Welcome to The National Federation of the Blind of Missouri St. Joseph Chapter. St. Josesph Missouri. Located in the northwestern part of the Show Me State of Missouri. We look forward to meeting you.
The St. Joseph Missouri Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind is a local chapter of a nationwide organization. We, as blind persons, believe the positive philosophy of our organization and we want you, the public, to believe it too.
In our local chapters and state affiliates of the (NFB) National Federation of the Blind we do many things to promote equality, security and opportunity for all blind persons. We believe and teach newly blinded persons as well as the public that it is ok to be blind. With the proper training and the use of alternative techniques, blindness need not be a tragedy but rather, it can be reduced to a mere nuisance or simply an inconvenience at times. One of the few things that we as blind persons can’t do is drive, but that does not stop us from getting to work or anywhere else we choose to go.
During the past few, years the NFB of Missouri has accomplished much in the legislature. Blind persons can now receive many of their bills in a format that they themselves can read; braille and large print for example. Blind people in Missouri can simply pick up their phones and read their local daily news paper plus other popular news papers such as The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and USA Today. Our education for blind children legislation should make it possible for blind children to receive a much better education than in the past. These are just to mention a few of the things which our St. Joseph Chapter has participated in on a state level.
We play a much more personal role on a local level, as well. WE\e encourage newly blinded persons to try new experiences using alternative techniques. We tell them where they can obtain training and services that they need. We advocate for persons who are blind in such things as equal education, employment opportunities, social security benefit problems and much, much more.
Most recently our local chapter has set up a scholarship fund so that once a year a blind college student will receive assistance from us to further their education. We continue to assist blind persons with computer technology with our chapter computer project. We contribute braille books for blind students in the St. Joseph School District Library that we established a number of years ago. And we have a web site where interested persons can learn many things regarding blindness.
We meet once a month for continued support and, once in awhile we plan a fun activity to get us all together for relaxation.
