Since 1992, OneSight has been hosting Community Vision Care (CVC)—an annual initiative that offers free vision screenings to local schools in the Cincinnati area. In the last 27 years, we’ve screened 485,554 children with the help of 20,486 incredible volunteers. And from September 9th – October 4th, we’ll be adding to that number by visiting nearly 80 Cincinnati schools to screen over 20,000 local students.
The Community Vision Care screenings span four weeks and require the help of hundreds of local volunteers annually. Over the course of the month, volunteers will visit their chosen school each day and screen students. If a child is absent for the event or needs to be rescreened, our team will return the next day to ensure that they still get a vision screening.
You may be asking yourself, “Why is OneSight holding widespread vision screenings?” Well, it’s no secret that clear sight can fundamentally transform the life of a student with vision problems. And in the US, 1 in 4 students has an undiagnosed vision issue. That’s a big problem – one that demands a radical approach. We know that a simple pair of prescription glasses can allow students to learn up to twice as much—and that’s not all. Studies show that wearing glasses can boost their average test scores by nearly 14 points. The difference is clear to see.
Maintaining Vision Care Access in Cincinnati
Our CVC event helps reveal hundreds of underlying vision issues in local children each year, but we know that the key to sustaining our impact is rooted in long-term solutions. That’s why we’ve worked with local partners such as Cincinnati Health Department and Primary Health Solutions to open 8 school-based vision centers in the Cincinnati area. These centers go straight to the source: schools. By placing them right in students’ environment, we make it easier for children and their families to physically access care.
Since our first Cincinnati school-based vision center opened in 2012, we’ve provided access to 153,109 people and have screened over 17,000 patients. To date, we’ve dispensed over 8,200 glasses to Cincinnati students in need and have created 24 local jobs. These centers primarily serve students, but our Academy of World Languages and CityLink locations are open to the surrounding community as well.
Our Cincinnati Centers:
As we set our sights on growing our sustainable work and extending our impact in Cincinnati, we’ll continue to explore opportunities to further serve students and others in the community through our school-based vision centers and clinics. Because whether our efforts allow us to reach one more school, classroom or person, we know the impact that a simple pair of prescription glasses can have on that “one more” can change their world and ours forever. Learn more about OneSight and our programming in Cincinnati.