Coventry Resource Centre for the Blind was founded in April 2010 by Tricia Griffiths and the late Rosie Brady.

The buildings we occupy on Earlsdon Avenue South have been associated with support for blind and partially sighted people since 1968 when Boston Lodge was bought by Coventry Society for the Blind as a home for ‘Blind Old Ladies’. It was soon amalgamated with its home for ‘Blind Old Gentlemen’ and a workshop (now the Mary Beale Room) was built at the rear of the property.

In 1992 Coventry Society for the Blind built the Resource Centre, a then state-of-the art facility providing access to the latest equipment as well as services like braille transcription and teaching and activities, especially social clubs.

The economics of running a care home took its toll on Coventry Society for the Blind’s finances to the extent that in 1997, the national charity for deafblind people Sense had to step in. With the care home in private operation, SENSE ran the Resource Centre for the next 13 years but decided in 2009 that it was outside their core functions and they would have to withdraw.

A committee of people – service users and others with an interest – started meeting to see what could be salvaged. In the end, only two people were left: Tricia and Rosie. Together they decided they would just get on with it and opened the doors of the newly constituted Coventry Resource Centre for the Blind on 1^st April 2010.

From almost nothing (no phones, hardly any furniture and little money) and with just a few legacy groups operating out of the centre, the two women rolled up their sleeves, raised funds and got going.

Since then, the charity has grown: the number and range of activities has risen to support ever more people from Coventry; the staff and volunteer team has expanded; the charity has reached out further into the community to find more of the thousands of people in the city who need help.

In 2015 the privately operated Boston Lodge care home finally closed. Our then landlords, Sense, decided to sell the site and made a generous offer to CRCB to buy it. After three years of hard work, the charity raised the funds and in 2018 bought Boston Lodge, the Resource Centre itself and the land they sit on.

That year we were also given the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Services, the MBE for charities, which recognises the extraordinary achievements and dedication of our fantastic volunteers.

In 2020, Tricia and Rosie were both awarded BEMs in the late Queen’s Birthday Honours list: richly deserved by two extraordinary women.

Sadly Rosie died in November 2023, a huge loss to her family, friends and everyone at CRCB. To honour her considerable legacy, the Resource Centre building has been renamed The Rosie Brady Centre.