You chose to provide a short written description (up to 300 words) explaining how your organization makes an impact in the community.Never A Loss of Vision is a 501c3 organization whose primary program is Camp Abilities Tucson sports camp for individuals with disabilities. Our mission is to advocate for increased health and quality of life for people with blindness and low vision through educational health and physical activity programming. The purpose of camp is to empower young people with visual impairments to be physically active, improve their overall health and wellness, encourage them to make food choices that support an active lifestyle, and develop their confidence and self-esteem through sport and physical activity.
Camp Abilities Tucson is an evidence-based program for youth with disabilities ages 7 and older that aims to increase health-related quality of life through health, physical activity, and wellness education. Camp introduces participants to instruction in a variety of sports, including swimming, strength training, horseback riding, blind soccer, beep baseball, goalball, golf, and hiking. We also teach wellness lessons daily on topics like self-advocacy, building healthy friendships, water safety, goal-setting, and nutrition. A secondary goal of camp is to train pre-service teachers and therapists to be educators and allies for students with visual impairments, primarily though our partnership with the Occupational Therapy Assistant program at GateWay Community College.
Camp Abilities is located in Tucson and we serve young people from throughout the state, but primarily southern Arizona. Our youth program is for children ages 7-17, and our adult program serves individuals with IDD and visual impairments ages 18 and over. The true cost per camper is approximately $1,900 (including food, housing, and a 1:1 coach for one week), but none of our participants are able to pay that full fee. Last year, only 1/3 of our participants paid a $299 attendance fee while the other participants paid nothing to attend.
Social media handleshttps://www.facebook.com/CampAbilitiesTucson/
https://www.instagram.com/campabilitiestucson/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClyD9EMkPuerCb1mmxy0knA