Jan Welsman is the Community Support Team leader for Surrey Association for Visual Impairment, - SAVI. Jan and her team develop services and projects which enhance and support the lives of Vision Impaired people living in the administrative County of Surrey.
Jan has worked with disabled people since 1984, when she was employed as a Play Co-ordinator at the Disability Challengers in Stoke Park, Guildford. She then moved on to Surrey County Council Surrey County Counsel Home Care team in the Social Services Department, where she was a Manager of a team of Home Care Assistants providing personal care in the community, enabling people to remain in their own homes when they had physical or emotional difficulties coping with personal care or day to day tasks.
In 1997, after twelve years service to Surrey County Council's Home Care service, Jan changed jobs to join SAVI as the Volunteer Co-ordinator. With her experiences of working with disabled people in the community, Jan was keen to support people's rights in having access to choices about their lives and she set up the Community Support Team in the Charity.
Being married to John, who is totally blind, Jan also supports her husband with additional assistance that other married couples may not require of each other, and she is therefore considered his Carer. One area of assistance that can be required for a visually impaired person is reading, when information is not sent out in a format that John can read, e.g. e-mail, tape or Braille. Jan is also a keen supporter of Carers UK.
Additionally, Jan works with John in promoting awareness of Vision Impairment issues through their work on local radio Broadcasting and through projects, which Jan, John and SAVI work on together.
Jan is also an established artist, which she works on in her spare time. She is a keen photographer and painter, especially of pictures showing the Surrey countryside and the nature within it.