Eyecare industry, health and education professionals have the opportunity to tie into broader-reaching national and global efforts by using the Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund™ to assist in educating consumers on a local level.
By aligning educational messages with the Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund, eyecare practices demonstrate their commitment to patients’ healthy sight, and their support of the many hard-working organizations that strive to provide education and eye health solutions.
Visit our Community Outreach Center to access tools for reaching patients at different stages of life, and to request specific resources from Transitions Optical, Inc.
Eyecare professionals and labs can also apply for grants through the Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund to help with their local community outreach efforts. Aspiring eyecare professionals still in school can also apply for scholarships.
Professionals Can:
Educate Consumers Through the Community Outreach Center
Apply for a Healthy Sight Grant
Aspiring Professionals Can:
Apply for a Vision Scholarship
A donation from the Transitions® Healthy Sight for Life™ Fund was used by the Alliance for Eye and Vision Research (AEVR) to underwrite a brochure for Capitol Hill about the latest in military-related vision research, with the goal of saving and restoring vision in current troops and veterans.
This educational piece documents the cost of military eye injuries, relates the importance of funding research and provides examples of research benefiting veterans.
With help from the Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund™, Bess the Book Bus has travelled around the country, distributing more than 65,000 books to more than 10,000 underprivileged children in 37 states, while educating children, parents and teachers about the important connection between good vision and reading and learning.
The “Success is in Sight” multi-city tour helps to connect vision and literacy and aims to instill a lifelong love of reading – and healthy eye habits – in children.
The Prevention of Blindness program provides screening for approximately 7,000 children a year at 83 sites, including preschool, kindergarten and first grade, and through programs geared toward Head Start participants and special-needs children of all ages.
The organization, located in western Pennsylvania, used the grant from the Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund™ to purchase new, updated equipment to help maintain accurate screenings. Plans also included expansion of free screenings to additional schools and improvement of educational programs. Additional grants helped support Project Access, creating opportunities for individuals with visual impairments to gain employment.
Dedicated to helping people of all ages with impaired sight live, work and play independently, the Center for the Partially Sighted offers comprehensive low-vision services to 2,400 individuals each year. It provides education about vision and vision loss to thousands more, including the general public, health care professionals and educators.
With the donation through the Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund™, a program helped students from a local school understand what it meant to be visually impaired. Developed by a family resource specialist, the interactive program involved various stations that children and their parents and teachers visited. Staff members demonstrated magnifiers and other devices, taught cane travel, simulated vision loss with special glasses and showed adaptive technology, like large-print books and talking items.
The Early Intervention Preschool Vision Screening Program identifies and refers children with vision problems for further evaluation and treatment. The vision screening program is made available in preschools, daycares, kindergarten and pre-K programs, both in the local community and isolated rural areas where extended vision services are not offered, public transportation is not available and most residents are living below the poverty level.
If problems are detected parents, administrators and CBA staff receive a report along with a referral to a local eye care specialist for follow-up. A list of eye specialists in the community and financial aid information are included. Paperwork is available in both English and Spanish. Native American and Amish populations are also targeted.
The partnership between the Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund™ and CNIB raised awareness about the need to protect the eyes from UV damage and expanded vision-loss education and prevention programs.
A collaboration among Transitions Optical, CNIB and Scholastic – a distributor of children’s books – reached over 10,000 Ontario teachers of grades four to six through distribution of teaching materials, classroom exercises and parent take-home information, which highlighted the importance of eye health and UV protection. An educational kit for medical practitioners, focusing on ocular health and disease prevention, was also developed through the partnership.
The Coalition to Prevent Sports Eye Injuries works to accomplish two goals: eliminate the use of “street wear,” or everyday eyeglasses in sports, and increase the wear of protective eyewear among those who do not need corrective eyewear.
The grant contributed to the Coalition’s grassroots efforts to raise awareness among student athletes, parents, coaches and sports leagues about the need for ASTM-approved protective eyewear. The campaign included brochures and other public outreach materials.
Jennifer Kile, an optician for 17 years, used a donation through the Transitions® Healthy Sight for Life™ Fund to bring awareness to CHARGE Syndrome – which causes colobomas, high RX and severe light sensitivity – in honor of her son who suffers from the disease.
She was a Children's Champion representing mile #6 of the Columbus Marathon 2012. Her team wore t-shirts to generate awareness for CHARGE Syndrome and raised money for the Nationwide Children's Hospital.
