Nonprofit Talk: Blind New Yorkers work round-the-clock to fight the coronavirus

Reinhard Mabry is the President & CEO of Alphapointe. Photos courtesy of Alphapointe

By Reinhard Mabry, as told to the Eagle

Reinhard Mabry is the president & CEO of Alphapointe, which is based in Richmond Hill. Alphapointe empowers people with vision loss to achieve their goals and aspirations. Founded in 1911, Alphapointe is the largest employer of people who are blind in New York City and is a trusted resource for people with vision loss, offering products and services nationwide.

How has your organization navigated the pandemic?

Because of critical products and services that we provide to federal, state and local government, Alphapointe was deemed an essential business. We’ve been working around the clock since the pandemic outbreak started. It’s certainly been challenging, and, like most organizations, we’ve made adjustments to ensure that the safety and well-being of our staff remains our top priority. One of the things I’m most proud of is how quickly we were able to pivot during the pandemic based on the priorities of the country. As an example, we shifted our production schedule so that we could manufacture face masks and have made thousands of those masks that are being used by soldiers as we speak. 

How are you now serving your clients?

Our work never stops and that’s true regardless of the global pandemic. If anything, the need for our services has increased. The unfortunate reality is that people who are blind or visually impaired have a 70 percent unemployment rate during normal conditions. Preliminary indications are that their unemployment rate has increased due to the pandemic. Those people need jobs just as much as anyone else. Alphapointe continues to actively recruit so that we can continue to manufacture products needed by organizations and businesses throughout the country, as well place people who are blind and visually impaired into jobs in the community.

How are you balancing the needs of your clients with the level of risk to your employees?

The situation is obviously unprecedented and there are no easy solutions. However, with any decisions we make at Alphapointe, we always return to our core mission of empowering people with vision loss to achieve their goals and aspirations. Without Alphapointe, many of our staff would not have jobs and many would not have access to the essential services they need. That said, I could not be more proud of the work they’ve done in the past five months. We have a staff member whose one-way commute to our facility in Richmond Hill went from about 45 minutes to more than two hours due to adjustments to public transportation. Yet, she was at work, on-time, every day. Our work is important, and you can see it through the dedication of our team members.  I’m very proud that we went more than a year without a lost time accident in our New York operations, which underscores our focus on safety.

What types of support do you most need support now?

The impact of the pandemic will be felt for years, particularly in the non-profit community. Early estimates are that as many as 25 percent of non-profit organizations across the country may cease operations. Should that happen, the reduction in critical services for at-risk people will have catastrophic consequences. More than anything, we need the public to remain committed to supporting non-profit organizations such as Alphapointe that provide these kinds of services because the livelihood of millions of people is on the line. We’re all in this together, but we need the support from the public to ensure that we can continue to provide life-changing services that have positively affected thousands of people.

What programs/services have you had to cut or scale back on, and are you hiring?

Like every organization, we have had to be flexible in this pandemic.  But, as an essential business, we have not scaled back our operations and have continued to operate non-stop to provide goods and services to organizations and individuals across the nation. Due to our workload, we are actively seeking individuals for manufacturing-related positions at our Richmond Hill facility. We have more than 138,000 square feet of space and we’re always looking for people who want to work for an organization that truly makes a difference in the lives of people. For more information, people can visit Alphapointe.org for details about these positions.  

What is next for your organization?

Alphapointe will keep doing what we do best, which is provide employment and services for people with vision impairments. No doubt, we will have tremendous challenges ahead. Government agencies purchase a significant portion of our manufactured products and we anticipate budget shortfalls will occur across the country. Our task is to overcome those challenges and remain one of the largest employers/providers of services for people who are blind or visually impaired in the country. I am confident we will do so, but support from the public will remain critically important. 

What do you think the future holds for your sector as a result of the pandemic? 

The honest answer is that we don’t know because we anticipate ripple effects from the pandemic for years to come. What we do know is that every seven minutes a person in the U.S. loses their sight and that more than 6 million cases of eye disease occur each year in this country. We must continue to provide services and employment for those people who are often neglected and forgotten in our society. Alphapointe started in 1911 and has weathered incredibly challenging situations during the past century. We’ll get through this as well, but we need support from the community in order to provide these essential services that are so critical to the people we serve.

Learn more at Alphapointe.org.