritätische Landesverband NRW (Advisory Board)
- Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs NRW (inclusion advisory board and specialist advisory boards)
- State Working Group on Self-Help NRW (Board of Directors)
- LWL-Berufsbildungswerk Soest (Advisory Board)
- West German hearing library for the blind (general assembly )
- Westphalian Blindenwassersportverein Münster
Partnerships, collaborations and networks
- The BSVW cooperates closely with the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired in North Rhine and the Lippe Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired through the joint specialist groups and the Blickpunkt-Auge advice centers. The members of Pro Retina Germany and the Federation for the Promotion of the Visually Impaired are also able to actively participate in the specialist groups through cooperation agreements.
- With other self-help associations of people with visual impairments or eye diseases, a network is maintained that exchanges information regularly, the working group of the blind and visually impaired associations in NRW. In addition to the three FSIOs, the following organizations belong to this network:
- AMD network (living with macular degeneration)
- Federation for the Promotion of the Visually Impaired State Association of North Rhine-Westphalia (BFS-NRW)
- Federal Association for Glaucoma Self-Help
- German Association of the blind and visually impaired in study and work e. V. (DVBS): District group NRW
- PRO RETINA Germany e. V. - Regional groups in NRW
- The BSVW is connected to the other state self-help associations through the NRW self-help organization (Wittener Kreis).
- In the regions, the district groups are networked in diverse contexts in the areas of disability policy and self-help. (Source: Impact report 2017), https://www.bsvw.org/transparenz/ (Access: December 5, 2018)
Affiliated Organizations
- The BSVW is the majority shareholder of the Blindenwerk Westfalen (BWW)
Finances and financial situation
The BSVW is financed from membership fees, grants, projects, inheritances, donations and income generated in business operations. Nobody has any property shares in the club itself.
Transparent civil society initiative
The BSVW association is a supporter of the Transparent Civil Society Initiative . The BSVW has joined the “Transparency Declaration” initiative. This includes compliance with ten points to which all members feel obliged. Numerous actors from civil society and academia defined basic rules that every civil society organization should make available to the public.
Signatories of the initiative undertake to publish defined information on their website in an easily accessible manner and sign the declaration of self-commitment.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Blindenverband Nordrhein, Westfälischer Blindenverein, Lippischer Blindenverein (ed.): Festschrift of the blind associations in North Rhine-Westphalia . Self-published, Dortmund 1996, p. 76 .
- ↑ To support the blind people in the Stukenbrock social work, a Stukenbrock district group was founded in 1949, which rented four barracks. Blind displaced people lived there and could work in the association's own workshop. The association took care of the social and cultural life of this group until a new solution was found for the people in 1952: The working blind people were relocated to the workshops in Münster and Witten-Bommern, the old people and people in need of care moved to Meschede for they newly built house, see reports - Stukenbrock social work refugee and reception camp (further source: yearbook 1949 and minutes of the board meetings of the years 1949-51, which are archived at the BSVW)
- ↑ Senior Center Meschede, accessed December 5, 2018
- ↑ Impact report 2017. In: Blinden- und Sehbehindertenverein Westfalen e. V. (BSVW). Retrieved December 5, 2018 .