Created alongside VSP® Vision Care, a 40-foot, state-of-the-art mobile eyecare clinic named “Eyenstein” travels across the U.S. to provide free comprehensive eye exams and new eyewear to children and others in need.
In 2010, the VSP doctors onboard Eyenstein completed exams for more than 700 children across the country. Sixty-four percent of those children ultimately required prescription eyewear, meaning Eyenstein provided more than 400 pairs of glasses.
The Adopt-A-School program helped children receive vision correction by educating parents about the need for annual eye exams and working closely with school nurses and other non-profit organizations, such as Lions Clubs International and Prevent Blindness America.
The donation from the Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund™ helped provide eye exams and eyeglasses to children in need. The provided 5,000 pairs of glasses.
The foundation uses medical vision missions to provide eye examinations, medications, eyeglasses and surgeries at no cost to indigents of underprivileged areas in the third world countries. An average of three hundred indigents a day are helped through the foundation.
One grant from the Healthy Sight for Life Fund™ covered all of the repairs to the Clinic on Wheels bus, to help EyeCare WeCare increase the number of indigents served all over the Philippines. Another was used to purchase an auto refractor to aid workers in conducting eye exams, which is considered to be one the most important piece of equipment in the mission field.
VisionWalk is the national fundraising event of the Foundation Fighting Blindness. Since its inception in 2006, the program has raised over $12 million to fund sight-saving research. The FFB's mission is to drive research that will provide preventions, treatments and cures for people affected by retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration, Usher Syndrome and the entire spectrum of retinal degenerative diseases.
As a community partner, the Healthy Sight for Life Fund™ supported the 4th and 5th annual St. Louis Vision Walks. Last year, St. Louis raised over $113K and had more than 700 walkers join in the fight against retinal degenerative disease.
The “Think About Your Eyes” consumer campaign promotes a common message about the importance of eye health. It is designed to increase public awareness of vision health and the value of comprehensive eye exams.
A donation from the Fund helped support the creation of an integrated vision community and programs to increase the number of people, especially those at risk, who schedule comprehensive eye exams.
(The Eye Disease Foundation)
Through the “Join and See” primary-school tour an estimated 2,000 students receive free screenings each year. Parents are encouraged to schedule an appointment with an optometrist when the need for a more thorough exam is revealed; and a grant program provides glasses to children in need.
In addition to providing financial, staffing and publicity support for the tour, the partnership has also included a charity golf tournament to raise funds for the Foundation, which is dedicated to funding ocular health research and awareness campaigns.
The League’s annual "Back to School Care Fair" benefits low-income children and families of Southern Pinellas County by providing health services and school supplies. On average, 2,500 children and 1,500 legal guardians attend the event annually.
An agency fair comprised of local organizations took place onsite during the event to educate and connect parents with available resources. One part consisted of an eye exam given by medical professionals.
A community grant from the Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund™ supported the Skin Cancer Prevention Lesson in Pinellas County, and the Give Senses Lesson in Hillsborough County, Florida.
The grant helped fund printed lessons, materials, brochures, a website and newsletters to school-aged children and their families.
The National Council of Negro Women’s Black Family Reunion Celebration was able to serve as a platform for promoting the importance of eye health among the African-American community, with support through the Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund™.
Free vision screenings and resources about African-American eye health were provided on site.
Through annual donations, the Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund™ supports a range of charitable efforts of the American Optometric Association (AOA) through its Optometry Cares Foundation.
The Foundation is committed to expanding eye health and vision care access to everyone in the U.S. Two community health programs – VISION USA and InfantSEE® – provide optometric services at no cost. Another program under Optometry Cares, Optometry's Fund for Disaster Relief, was created by the AOA to provide immediate financial aid to optometrists who have experienced the effects of a catastrophic event, so that they may continue to help patients. The Foundation also provides scholarship grants for educational assistance and maintains the Archives and Museum for the optometric profession.
Optometry Giving Sight is a global fundraising campaign that raises funds for projects that help to prevent and eliminate refractive error blindness and low vision. One of these projects is World Sight Day, an initiative of VISION 2020: The Right to Sight. This effort is supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, and non-government organizations with the shared goal of eliminating avoidable blindness by the year 2020 in order to give all people in the world the right to sight.
