The Story of Cardiff Vales and Valleys
Our heritiage dates back to 1865 when The Cardiff Institute for the Blind was founded by Frances Batty Shand, the daughter of a Jamaican plantation owner, who had moved to Cardiff with her brother on the death of her father.
Miss Shand was concerned with the "ragged" children she saw in Cardiff and toured the city offering help and support. Miss Shand first opened a small workshop in the Canton area of Cardiff employing four Blind men making baskets for the coal ships sailing from Cardiff. Within a year larger premises were purchased at Byron Street in the Roath area and ten men were employed. In 1868 a third move was made to Longcross Street off Newport Road within 300 metres of our present home -Shand House. In 1877 Miss Shand retired and little is known of her until her death in 1885 in Switzerland.
The Longcross Street premises continued to prosper and by 1900, there were 100 Blind men and women employed at the Institute in the manufacture of baskets, mats, brushes, ships fenders and sewing. In 1941 Longcross Street was destroyed during a German air raid on Cardiff, but within weeks all employees were back at work, housed in small workshops scattered around the Roath area of Cardiff. The Institute was given a plot of land in Newport Road in 1949 and work on the new premises commenced in 1951, which were opened in 1953. The work of the Institute at this time was still concentrated on the employment of Blind and Disabled people, in 1965 70 employees engaged on the manufacture of traditional products for a Blind workshop.
Gradually as attitudes changed towards integrating disabled people into work, rather than segregated ‘sheltered employment’, more opportunities arose for Blind people in open employment particularly with the rapid growth in technology. The role of Blind workshops gradually decreased and they were shut down in 2006.
CIB began to concentrate its role on the provision of direct services for visually impaired people in the counties of Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan and set benchmarks which societirs have followed throughout the UK. In 2009, the biggest expansion in our long history took place when we became part of RNIB Cymru Group, with the remit to spread our service and support model across South Wales.
We changed our name to Cardiff Vales and Valleys (CVV) to better describe our expanded geographical brief. Having established Locality Development Officers throughout South Wales, and in close consultation with the needs of local people we operate the following areas: Cardiff, Vale of Glamorgan, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Merthyr Tydfil, Port Talbot, Neath and Swansea.