Ledyard — Sofia Sees Hope, a locally based patient advocacy group, has been awarded a $5,000 grant from The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.

The grant is intended to help the group create long-term financial planning and revenue-development strategies, and Sofia Sees Hope plans to use it to hire a consultant to guide staff, board members and SSH ambassadors in those efforts.

Founded in 2014 by Laura Manfre and Charles Priebe, whose daughter has a rare degenerative genetic condition — Leber congenital amaurosis — that causes severe vision loss and leads to blindness, Sofia Sees Hope is dedicated to helping those who have been affected by rare inherited retinal diseases that cause blindness. SSH does this by raising funds for research and by providing outreach, support and education to those affected by such diseases.

“This grant will lay the groundwork for a system that will ensure that we continue to grow and support our community both locally and globally,” Manfre said in a news release.