Lori Berkey

Background

About Lori Berkey

As a human rights advocate with a background in social work, I work to empower individuals to reach their full potential. I have written over 700 published articles for a community newspaper, spotlighting services of nonprofit organizations and successes of people who overcame adversity. My passion is connecting people with community resources. As someone who has volunteered for the Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired for over a decade, I was inspired to create this website with an abundance of resources for people with vision loss: visionlossresources.wordpress.com. When working at an assistive technology company that made devices for people with low vision and blindness, I found it very rewarding to train end users and dealers on the use of assistive technology that helped people live more independently. In this position, I also was able to develop strong public speaking skills, as I provided product demonstrations at local and national conventions. When working at a public library where numerous patrons frequented with social service needs, I was pleased to be recruited for the library’s Community Service Task Force. In this role, I was compelled to compile a comprehensive community resource directory that was made available in print and online for patrons. Another aspect of my library job that I loved was welcoming English language learners. There were many Spanish and Portuguese speaking patrons, and I worked daily to improve my own Spanish speaking skills in order to be of service to them.(It turned out people who speak Portuguese could understand my Spanish too, and they were able to learn about library and community resources as a result). Although my Spanish vocabulary and grammar still needs work, it was a pleasure, with my basic Spanish conversational skills, to be able to help newcomers become oriented to library and community resources. I continue to practice Spanish daily in hopes to assist people in accessing support.