Open Sight

We are a Registered Charity, incorporated into a Company Limited by Guarantee, governed by a Board of Directors/Trustees who act to set strategic policies and maintain the charitable objects of the association which are to provide services and relief for the education, training, employment and welfare of all visually impaired people living in the County, whether they are registered or not.

The Board comprises:-

Linda Phear

An administrative officer, active at local level and is registered sight impaired. Linda has been elected to Chair the Board.

Steve Gosling

Is a consultant acoustics engineer, with his own business practice and a keen interest in the non profit sector.

David Gaines

David is a highly experienced HR Professional with his own practice and brings to Open Sight his deep knowledge of the voluntary and community sector (vcs) having served it professionally and as a trustee with other vcs organisations.

Derek Froud

Derek is a Fundraising Director with a national charity working with sight impaired people and apart from his extensive experience in the fundraising field has worked for Royal College of Church Music among others and been involved in many charitable organisations.

Dean White

Dean is a Head of Department at the NHS Information Centre based at NHS HQ in London and Leeds and has wide and detailed knowldge and experience of public sector policy and management. Dean lives near Bishop's Waltham and has a life long interest in falconry.

All Directors go through a rigorous interview and induction process and as volunteers, receive no payment for their work as Directors/Trustees.

The Board ensures that services are maintained and oversee the work of the Chief Executive who has responsibility for managing the day to day running of the association and its staff team.

The Staff Team

Chief Executive: Chris Hedges

Chris is a highly experienced executive officer in the non profit voluntary sector and a member of the Institute of Fundraising and ACEVO the professional body for chief charity officers. Chris is responsible for overall management and service delivery for the charity and leads a team of professional staff providing support and services to all sight impaired and families across the county.

The small professional staff team is organised into sections providing Outreach, Resources and Support to Sight Impaired people throughout the county plus Management , Support and Training for Volunteers. Finally there is a small  Adminstration and Finance section dealing with the many and varied necessary tasks required to run a modern charitable company.

Organisation

We are the largest organisation dealing with visual impairment in the county of Hampshire, with a presence in every community offering clubs and activities catering for all ages and interests.

There are, on average 4,000 people registered with us at any time, and an average of 400 Volunteers offering their time, skills and energy to assist the association provide its basic services for sight impaired people.

We are listed by the Charity Commission amongst the top 8% of Charities in England and Wales and in Hampshire there is no other organisation as large or so widely available to serve the visual impaired community.

The Charity provides a Resource and Independent Living Centre offering equipment and low vision equipment assessments, an Outreach Team of professional staff who assist with benefit claims and independent living advice and through a dedicated Community Development Team a wide range of networked services, activities and support for visually impaired including locallly run voluntary clubs and events for visual impaired people across the county.
Essential to the work of the organisation is dialogue with our benificiaries , our service users, and the encouragement of them to become active participants in all aspects of our work.