A donation through the Healthy Sight for Life Fund™ was made by Transitions Optical to support World Sight Day. The money raised through this initiative will be used for sustainable vision care projects that will provide affordable and accessible eye care services to people in under-served communities.
www.givingsight.org/get-involved/world-sight-day-challenge.html
A grant from the Healthy Sight for Life Fund™ paid for the production of the "I CARE FOR EYE CARE" bookmark, encouraging one-minute breaks after every half hour of reading and highlighting refractive error, cataract, diabetic retinopathy and preventive eye care.
The bookmark was distributed with the charitable trust Eye Care India for free to schools across the country. The grant funded the publication of 10,000 copies of this tool.
Works to prevent blindness in developing countries by enhancing the skills of the local ophthalmic community so that they are better equipped to treat and prevent eye diseases prevalent in rural communities.
The Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund™ grant supported the organization’s initiatives to establish eye care centers in medically underserved areas of Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, India and Vietnam.
A grant from the Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund™ supported the Nicholas O’Connell Scholarship Program for the Seattle Central Community College Opticianry Program, created by Peninsula Optical Laboratory.
The STEP (Student Transition to Employment/Education Preparation) program is a weekend-long event geared to students ages 12 to 21 who are blind or vision impaired and their parents. It featured speakers who focus on preparing students and SKILLS assessments to identify areas that require improvement for the student to transition successfully. Students and parents learned more about what it takes to be successful during this time; and parents participated in panel discussions and networking with other parents.
The donation from the Fund covered overnight accommodations, food, entertainment and training.
The Phillips Eye Institute is a free-standing eye specialty center associated with Mount Sinai Medical Center, and the only eye hospital in the Midwest. Through its non-profit foundation, the center works with Minneapolis Public Schools to support its Early Youth Eyecare (E.Y.E.) Community Initiative, which provides vision screenings and subsequent treatment services to elementary school students.
With the help of a grant through the Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund™, the initiative is expanding to provide a comprehensive parent education program, with the goal of fostering better compliance on the part of families for children to wear their glasses. The partnership with the Fund will help pay for a family outreach coordinator and community events, and provide education materials.
Focused on promoting a continuum of vision care, Prevent Blindness America touches the lives of millions of people each year through public and professional education, advocacy, certified vision screenings, community and patient service programs and research.
Over the past several years, PBA has used donations from the Fund to support an online UV learning center (with information on the dangers of UV and the importance of UV-blocking eyewear) and a “Children’s Sports Eye Safety” advocacy brochure (targeted toward caregivers, school personnel and athletic coaches). Other supported initiatives include a “Sight Saved” Web site (created to bring awareness to the importance of vision benefits), a “Star Pupils” school program and legislative events.
Donations to Prevent Blindness Florida (PBF) from the Transitions® Healthy Sight for Life™ Fund have been used to support various events in the Tampa area. One provided attendees with on-site screenings for diabetic retinopathy. Another supported Children's Vision Screening Outreach, targeting children ages 4 to 15 in low-income families at four local facilities that house children and families suffering through a domestic violence or homelessness.
Yet another donation helped to bring a Healthy Vision Corner to Florida libraries. As part of this program comprehensive screenings were provided. For those who needed further vision care, and who were financially qualified, PBF helped with necessary follow-up care, from glasses to surgery.
A donation from the Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund™ was put towards the purchase of a portable slit lamp and auto refractor to aid in the 2011 to 2012 eye care mission, “Helping People See.”
The program established a full service vision center in the town of Arcahaie, Haiti, providing eye exams, new and recycled eyeglasses, UV protection eyewear, medications, cataract surgeries and preventive education. The need for vision care in Haiti is great, due to economics, dusty conditions, lack of clean water, poor hygiene and no access to basic eye care.
The Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund™ grant helped purchase a YAG laser for a COVA clinic in Honduras. The clinic performs over 900 cataract surgeries and 32,000 eye exams for the poor each year. One third of the cataract patients require surgery with a YAG laser to restore sight. A separate operating budget allows the clinic to maintain the equipment and support licensed ophthalmologists to operate the laser.
The SIGHT FIRST FOR KIDS program provides free and low-cost eye care to the economically disadvantaged residents of Camden City and surrounding areas of New Jersey. Camden City now ranks as the poorest city in the nation, with 44 percent of the city’s roughly 80,000 residents living in poverty. Of the 30,400 children in Camden City, 50 percent are living at or below the poverty level. Since 1961, approximately 236,000 patients have visited CEC’s three main offices and Mobile Vision Clinic..
