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We will email you our Torch News magazine four times a year, full of encouraging stories, updates and information on how you can get involved. Our quarterly prayer diary is included to give you a daily guide to how you can be praying for the ministry of Torch. By receiving these digitally you help us save costs and help the planet!

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    GIVING

    Donations keeps us helping others

    We are only able to continue our work supporting those with sight loss thanks to the generosity of our supporters. Please consider if you can support the ministry financially.

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    Torch Contact Number

    01858 438260

    Office hours are 10:00am to 4:00pm Monday to Thursday.

    From outside UK: +44 1858 438260

    If you don’t get a response please use our online form or email us at: info@torchtrust.org

    Get in touch

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    Send us a message using our online form and a member of our friendly staff will get back to you as soon as possible.

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    Client supporter Registration

    Sign up as a client supporter today.

    It’s free and easy to become a client supporter. You can do this online or over the telephone. This will give you access to most items that a client would have access to.

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      Client Sign-up

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      We’ve got a dedicated form to register yourself as a client.

      Church Registration

      Register your Church to become a Sight Loss Friendly Church

      It’s free and easy to become a client supporter. You can do this online or over the telephone. This will give you access to most items that a client would have access to.

        Church details will be listed on our website.


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        Church resources

        Get equipped - Browse our Resource Centre for SLFC material

        Benefits of becoming a Sight Loss Friendly Church

        There are many benefits of becoming a Sight Loss Friendly Church. Here are just a few of them:

        Advice & Guidance

        Torch Trust can help your church to become more aware of how to support people with sight loss. We can support you to become more accessible and more able to confidently engage everyone in your church, and those who would like to join.

        By signing up to become a member of Sight Loss Friendly Church, you’ll gain access to a wealth of help, support and advice from Torch; experts with over 60 year’s experience.

        “It was visually impaired people coming to our church which prompted us to call Torch to see how we could best include them.”

        Training & Support

        Training Sessions

        SLFC Training

        Our interactive, fun and engaging training sessions last 90 minutes and take place on Zoom. They offer an overview of the wealth of things you can do to make people with sight loss feel part of your church community. Contact the SLFC team for more information.

        You can also download our free training resource enabling you to run your own session. This resource has been created to help your church on its sight loss friendly journey. You can use this training in a group, in a service, or go through it on your own.

        Training videos

        Focus On Sessions

        Watch our Sight Loss Friendly Church training videos on Torch’s YouTube channel. Take a closer look at some of the specific problems faced by people with sight loss and what you can do to make things better at your church. Topics include Assistive Technology, Pastoral Support, Guiding and Making Your Documents Accessible.

        Downloadable Resources

        SLFC Guides

        We have a range of helpful and insightful Sight Loss Friendly Church guides. These cover all areas of church life to enable you to welcome and include people with sight loss in your church. Topics include Best Practice Guidelines, Practical Guiding Tips, Making Your Newsletters Accessible and Blind Etiquette.

        More Benefits

        SLFC Updates

        SLFC Email Update

        Receive regular updates straight to your inbox when your church signs up to Sight Loss Friendly Church. Filled with news, new resources, and the latest Torch and SLFC events, it’s a great resource to share with your congregation to keep them up-to-date.

        Worship For All

        Worship For All

        If you need to produce documents in large print or Braille, we have a free online tool that can help, available exclusively to our Sight Loss Friendly Churches.

        Torch Shop

        Accessible Christian literature from Torch

        As a registered Sight Loss Friendly Church, you will be able to purchase a wealth of Christian literature in accessible formats such as Braille, Audio and Large Print. Included in our catalogue are Bibles, hymn books, Bible commentaries, Christian discipleship courses, biographies, Christian fiction and much more. SLFC’s can purchase these resources from Torch at the print price so that those in your congregation with sight loss can be fully included into the life of your church.

        SIGHT LOSS FRIENDLY CHURCH REGISTRATION

        Become a Sight Loss Friendly Church

        Join our network of churches across the UK to access training, advice and be added to our Sight Loss Friendly Church map.

        This button will open a form that can then be completed

        Sight Loss Friendly Church Resources

        All of the resources on this page are free to download and use however your church would like to. We hope that they inspire, interest and engage your congregation – some are great for interactive activities, some for raising awareness and others for helping people to understand what it is to be sight loss friendly.

        What is Worship For All?

        What can be more excluding for a person with sight loss than when everyone else in church is singing but they can’t? With more and more churches using projectors and screens, the problem is getting worse. There’s now a vast choice of songs, with new ones being quickly adopted on a regular basis.

        Worship for All is a free, online, automated transcription service from Torch Trust which enables churches and Christian organisations to provide resources for people with sight loss. Hymns and songs, liturgies and other church handouts can be converted to large print – and made ready for braille at the click of a button.

        Asked how it impacts his experience of church, braille reader Colin says, ‘It transforms it – I can join in all the worship. I really feel part of it’.

        Becks, thrilled with the results, said,

        “It was great to have the braille and be able to follow the service along with everyone else… It’s lovely to be able to join in with the service rather than just listen… Being able to join in means I feel like I’m taking part, rather than just being there.”

        How can I use Worship For All?

        The service is suitable for worship songs, Bible readings, church notices, magazines and most other types of document or text-based projector content. It will provide output in PDF format in a range of large print sizes, automatically paginated and indexed, as well as a braille-ready (.brf) file for use with a braille embosser.

        The service has been used successfully at Spring Harvest and Keswick Convention to produce handouts on-site each day. These handouts have enabled blind and partially sighted people – and others who were unable to see the screens (including wheelchair users whose sightlines are obstructed by others standing) – to join in with the worship.

        Torch’s online service takes input from SongPro, Media Shout, OpenLP and from Word documents. Torch has also developed output transforms for Visual Liturgy, allowing Common Worship services to be processed too.

        For a detailed set of instructions, please read the Worship for All Instruction Manual.

        WORSHIP FOR ALL REGISTRATION

        Register for Worship For All

        By registering for the service, you will be asked to confirm your eligibility and agree to restrict use to a non-commercial basis.

        This button will open a form that can then be completed