Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague Visits New Lexington High School
New Lexington, OH-
New Lexington High School students received new eyeglasses today from the ResultsOHIO “iSEE” project.
Ohio Treasurer, Robert Sprague, partnered with the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio, non-profit Vision to Learn, and Ohio Optometric Foundation, to provide free mobile vision care and services for students across Ohio’s 32 Appalachian counties. This includes vision screenings, eye exams, and new prescription glasses along with other goals for the project.
“We’re not just testing the efficacy of eye glasses, we know the eye glasses work for kids. What we are testing here in this pilot project, is the ability to close medical gaps across the entire state of Ohio, to be able to use a mobile model to close those medical gaps, delivering services and bringing those services to kids in a mobile way,” stated Robert Sprague.
“We believe our kids have the same potential as kids everywhere. We’re just working to make sure they get the same opportunities. If you think about our region and the mission of our foundation, we’re trying to close a philanthropy gap,” said President & CEO of the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio, Cara Dingus Brook.
So far in the project, 95% of the students have received eye exams and 100% of the students who were prescribed eyeglasses got new ones. The goal was to hit 90%. Many students were receiving eyeglasses for the first time, which can be life changing.
“I talked with a young girl, she was 13 now, who was having a lot of headaches. Two days after getting her glasses, her headaches were gone, she was doing her worksheets and reading. She told me about a book she just read, but her first visit to an exam was at the clinic. We’ve had kids move from the bottom ranking in their exams, all the way to the top,” stated Dingus Brook.
The ResultsOHIO is a pay for success model for the state. Taxpayer dollars are only used if the project is successful. The University of Cincinnati will be the independent evaluator to determine if the results have been achieved. If you want to find out more about ResultsOHIO, or the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio, you can visit their websites.
