Partnering with John Lewis

in Partnership with

Vision Impairment Awareness

Our relationship with John Lewis dates back to June 2022, when Kelly Barton, Engagement Manager for the North West Sight Loss Councils, delivered an introduction to Vision Impairment (V I) for partners at John Lewis in Trafford.  As a result of positive feedback, more sessions were organised.  Stores including Cheadle, Liverpool and Solihull also subsequently engaged in V I awareness sessions. John Lewis partners (all employees of John Lewis are partners in the organisation) were able to try on special glasses which simulate various sight conditions and be guided around the store to get a real sense of living with sight loss.

One participant fed back:

“The role-playing gave the partners a much better idea of the difficulties we might put in the way.  It would be great to spread this to other John Lewis stores. I would now feel much more confident to assist a customer who has sight loss. Thank you for coming in to see us.”

The session made partners more aware of the different ranges of sight loss which they had not realised and was very informative.

At Thomas Pocklington Trust, alongside other exciting initiatives, we look forward to further collaboration with partners at John Lewis.

“They all felt at ease with the training as Kelly is such an inspiration. Thank you for enabling me to walk in the shoes of someone who is blind or partially sighted.” , said another partner.

Sharing Retail Skills

When given the opportunity to support blind and partially sighted students on our Get Set Progress internship scheme, Christine Clark, Customer Liaison Coordinator at the John Lewis Liverpool store, was quick to lend support.  Christine planned and delivered two online sessions to our internship cohort:  ‘An introduction to retail’ and ‘Customer service excellence’ bolstering our new TPT Skill Share programme.  The sessions were engaging and provided our interns with information and advice about working in the retail sector and the wide variety of roles at John Lewis.  Tips on customer service excellence were also shared.

Christine Clark said: “There was a lot of information shared that will enable us to support people who are blind or partially sighted, we also learned that some manufacturers have supports in place, but we hadn’t realised, maybe not knowing we didn’t ask the questions.”

She added: “Also with regards to the zoom calls, I hope they all got as much out of it as I did, We are an inclusive company and to talk with different groups to break down barriers of employability and how we can work together is something I love to do.”

Glediano Ndreu, Sport and Leisure intern at the Thomas Pocklington Trust said:

“The retail sessions hosted by John Lewis provided a great insight into one of the sectors in which blind and partially sighted people like me could potentially find employment. The session also supported the fact that no matter the sector, there are opportunities for people like myself living with a visual impairment.”

Sighted Guiding

Our ‘Let’s Get Active’ event in Tameside provided the perfect setting for Amanda McKenna (pictured left below) and Jenny Slater (pictured right below), partners at the John Lewis Cheadle store, to try out their newly acquired sighted guiding techniques.  Jenny and Amanda spent the day volunteering as sighted guides, enabling blind and partially sighted people in the community to try out new sporting activities.

Jenny said:

“Amanda and I spent our volunteering day with the Thomas Pocklington Trust at the ‘Let’s Get Active Event’ in Ashton.  What an incredible day!  40+ blind and partially sighted people signed up to the event where they were given the opportunity to try out a range of sports including cricket, baseball, golf, adapted cycling, curling, tennis and goal ball. Fantastic day and fun had by all!”

For more information about our V I awareness sessions or to enquire about delivering a Skill Share session please contact jen.sweeney@pocklington.org.uk

For more information about our Get Set Progress Internship Programme please contact internships@pocklington.org.uk