Bringing vision care to the children of Appalachia – and beyond

What began as a pilot program sparked by an anonymous donor who had struggled with poor eyesight as a child will become a statewide initiative that ensures that children across Ohio have access to the vision care needed to be successful – in school and in life. It all started in Appalachian Ohio, with partners who brought their own unique gifts to make the program successful.

More than 37,000 K-12 students in Appalachian Ohio lack the glasses they need. It’s a problem compounded by financial need, long-standing transportation barriers and a shortage of practicing optometrists in the region.

An anonymous donor seeded a vision for addressing gaps in vision care, and, in 2021, FAO partnered with the Ohio Optometric Foundation, Ohio Optometric Association, Vision To Learn, ResultsOHIO, local optometrists and school districts across the region to launch iSee with Vision To Learn. The program, driven by partnerships between public and private entities, brings mobile vision clinics to schools, providing students vision screenings, eye exams and prescription glasses – at no costs to families.

Each partner brought their own unique gifts to make the program successful:

• The Ohio Optometric Association and Ohio Optometric Foundation provided technical knowledge of vision care and funding, connected eye doctors with the program and created a continuum of care for students.
• Vision To Learn, a national nonprofit, brought expertise in mobile vision service delivery to work with schools and other youth-serving organizations to coordinate the program across the region.
• The Ohio Treasurer of State’s office recognized the promise of the program as its first ResultsOHIO pay-for-success project, measuring its success through vision exam and eyeglasses rates.

In 2023, iSee with Vision To Learn, which had provided more than 7,500 students eye exams and distributed prescription glasses to more than 6,000 students, became the first project to complete the ResultsOHIO project. In July 2023, the Ohio Legislature appropriated funds to begin statewide expansion of the program.