SCKCB Grant Program

• SCKCB Awards Grant to Teresa Escue

  Thanks to a grant from the SCKCB, Teresa Escue can now enjoy some quality time with her grand daughter reading a book. Using the Oracam MyEye, Teresa can now read the print well enough to enjoy these moments with here family. The MyEye can be seen attached to Teresa’s glasses on the left side of the picture. This nifty piece of technology contains a small camera and optical character recognition software which translates the printed word into spoken words.

  We hope that Teresa gets many years of enjoyment out of her new MyEye!

Note: The following are meant to be guidelines, not inflexible laws or policies. The SCKCB Grant Oversight Committee has authority to make exceptions when deemed necessary and/or appropriate. Further, the decisions of the SCKCB Grant Committee are final. Grant funding is limited to the amount in the SCKCB Grant Fund. Once the fund is exhausted, no more grants will be approved until additional monies are allocated to the grant fund. The committee may partially fund some grants in order to be able to serve the most people. Approved funding may be refused by the applicant, for whatever reason, if the applicant wishes to do so.

Counties of the BRADD

• Allen
• Barren
• Butler
• Edmonson
• Hart
• Logan
• Metcalfe
• Monroe
• Simpson
• Warren

1. SCKCB members who are blind or low-vision or a parent or guardian of such an individual who have been members in good standing for 9 months are eligible for an SCKCB Matching Grant. The grant can be up to 75% of the total purchase price for a qualified assistive service or product (see point #6 below). All recipients must be citizens of the United States and reside in one of the counties comprising the Barron River Area Development District (see list of counties to the right).
2. Blind or low-vision individuals who are not members of the SCKCB or who, otherwise, do not qualify for a grant under the provisions in point #1 above, may still apply for a SCKCB Matching Grant, up to a maximum of 50%, providing they are a citizen of the United States and a legal resident in one of the counties comprising the Barron River Area Development District (see list of counties to the left).
3. Only one grant per family or household may be applied for at a time.
4. Unless waived by the SCKCB Grant Oversight Committee, no family or household shall receive a grant in two consecutive years.
5. Grant applications may be submitted to the Grant Oversight Committee at any time with the understanding that it may take the committee up to 30-days to make its final decision regarding the acceptance of any given application.
6. All grants must be specifically for the acquisition of some type of accessible or blind-orientated product or service or a device that will make a blind person’s life better as a blind person, as defined by the SCKCB Grant Committee.
7. All Individuals benefiting from a SCKCB Grant must be legally blind.
8. There will be no “income test” to be considered eligible or to receive a SCKCB Grant.
9. The SCKCB Grant Oversight Committee shall be comprised of two SCKCB members in good standing and one external, or non-member, from the Greater Bowling Green community. If there is any kind of conflict of interest issue regarding any member of the Grant Committee and his/her ability to objectively evaluate any given grant application, that committee member shall recuse him/herself from the evaluation process and an alternate member shall be appointed by the SCKCB president in his/her place.
10. Members of the SCKCB Grant Oversight Committee may apply for an SCKCB Grant; in which case, he/she shall recuse him/herself from the deliberations of the committee and an alternate committee member shall be appointed by the SCKCB President to serve in this particular situation.
11. All members of the SCKCB Grant Committee shall be appointed by the SCKCB President with the advice and consent of the SCKCB Executive Committee. The SCKCB president shall be the chair of the Grant Committee and be allowed to vote.
12. All SCKCB Grants shall be “matching” grants. That is, SCKCB Grants shall not exceed 75% or 50% of the total acquisition cost for the product or service to be purchased by the recipient of the grant, whichever applies, subject to points #1 and #2 above. The remaining percentage not covered by the SCKCB Grant must be obtained from another source, e.g. personal funds, loans, another grant, or some combination of such sources.
13. Before any grant funds are actually dispersed by the SCKCB to the seller, the grantee must either: Provide the seller with his/her portion of the matching funds and the seller must confirm receipt of such funds to the SCKCB or
14. The grantee must provide his/her portion of the matching funds to the SCKCB at which time the SCKCB will disperse funds for the entire amount to the seller.
15. After the acquisition of the product or service, proof or evidence of the purchase must be presented to the SCKCB Grant Oversight Committee for its records.
16. All recipients of SCKCB Grants are required to actually demonstrate the purchased item to a meeting of the SCKCB membership or describe the device or service, including how well it works, its usefulness to a blind person, whether he/she would recommend it to other blind or low-vision people, etc., to a meeting of the SCKCB membership.