The Guide Dogs Newcastle community team have this week celebrated a significant move to new premises at Gosforth Business Park, as part of a major investment which will allow the charity to support more people living with sight loss in Newcastle and the North East.
To celebrate the occasion, Guide Dogs held an opening event with a special guest, former Middlesborough and England footballer Dave Thomas. Dave, who has glaucoma and is a guide dog owner, is originally from the North East, and his dog Hannah was trained by the Newcastle Community Team before they qualified as a partnership in 2017.
“”I think the most important thing is the independence that Hannah has given me. She’s an amazing dog, she has changed my life. It’s been a pleasure to open the new centre here in Newcastle today – it means so much.”
Dave Thomas
Previously located at Park View House in Benton, the Newcastle team includes expert staff who train guide dogs, as well as being a hub for all the charity’s support services, including orientation and mobility services for children and adults living with sight loss, and a volunteer-led sighted guiding programme called My Sighted Guide.
Guide Dogs has been supporting the community in Newcastle for over two decades, and one of the very first ever Guide Dogs community teams started in Middlesbrough over 50 years ago in 1971.
The new site provides around a 150% increase in capacity for training dogs and an improved environment for both staff and dogs.
“This major move will enable Guide Dogs to partner more people with sight loss in Newcastle and the North East to a life-changing guide dog, by helping us to train more dogs and reduce the waiting list.
“These new facilities are also a huge improvement for staff working across our SISS, Fundraising, Volunteering and Operations departments. It gives us an opportunity to recruit more staff and volunteers so we can continue supporting more children and adults in the community who are living with a vision impairment, through all of our services, whether that’s a dog, habilitation support, or a sighted guide.
“We’d like to extend our gratitude to our amazing network of volunteers – it’s not just our facilities that will enable us to continue our life-changing work across the North East – without our volunteers, it would be impossible.
“With these new facilities here in Newcastle, new services, new technologies and our amazing staff, volunteers, dogs and supporters, we will be there for the next 50 years and beyond.”
Regional Head of Skills, Information and Support Services (SISS) for Guide Dogs, Debbie Linford
Guide Dogs is looking for new volunteers in Newcastle to sign up as Fosterers or as a My Sighted Guide volunteer to help those living with sight loss who are on the waiting list get the support they need. For more information on volunteering roles and to apply, visit:
https://www.guidedogs.org.uk/how-you-can-help/volunteering-for-guide-dogs/
