Why Give?

When you give to The Carroll Center, you are investing in the training and development of a blind or visually impaired individual to become an independent and productive member of society.

Your gift helps to pay for the 20% to 50% gap between the actual cost of services and the amount The Carroll Center is reimbursed by the state. Faculty and staff at The Carroll Center are committed to helping our clients in their struggle to achieve a life of independence. Your gift also pays for the extras that make The Carroll Center unique – like the sailing program and other recreational programs offered to clients that are wholly supported by charitable donations.

Why what we do is important

The process of adjusting to one’s new condition of life with vision loss is very demanding physically, emotionally, and financially. The individual who must step into this new world faces many challenges. The Carroll Center’s staff is here to begin that process of adjustment.

Perhaps the words of a 42-year old recently-blinded graduate say it best:

“I don’t know how it is for people who were born blind but from someone who becomes blind, when you lose your sight, you realize that you don’t fit in any more. You may lose your job, or just have to give it up because you can’t do it anymore. You are recognizable by being blind; it makes you different. You may be at home listening to the radio, just doing nothing. You kind of lose yourself, not knowing who you are anymore. ”

“When you come to the Carroll Center, since everyone else is blind, the blindness is not what distinguishes you any longer. What distinguishes you now is that which is unique about you. These things that make you what you really are. So you find yourself again, and what you thought you had lost”.

Read more from Joe.

In the words of another graduate:

“As I commute home each night (the “T” Red Line to Alewife), I often reflect on my life and consider myself a very lucky person. I have a great job as a Customer Service Representative, a job I got through the Carroll Center. And I enjoy a full schedule of healthy outdoor activities that nurture me as a whole person, not just as a blind person. Most of this I credit to the terrific staff and volunteers at The Carroll Center. They taught me the adaptive and occupational skills I needed. But, just as importantly, they taught me the physical skills that exercise my body as well as my mind and that provides me with hours and hours of pleasure.”

“Read more from Tim”/about/testimonials/tim-cumings.

And, finally, from a newly blind young woman who shares her thoughts on her experience here:

“At the Carroll Center things you thought you could never do again become daily accomplishments: mobility, personal management, low vision aids, sensory development, Braille, typing, taping record keeping, orientation, shop, and perhaps the most important, the greatest education of all is the bond of affection that forms between the clients.”

Please visit our ways to give page on this site to find out more.