By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief
Everychild Foundation announced its $1 million grant recipient: Vision To Learn, which will launch a pilot program to bring specialized vision care to each student in Compton Unified School District.
Founded in 2012 by Palisadians Austin (former LAUSD superintendent) and Virginia Beutner, the program provides prescription eyeglasses at no cost to students via a mobile vision clinic at schools and community organizations.
“Everychild’s 2023 grant will fund a ground-breaking two-year pilot program with VTL and Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, utilizing three new mobile vision clinics and next-generation telehealth technologies to provide a multi-tiered ‘pyramid of care’ to an estimated 19,000 K to 12 students in the Compton Unified School District,” according to a statement. “Approximately 5,000 students will be prescribed and provided with new eyeglasses, and the estimated 10 to 20% of students examined by VTL optometrists identified as needing a higher level of eye care will now have access to CHLA ophthalmologists in real time.”
Approximately one in four students needs glasses on average, the foundation reported, but in low-income communities up to 95% of students miss “regular and adequate” eye care.
“This effort in Compton will be the first in the nation to provide every school child in a low-income community with comprehensive eye care, at scale,” Austin Beutner said in a statement. “When kids come to school hungry, we feed them. We make sure students have the books and school materials they need, and that every classroom has a great teacher. Why not eye care to make sure they can get the most out their education?”
Everychild Foundation, founded and led by Palisadian Jacqueline Caster, returned to its model of awarding a $1 million grant to launch or expand a project designed to ease “suffering of Los Angeles-area children.”
“The women of the Everychild Foundation are thrilled to have this opportunity to partner with Vision To Learn,” Caster said in a statement. “When children lack good eyesight, they invariably fall behind in school, which sets them up for a less successful life on so many levels. This new program has the ability to catch many serious visual problems that would otherwise go undetected and set children up for preventable lifelong disabilities.”
For the previous three years, Everychild pivoted to respond to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, distributing “relief grants” to multiple area nonprofits. The foundation is made up of 200 women who donate $6,000 each year to fund granting.
“This is the 24th year of grant-making, and Everychild has given more than $22 million to help Los Angeles area children and their families,” the statement continued. “This year, Everychild was also able to make a $100,000 Special Recognition Award to grant finalist College Match.”
More information about the foundation can be found at everychildfoundation.org.
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