VIPS Indiana
About VIPS Indiana
VIPS Indiana was a grassroots effort led by a mother of a child who was legally blind and a teacher of blind/low vision. These two knew the landscape for Indiana’s youngest children with blindness/low vision needed to change and their drive to help these children and their families motivated them to try to bring the VIPS mission to Indiana. With the backing of the VIPS Board of Directors and the VIPS executive director, this mother and teacher began providing services on August 1, 2011. VIPS Indiana started with eight children and the office has grown exponentially over the years. We now have a network of teachers, interventionists and Orientation and Mobility Specialists who provide vision-specific early intervention services to children, birth to three, throughout the state. We began a capital and operations campaign to build a Family Resource Center and in 2022 it opened to the public. We are proud of all that we’ve accomplished, but we have more work to do as there are more children who need the specialized services we can offer.
Have a question?
Contact the VIPS Indiana office for more information!
Why is early intervention so critically important?
DID YOU KNOW?
90% of what a child learns
is through their vision.
85% of the foundation of learning happens the first 5 years of their life.
How does your donation benefit a child who is blind or visually impaired?
Your donation directly impacts the life of children who are blind or visually impaired in Kentucky and Indiana.
Did you hear the big news?
VIPS Indiana finished building the Family Resource Center just east of downtown Indianapolis! The Family Resource Center is now located at 1212 Southeastern Avenue, Indianapolis, IN. We broke ground in October 2019 and our staff moved in November 2021, we officially opened to the public in April 2022.
The Family Resource Center will be a hub for parents to receive resources; a place for VIPS children to receive services on-site, it will allow us to expand the size of the current VIPS office space to support more programming; provide plenty of space for board and service club meetings, training sessions for providers, and ultimately allow VIPS to serve more children with vision loss in Indiana. The new VIPS Indiana facility will also allow for VIPS to grow the lending library of technology and materials that are often not affordable for families served by the agency. The Family Resource Center will allow us to serve our families better.
Are you interested in learning more about how you can be involved at the Family Resource Center?
Please contact Director of Development, Meredith Howell, at (888) 824-2197 or mhowell@vips.org.
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How can VIPS help your child?
We empower a young child with blindness or low vision to navigate their world and gain independence.
Wish List
- Red or yellow slinkies
- Red shiny pom poms
- White computer paper
- Jingle bells
- Mylar material
- Baby wipes
- Vinyl
- Snacks for events
- Grocery store gift cards for family events