Eurodesk UK partner RSBC helps blind young people make new friends

Eurodesk UK partner The Royal Society for Blind Children (RSBC) runs monthly Supper Clubs for blind and partially sighted young people in North and South London.

RSBC’s Supper Clubs are monthly get-togethers for blind and partially sighted young people aged 16-25 in a friendly community-based location. Young people can make new friends, meet up with old ones and have a laugh and a free supper. One young person who attended for the first time in December said…

This is my first Supper Club, I’m really enjoying myself! I can’t believe I haven’t come before!

The clubs can bring young people together, young people like Carmen for example. Carmen is completely blind and is very petite due to a condition that causes weak muscles and spine problems. She loves socializing and doesn’t let her lack of English hold her back. However, due to her condition, her family are very protective and she was unable to leave home independently. In order to attend social activities as an independent adult, she was reliant on others to travel with her from home and back, limiting what she could do and her sense of self as an individual.

Through Supper Club, she met other young people with sight loss and learned from them how they used TfL travel assistance to be more independent. This gave Carmen the confidence and motivation to be more independent in a way that being advised about TfL travel assistance by staff didn’t.

It didn’t take Carmen long to start navigating public transport with the assistance of TfL staff and now is happy to travel all over London.

Young people who attend these Clubs have learnt about different travel and mobility options available to them. During Eurodesk’s Time to Move campaign young people heard about how Eurodesk can help them volunteer, work or learn abroad. One young person found that Eurodesk could help them prepare to move abroad as part of their degree, while another was very interested to learn about grant opportunities to help them travel.

If you are a blind or partially sighted or other disadvantaged young person aged 16-25 living in London and think Supper Clubs might be for you contact RSBC by email (enquiries@rsbc.org.uk) or call our main office on 020 3198 0225.