The donation from the Transitions™ Healthy Sight for Life Fund provided 6,227 children with comprehensive eye examinations, treatment services, prescription eye wear and screenings. A second grant supported eyecare services for those 55 and older who are at risk for eye diseases that can result in permanently impaired vision or blindness.
Spectrios Institute for Low Vision travels throughout Illinois, offering low-vision clinics for children in grades K-12 with severe visual impairments. Annually, 350 children are provided with a free low-vision exam and devices, including magnifiers, telescopes, prescription glasses and sunglasses.
The grant supported the printing of educational handouts for distribution to children, their families and teachers and at school health fairs. It also provided wraparound sunglasses to protect children’s eyes from harmful ultraviolet rays and prevent dust and other objects from entering the eye. A survey of the children after they received their eyewear revealed that 38 percent improved the quality of their school work and 27 percent increased their participation in classroom activities.
A grant from the Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund™ helped with the purchase of new equipment for the Stephenville Lions Club screening program. During the fall of 2008, 675 children entering North Texas School District were given a vision screening at no cost to the school district or the child.
If there was evidence of a potential vision problem identified through the screenings, the guardians of the child were notified and advised to seek further diagnosis from a vision health care professional. If not financially feasible, the Stephenville Lions subsidized the eye examination and glasses. On average, eye examinations and glasses are subsidized for 65 children each year.
The State University of New York (SUNY) College of Optometry is a public, four-year professional college of optometry and vision science.
Created by the school's non-profit foundation, the Homebound Program is a charitable initiative that provides high quality eye and vision care to homebound elders. The program operates in Manhattan and Queens and helps an average of 200 patients annually. Fifty of these patients received low-vision devices and/or eyeglasses as a result of a donation through the Healthy Sight for Life Fund™.
Another Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund donation helped to support the Eyes on New York Gala, an annual event hosted by the foundation, which raises funds for providing vision science research, patient care and scholarships and fellowships.
The Tri-County Association for the Blind (TCAB) is a provider of vision services and blindness prevention education in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The clinic provides examinations for uninsured and underinsured patients and those on medical assistance. Approximately 85 percent of the children who visit the district's two community health clinics are on medical assistance.
A partnership with the Harrisburg School District enables even more free eye examinations for disadvantaged children. Of the 9,750 students in Harrisburg School District, 90 percent are within the poverty level. The Fund grant helped provide these children with glasses, when needed.
A grant from the Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund™ helped support the Vision for Literacy Program in Rutherford County, Tennessee, public libraries.
The program’s goal is to promote vision health in the community, and create awareness about undetected vision problems that can impact a child’s ability to read and learn in school. Participating libraries each hosted a month to offer free vision screenings for school aged children, seminars for parents and teachers, educational materials and listings of local resources, including eye doctors participating in Healthy Vision 2010 Community Programs.
VHI is a U.S.-based, non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to the delivery of free vision-care services and sight-restoring surgery to the medically underserved populations in Latin America.
VHI’s one-week field program, Restoring the Gift of Sight to Guatemala: 2008, was made possible exclusively through donations. The donation from the Transitions™ Healthy Sight for Life Fund was used to acquire medical and surgical supplies and to defray other costs, such as shipping, transportation and volunteer expenses. Over 1,000 patients, some coming on foot and many travelling considerable distances, made their way to the VHI clinic to be seen. Following an eye examination by an ophthalmologist to determine the extent of vision loss, over 700 pairs of eyeglasses were dispensed and 119 surgeries were performed.
The children that the VOC serves live with vision that makes it difficult or impossible to complete daily tasks without specialized adaptations; and their vision cannot be corrected to a "normal" level. The goal is to maximize each student's vision for optimal learning in math, science, and other subjects – no matter whether it occurs in the classroom, on campus, or at home.
To reach this goal, and narrow the educational gap between these children and their normal-sighted peers, VOC sought a donation from the Healthy Sight for Life Fund™ to support the purchase of "Portable SenseView Duos" for students. The handheld video magnifiers permit enlargements of close-up studies (reading books, completing workbooks, calculating computations) and of distance-related studies (instruction from the white board, document projector).
