FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information:
Prevent Blindness, Ohio Affiliate
Dori Jennings
(614)270-0746
[email protected]
Prevent Blindness Offers Webinars, Services, Free Resources for August’s Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month
During the “Year of Children’s Vision”
Columbus, OH (August 2, 2022) – August is Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month, and 2022 is the “Year of Children’s Vision” at Prevent Blindness. The Ohio Affiliate of Prevent Blindness is offering a wide variety of free resources, including educational tool kits, fact sheets, webinars, and more, to provide parents, caregivers, teachers, school nurses and public health professionals the information they need to help keep children’s eyes healthy and ensure that children are ready to learn and succeed in school, activities and development.
The National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health at Prevent Blindness (NCCVEH) has an extensive library of free informational resources about vision health for children from infants to teens. Programs for professionals include the “Small Steps for Big Vision” tool kit, vision screening certification training, children’s vision and eye health data and reports, facts sheets in multiple languages and shareable social media graphics.
Available in August, Prevent Blindness and the NCCVEH will offer:
- Children’s vision screener training and certification where participants may be eligible to receive free children’s vision screening equipment. Visit wiseabouteyes.org for more information.
- A new episode in the online Focus on Eye Health Expert Series, “Partnering with School Nurses for Children’s Vision and Eye Health.” Jeff Todd, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness, interviews Donna Mazyck, MS, RN, NCSN, CAE, FNASN, executive director of National Association of School Nurses.
- A free webinar, “Vision Screening: Birth Through High School,” presented by Kay Nottingham Chaplin, EdD, education and outreach coordinator at Prevent Blind The first in a two-part series, the session will be held Aug. 16 at 2 p.m. EST.
- Two Facebook live discussions in partnership with the Children’s Vision Equity Alliance: “Children’s Eye Safety” on Aug. 16 and the “Healthy Kids Summit” on Aug. 23 on BlackDoctor.org.
- An updated Star Pupils: Healthy Eyes for Healthy Futures Curriculum for educators. The free materials include a teacher classroom presentation guide, reference eye exam diagram and in-class worksheets (includes coloring and activity sheets).
- Presentations and video recordings from “The Children’s Vision Forum” session held at the 2022 Prevent Blindness Focus on Eye Health National Summit. Stacy Ayn Lyons, OD, FAAO, New England College of Optometry moderated presentations from parents, patients, educators, researchers and clinicians. Presentations include a variety of topics on children’s eye health.
Prevent Blindness and its affiliates also partner with leading companies throughout the year to provide vouchers for free children’s vision services. Since 1999, Prevent Blindness and VSP Eyes of Hope have provided nearly 125,000 students in need with free vision care and glasses valued at up to $48 million. In the United States, Prevent Blindness also partners with OneSight from EssilorLuxottica. Since the program’s inception, OneSight has served 10 million people in more than 50 countries, providing permanent vision care access to more than 42 million people. New this year, Prevent Blindness is partnering with AEG Vision to provide eye examinations and eyeglasses to children and adults in Ohio and Texas.
“More than 100 years ago, our organization was founded to prevent unnecessary blindness in newborns,” said Amy Pulles, President & CEO of the Ohio Affiliate of Prevent Blindness. “Today, we continue that mission to provide families, educators, nurses and others with the resources they need to ensure a lifetime of healthy vision for children.”
For general information on children’s eye health and safety, go to pbohio.org or https://preventblindness.org/your-childs-sight/. For information on the NCCVEH and its variety of programs, visit https://nationalcenter.preventblindness.org/. Vision care financial assistance resources in English and Spanish may also be found at: http://preventblindness.org/vision-care-financial-assistance-information/.
About Prevent Blindness, Ohio Affiliate
Founded in 1908, Prevent Blindness is the nation’s leading volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight. The Ohio Affiliate of Prevent Blindness serves all 88 Ohio counties, providing direct services to 1,000,000 Ohioans annually and educating millions of consumers about what they can do to protect and preserve their precious gift of sight. For more information or to contribute, call 800-301-2020 or donate here. Visit us at pbohio.org. Follow us: facebook.com/pbohio
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