New York, NY, Oct. 31, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — On October 31, 2022, Helen Keller Intl will attain a significant milestone: its NY Vision workforce will present free imaginative and prescient providers to its one-millionth New York City scholar on the Academy for College Preparation and Career Exploration, a neighborhood college co-located within the Erasmus Hall campus in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
Uncorrected imaginative and prescient impacts an estimated one in 4 kids within the United States, considerably impacting their possibilities of success in class and negatively affecting their high quality of life. Without clear imaginative and prescient, a baby could wrestle to see the board or laptop, be taught, and totally interact with their academics and friends. Helen Keller companions with faculties to offer college students with on-site imaginative and prescient providers at no-cost to the coed or their mother and father.
“Undiagnosed vision conditions among children are one of our country’s biggest, yet most underrecognized health problems. Students with uncorrected vision are more likely to be held back in school or misdiagnosed with learning disabilities, and may experience social, emotional, and cognitive delays,” stated Meghan Lynch, Director of US Vision at Helen Keller Intl. “At Helen Keller, our vision team helps eliminate the primary barriers to vision care for under-resourced families: access and expense.”
In 2013, Helen Keller started working with the NYC Department of Education, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and Warby Parker to offer college students in NYC Community Schools with free imaginative and prescient screenings, eye exams, and prescription glasses. This partnership is a significant part of NYC’s broader student-vision program, a tangible and confirmed well being intervention that eliminates limitations to care and helps be sure that college students are ready for achievement. The City’s funding in imaginative and prescient providers for college kids has grown considerably over the previous 9 years, serving to stage the enjoying area by screening greater than 380,000 college students and offering over 96,000 kids with well-liked Warby Parker eyeglasses at no-cost.
“Vision is at the heart of our work. It’s in our DNA, thanks to our co-founder Helen Keller,” stated Kathy Spahn, President and CEO of Helen Keller Intl. “It’s amazing what power a simple pair of eyeglasses can unlock for a child – allowing them to learn, build confidence, and engage with peers, and setting them up for future success. Now multiply that by a million. Helen Keller’s partnership with New York City ensures that our city’s most vulnerable students have the opportunity to realize their true potential.”
“Our Community Schools serve as central hubs for our students, providing needed wrap-around supports, including vision screenings, to help students overcome barriers to learning. Congratulations to Helen Keller Intl on this milestone, and a genuine thank you to all of our vision partners in ensuring our students have what they need to succeed academically,” stated Schools Chancellor David C. Banks. “None of this would be possible without the unwavering dedication of our city and external partners who help to provide vision screenings to community schools across the city.”
“Improving a student’s vision benefits their educational success in the classroom and helps them realize their full potential,” stated Speaker Adrienne Adams. “By providing free screenings, eye exams, glasses, and other services to one million children in New York City’s schools, Helen Keller Intl’s US Vision Program has contributed to strengthening our communities. I am deeply grateful for their commitment and partnership and look forward to continuing this important work and accomplishing our shared vision for our city’s students.”
“Providing vision services directly in schools is so important because it ultimately benefits a student’s ability to learn and engage,” said Rita Joseph, New York City Council Member and Chair of the Council’s Education Committee. “New York City is deeply committed to investing in these services for our youngest citizens, and I am thrilled to join Helen Keller Intl in celebrating this important milestone and their 28 years of providing students with the eyeglasses they need to succeed in school and in life.”
“When I labored at VisionSpring, I used to be consistently impressed by Helen Keller Intl and their dedication to tackling the worldwide imaginative and prescient care disaster,” stated Neil Blumenthal, Co-founder & co-CEO at Warby Parker. “And now at Warby Parker, it is an honor to associate with them as we offer glasses to New York City college students of their school rooms, the place academics are sometimes the primary to identify points. This milestone is a testomony to the group’s large affect and affect. Heller Keller stays the gold customary in offering entry to inexpensive eye care.”
Since Helen Keller launched its Vision program in 1994 in Washington Heights, the group has supplied no-cost imaginative and prescient providers to school-aged kids and weak populations throughout all 5 boroughs, and throughout the nation, in order that college students can understand their true potential. Today, Helen Keller’s US Vision Program additionally supplies providers in California, Minnesota, and New Jersey.
WHAT: Helen Keller Intl’s One Millionth New York City Student Screening
WHEN: Monday, October 31, 2022 at 9:45 – 10:30 am ET
WHERE:
Academy for College Preparation and Career Exploration
911 Flatbush Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11226
INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES:
Please attain out to Melissa Brody at [email protected] or 646-356-1796
SOCIAL MEDIA: @HelenKellerIntl #HelenKeller #TruePotential
About Helen Keller Intl
Helen Keller Intl companions with communities which are striving to beat longstanding cycles of poverty. By delivering the important constructing blocks of excellent well being, sound vitamin and clear imaginative and prescient, we assist hundreds of thousands of individuals create lasting change in their very own lives. Helen Keller’s US Vision Program helps remove the first limitations to imaginative and prescient take care of weak kids and adults: entry and expense. Since this system’s begin in Washington Heights in 1994, it has expanded to a number of states throughout the nation the place the necessity is highest. In New York alone, we could have now served a million college students and supplied greater than 175,000 pairs of free prescription eyeglasses. Learn extra at HelenKellerIntl.org
- Helen Keller supplies college students in NYC Community Schools with free imaginative and prescient screenings, eye exams, and prescription glasses.
