National Society to Prevent Blindness HQ

Prevent Blindness' ultimate priority is to prevent vision loss across the lifespan, with a focus on ages and populations who are most vulnerable to vision impairment or blindness. To address this, we have established six overarching goals

Goal 1:Educate - We promote awareness about Prevent Blindness, our resources, and our work. We provide information that leads to an increased appreciation of the value of good vision.

Goal 2:Advocate - Prevent Blindness has always advocated preventing blindness and preserving sight for individuals and populations as a whole. We honor this history and seek to grow our efforts through this strategic plan by promoting policies,practices, and population health changes that result in improved access to vision services.

Goal 3:Empower - Prevent Blindness is an ideal convener among key stakeholder organizations while also supporting the individual in achieving their best sight for a lifetime.

Goal 4:Promote Coordination of Vision and Eye Health Efforts through Affiliates and Other Critical Partners - In all actions that we take as an organization, Prevent Blindness must be the catalyst-amplifying our impact as we work with others who are also dedicated to and impacted by our mission.

Goal 5:Fundraising, Fiscal Management, and Resource Optimization - As an organization, we seek to recognize and strategically utilize existing organizational resources-including both human capital as well as technology, and communication strategies-in our work.

Goal 6:Approach that is Grounded in Integrity, Experience, Science, and Accountability - Prevent Blindness has developed a reputation of integrity and embraces a science-driven and evidence-based approach to all programs, advice, and products we produce.

Statement of Need: The burden of eye diseases such as glaucoma, diabetes-related eye disease, and uncorrected refractive error among vulnerable and high-risk populations is disproportionate in prevalence, economic impact, and ability to address the growth of the disease. The emergence of these health disparities is due to the interaction of a series of factors, including those that are cultural, personal, societal, and environmental. Presently, there are more than 36 million adult Americans currently affected by vision problems that, if not detected and treated early, could lead to vision loss; and more than 12.1 million school-age children, or one in four, have some form of vision problem requiring treatment.
The annual economic burden of vision disorders in the US is calculated at $167 billion, and is projected to rise to $717 billion if aggressive interventions are not put in place now. Achieving a reduction in these numbers and their related health inequities is what drives Prevent Blindness's approach to improved vision through population health interventions.
We work to improve the nation's vision health as well as its overall health status.

Much of our work is focused on enhancing existing systems of care and educating the public on vision and eye health.

Our near-term activities include:

1. Public Health Vision Summit
In July of 2023, we will host its 12th annual “Focus on Eye Health" National Summit to bring focused attention to the growing body of public health research related to vision and eye health.

2. National Center for Children's Vision and Eye Health
Through our National Center for Children's Vision and Eye Health, we will be continuing our efforts to serve as a coordinator for national collaboration around systemic approaches to children's eye health.

3. Center for Vision and Population Health
The Center serves as a national coordinating body for effective practices, state-level technical assistance, and programmatic interventions. It collaborates with community, state, and national stakeholders.

4. A.S.P.E.C.T. Patient Engagement Program
The ASPECT program promotes patient and caregiver (ally) engagement, awareness, leadership, and advocacy for the vision and visually-impaired community.

5. Low Vision Resource Center
Prevent Blindness hosts an expansive online resource for people with low vision-Living Well with Low Vision (http://lowvision.preventblindness.org) developed from the point of view of patients and patient advocates.

6. Public Awareness
In 2023 we plan to continue and expand specific public awareness campaigns focused on AMD, Diabetic Eye Disease, Glaucoma, Sports Eye Safety Dry Eye, Children's Eye Health, and potentially other topics.

7. Vision Screening and Training
Prevent Blindness has the only national program that trains and certifies individuals around the country to conduct vision screenings to identify people with potential vision problems and refer them to appropriate care. In 2022, our screening programs and those of our partners resulted in over 1 million individuals screened; and we will continue our training programs to support this effort.

8. Professional Education/Training
Through our online Training Center, Prevent Blindness offers a 3-year, national certification program in vision screening skills, video-based trainings and presentations on diabetes-related eye disease and glaucoma, as well as a set of modular presentations on a wide variety of eye health topics.

9. Public Policy Advocacy
Since our founding, our work has been deeply rooted in the culture of public policy advocacy. In 2021 Prevent Blindness updates our Policy Roadmap which provides guidance on numerous topics related to access to care, equity, social determinants of health, quality of life, and treatment availability to support eye health. We advocate for continued support of key federal programs that have a history of bringing attention to and addressing vision problems and vision research. We serve as a key community partner in the membership of the Congressional Vision Caucus.

