Guide Registration Info

Hello - if you are a runner or walker who is considering supporting a visually impaired person by joining Running Blind's guide service corps - welcome, and thanks for your support! We seek to provide support for visually impaired people of all ability levels find guides as training partners that will allow these blind athletes to enjoy the a more active lifestyle for years to come and enjoy the benefits that a healthy active lifestyle can help provide. To do this will likely take 2 or more guides for every visually impaired person we support, and over time, the required number of volunteer guides could likely grow substantially.

Guide Registration              

This started in 2011 & was the genesis of Running Blind.
The basics of the program are:

1. Potential guides use our on-line registration form to sign up to volunteer support for a visually impaired training partner.
2. Information is requested regarding the experience and ability level of the perspective guide, as well as availability in their training schedule, and normal training pace. (For runners, we try to put together pairings such that the guide runner is a bit faster than the blind runners if possible.)
3. When some number of seemingly well matched guides sign up, we perform a background check on all potential guides.
4. Once that part of process is complete, we begin a pairing process to see if suitable matches can be established for the desired guide support.
5. Once mutually agreeable pairings are established, we provide some information to each of the training partners including guide runner basics (available on-line).
6. We then set up a meeting between the training partners. Depending on the location, this may or may not be attended by someone from Running Blind.
7. At this point the process is handed off more or less completely to the training pairs. The visually impaired runner is the person that will need to be the primary facilitator of the partnership, but both partners bear responsibility to honor their commitment and participate in good faith with the training partnership.

How often will I be expected to help out?

We don t expect any guide runner to commit to running with their visually impaired partner more than once per week. Depending on the desired training schedule of the visually impaired partner, this will likely require multiple guides. And even beyond that it is good to have some additional guides as back-ups so that the visually impaired person is not left sitting at home due to a scheduling conflict with any given guide.

So how many guides do we need?

Providing the desired support for any given visually impaired person will most likely required a number of guides, and finding these people and getting scheduling match-ups will also likely require that quite a few more than the required number of guides register in out system as potential service providers. And as we already know from experience, supporting the needs of school aged runners competing in a high school cross country or track & field team requires a lot of volunteer support for the 4-5 day per week afternoon training schedule.

Will I get a chance?

The guide runner search process means that more people will need to register than we will be able to pair with a visually impaired runner initially. Please don t become discouraged by this. Over time it is very likely that most people that register as potential guides will have an opportunity to provide guide services to someone.

Questions? Concerns?

If you are considering registering but have some questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Running Blind founder Hal Wolfe or a Running Blind volunteer by phone or e-mail. (Contact info available on the Contact us page.)

Sign up!

If you are considering registering for this service, please take the next step and register on our system. We need your support to help visually impaired people that can't train outdoors without assistance. It's a great way to give back to someone who can really use your help - someone who is likely a lot like you but needs a partner to run or walk outdoors safely. Here is the link to the registration form:

              Guide Registration

Guide Runner Training

We hope to provide a basic one hour training session for all new guide runners before we pair them with a visually impaired runner. Depending on the location of the visually impaired athlete, this may not be possible as our organization grows. We do provide all guide runners with our "Guide Runner Basics" info package and when a training session is not possible, we conduct a phone interview with the guide runners to go over all of the details.

              Guide Runner Training & Support