Center for the Blind Gets $100,000 Foundation Grant

A large grant from a charitable foundation this week put a center for handicapped blind children and adults closer to beginning construction on a new multimillion-dollar support facility.

Therapeutic Living Centers for the Blind, established in 1978, provides residential housing and service programs for blind children and adults who suffer from other disabilities, ranging from mental retardation to cerebral palsy and epilepsy, said Ford Neal, the center’s executive director of programming and services.

The $100,000 grant, from the S. Mark Taper Foundation, a private family foundation, will go toward construction of a 9,000-square-foot structure that will house a fitness center, a sensory library, family counseling areas and training facilities. The center serves about 60 patients in its 11 residential homes. The new Reseda center, which will cost an estimated $2.25 million, will house programs for seniors during the day and activities for children during the afternoon.