Community Education provides lifelong learning for all. That’s why we’re sharing stories of the different ways people interact with Community Ed. We want YOU to see how Community Education is having an impact on your friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues. 

(4/28/25) Elementary students at Brookside Elementary are trying to understand what it’s like to be blind or visually impaired. A new Community Education class for youth is introducing students to the different levels of vision loss and teaching them how to communicate with braille.

Led by Traci Chur, an Anoka-Hennepin teacher for the blind and visually impaired, the class aims to raise awareness about the importance of braille and help mainstream students recognize some of the challenges that people who are blind or visually impaired face.

“The kids have learned braille. They started with learning the dots and what the dots mean. Then they got to create their own braille,” said Chur. “They also did some simulations with glasses to see what the different visual impairments look like and feel like.”

A grant from the Anoka-Hennepin Educational Foundation (AHEF) helped purchase supplies for the class including braille cards and braille beads.

“I would like to see it continue,” said Chur. “I would like to see it grow into older grades because our field needs people to go into being blind and visually impaired teachers. We need braillists, we need that.”

In our latest Putting ‘U’ in Community Education video, we’ll visit an after school classroom as children engage and connect.