The Work We Do:
The Eye Institute uses the LOFKs funds in a number of ways. For many years, we have had a strategic alliance with the School District of Philadelphia to provide services to their children. Working closely with the District’s school nurses, The Eye Institute deploys vision care teams to schools to provide free vision screenings. For children who fail the vision screening, we work with schools nurses to schedule these children at The Eye Institute for comprehensive vision care. Each year several hundred children are bussed to The Eye Institute for the care they need. What we were able to accomplish in the last year using the dollars raised in 2010 was quite impressive. Working collaboratively with School District of Philadelphia school nurses, we provided the following services to children in the Philadelphia public schools during the 2010-2011 academic year:
- Vision screenings to 2,122 children (909 children failed this screening).
- Comprehensive vision and ocular health examinations to 485 children by transporting the children to The Eye Institute’s pediatric service.
- 748 pairs of eyeglasses were distributed to public school children.
Our commitment to providing vision care services and eyeglasses to uninsured children in Philadelphia expanded this past year through collaborations with several organizations that provide health care and other services to uninsured populations. The community partners who are now referring uninsured children to use include:
- Philadelphia’s City Health Centers (eight in number)
- Delaware Valley Community Health, Inc.
- Greater Philadelphia Asian Social Service Agency (GPASS)
Since January 2011, an additional 77 children have been referred to The Eye Institute from these agencies for vision care services and eyeglasses. We are grateful for these collaborations, as they are essential to the “Looking Out for Kids” initiative.
06/20/2011