VIPS is a nonprofit agency that provides early intervention and educational services to young children who have blindness or low vision in Kentucky and Indiana. Researchers and therapists who work with children who are visually impaired have demonstrated there is a direct correlation between early intervention and future academic success. Their mission was to enhance learning opportunities by providing early intervention services to young children with blindness or low vision and their families in the Louisville area. They began with grants of $10,000 each from Metro United Way and the WHAS Crusade for Children. VIPS started modestly with one employee providing eight families with home-based early intervention services once a week. In January of 2002, we began a $2.3 million Capital Campaign with the goal of additional space for office and support services as well as a Classroom Wing for center-based preschool services. VIPS purchased the building at 1906 Goldsmith Lane, renovated the space, and moved in December of 2004. In the Summer of 2008, the Kosair Charities Kids Town and the Kentucky School for the Blind Charitable Foundation Classroom Wing were completed. In the fall of 2008, young children who were blind, visually impaired or deaf-blind from across the region came to VIPS to attend Kids Town Preschool at VIPS, the first preschool for children with blindness/low vision in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Central Kentucky’s first office opened in Lexington in 1990. To better prepare for our growth, in 2016 we entered into a collaboration to locate our office at the Lexington Hearing & Speech Center and started a program for two-year-olds. Because our mission knows no borders, in August 2011 we opened a satellite location with two employees in Bloomington, Indiana. Six years later, VIPS Indiana has grown exponentially to serve children in need across Indiana. We moved the Bloomington office to the IIC in Indianapolis in May 2014 to expand our reach. As VIPS in Indiana continued to grow exponentially, it has become apparent that VIPS was outgrowing the small office space at the IIC so in 2018, VIPS embarked on a $2.1M Capital and Operations Campaign to build a 6,300 square foot space now known as the Simon and Estelle Knoble VIPS Family Resource Center at 1212 Southeaster Avenue in Indianapolis. This space, was opened in April of 2022 and includes not only offices but a Sensory Room, accessible Toddler Town, a Lending Library, a Parent Hub, and so much more. No other space exists like this in Indiana- a space designed specifically for children who have visual impairments in mind. Today VIPS is a statewide agency in Kentucky and Indiana with a total annual budget of $3.2 million and still growing; serving children in need from birth to age five years of age and their families. VIPS was the first and continues to be the only nonprofit agency in Kentucky and Indiana providing vision-specific services to this population of children.