Prevent Blindness is the leading national nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to preventing blindness and preserving sight across all life stages. We focus on improving the nation's vision health by educating the public on the importance of taking care of their eyes and their vision, by promoting advances in public health systems that support eye health needs, and by advocating for public policy that emphasizes early detection and access to appropriate eye care.

Our recent history has seen the organization evolve into one focused on implementing nationwide systems change to impact vision and eye health. Such efforts include advocating for the establishment and funding of a vision health initiative at the CDC; leading the development of the Congressional Vision Caucus; publishing data on the prevalence of vision problems and the associated costs; establishing a National Center for Children's Vision and Eye Health; supporting a report by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine on vision and population health; convening a national public health summit on vision and eye health; and establishing the Center for Vision and Population Health.

Our internal resources include a strong national staff of approximately 23, with a broad range of experiences including public health, government relations, communications, resource development, public relations, board development, strategic planning, field relations, finance, and administration; an active Board of Directors with 27 members representing academia, industry, foundations, public health, and government relations, thousands of volunteers across the country; and an annual operating budget of $10 million.

Our websites– www.preventblindness.org and https://lowvision.preventblindness.org/ –and social media outlets currently see more than one million unique visitors annually and serves as our go-to source of information on eye health and safety.

Externally, we engage a wide range of partners and stakeholders. To augment the work of our national office, we have a strong network of affiliates and field offices. These offices collaborate in many of our initiatives and also address issues unique to the populations of their own states and regions, through which they often foster new innovations that can be shared across the Prevent Blindness system. Additionally, we partner with federal agencies (including CDC, HRSA, and NEI); vision partner organizations (including AMD Alliance International, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Academy of Optometry, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research, and Lighthouse International); public health organizations (including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, and the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors); and industry partners.

Our recent accomplishments include:
1. Successfully undertook a rebranding effort, including website overhaul and new campaign(Take a Screen Time Out)
2. Corporate-supported awareness campaigns - AMD, Women's Eye Health, Children's Eye Health, Sports Eye Safety, Glaucoma, Thyroid Eye Disease/Grave's Disease, Rare Eye Disease, Inherited Retinal Diseases
3. Collaborations/Partnerships - Established the Children's Vision Equity Coalition, partnered with the Society for Women in Health Research, partnered with a coalition of AMD organizations on an AMD Central Website resource, partnered with the National Optometric Association for Children's Eye Health and Safety month and ACHIEVE (a social media campaign for children's vision). Co-hosted webinars on children's vision with the National Head Start Association.
4. The Glaucoma Community - An app- and web-based resource and gathering place for people with glaucoma and their caretakers.
5. Voucher Programs & Financial Assistance -Have been somewhat challenged by the pandemic, as our partners had to halt their programs temporarily during COVID, but added multiple new resources to our financial assistance resource list and emphasized the need to gather additional partners.
6. Targeting Caregivers - Integrated caregivers/allies into the new ASPECT Program, providing targeted discussions and leadership opportunities. Included support for parents/caregivers in the new Small Steps for Big Vision resource. Developed a support manual for caregivers; available on the Living Well with Low Vision website.
7. Performance Measures, Surveillance & Accountability - Performance Measures recommended by Prevent Blindness have been included in the new Healthy People 2030 initiative.
8.Public policy Coalitions of Which We are a Part - ITEM, Global Coalition on Aging, Children's Budget Coalition, Coalition to establish a White house office on children and youth, ASP, National Head Start Coalition...
9. Updated our Policy Roadmap
10. Covid-19 Resource
11. Equity in Eye Health
12. Clinical Trial Awareness
In an effort to reach our ultimate intended impact – preventing vision loss across the lifespan, with a focus on ages and populations at highest risk - in recent years, Prevent Blindness has realigned our focus to have a broader impact on existing public health systems by equipping them to address vision and eye health, a topic that is often overlooked, particularly in light of its high prevalence and cost. We are doing this while continuing to develop educational programs, increase public awareness, and advocate for improved policies to address vision and eye health concerns. The accomplishments listed above are just a few examples of this.

While we feel we have accomplished a great deal, much work remains to be done. We are particularly focused on the area of our work that will inform and enhance public health systems across all 50 states, and that will increase the distribution of our eye health messages.