Poarch Band of Creek Indians
Atmore, AL
The Healthy Vision Project of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians will develop and implement an eye health education program geared toward increasing the percentage of children up to the eighth grade who receive vision screening. In addition, the project will work toward increasing the proportion of persons in the tribal health program who have a dilated eye examination at the recommended annual intervals. The Poarch Band of Creek Indians are the only federally-recognized Indian tribe in Alabama. The primary focus of the Healthy Vision Project will be on members of the tribe who are children with diabetes The project will also serve any other individuals requesting or needing eye health education, including patients, family members, and friends accompanying the patient. Creek tribal members will make sure that culturally appropriate issues are addressed and incorporated into the education program. Rather than require people to come to the eye health provider, this project will be proactive and take eye health education to them. The Healthy Vision Project of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians plan to teach participants of their own responsibility for eye health and blindness prevention. This outreach initiative for the tribal Health Department project is expected to make 3,000 total contacts per year, including 80 new participants per month.

**Cahaba Valley Health Care
Birmingham, AL
Via the Occupational Eye Safety Project, Cahaba Valley Health Care will perform vision screenings for Latinos in the churches they attend. Through collaborations with the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry, the UAB Department of Ophthalmology, Sightsavers of Alabama, Volunteer Optometric Service to Humanity, the Lion Clubs International, the Samford University Department of Languages, and Cahaba Valley Health Care has provided vision screenings for 201 Latinos. The goal of the Occupational Eye Safety Project is to reduce occupational eye injuries among Latino men in Alabama. Presentations and visual aids in Spanish about eye safety and protective eyewear will be made available to men who are present for screening. Materials are made available in both English and Spanish; volunteer optometrists developed an educational brochure for the project using a University of Utah brochure as a guide. Licensed optometrists will be assisted by 18 volunteers to conduct the vision screenings. People will receive a pair of safety glasses that were donated to CVHC by Valley Vision in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. By the completion of this renewal year of the Occupational Eye Safety Project, Cahaba Valley Health Care expects to recruit and to reach 580 people needing eye-safety education.

EyeCare Alabama
Montgomery, AL
EyeCare Alabama is a project conducted under the auspices of the Alabama Academy of Ophthalmology. EyeCare Alabama will provide ophthalmic care and education to people with diabetes in underserved Alabama counties. University of Alabama Birmingham Department of Ophthalmology residents will work with patients and gain onsite educational experiences in rural health care. The project will also establish a network of statewide volunteer ophthalmologists and county health department clinics that can and will provide continuity of care within each participating underserved Alabama County. EyeCare Alabama will arrange clinic space in Department of Public Health clinics in Alabama counties with the lowest rates of dilated eye exams for patients with diabetes. Local primary care physicians will be contacted to assist in patient referral for ophthalmic exams. Postcards will be sent to patients with diabetes who have not received eye exams in the previous two years, and eye exams will be performed on a walk-in and by-appointment basis. Educational materials and onsite education personnel will be provided, and follow-up eye appointments and/or referrals will be discussed. Eye examination events will be publicized in advance via television, radio, and printed materials. Participating patients will be asked to complete an Eye Care Assessment Survey conducted by the UAB Department of Ophthalmology Clinical Research Unit.

Koahnic Broadcast Corporation
Anchorage, AK
Healthy Vision Campaign 2007 is a media campaign targeted to raise vision awareness for children and early childhood screenings among Alaska Natives and American Indians. The campaign will broadcast public service announcements and a radio call-in show through the Native America Calling Program, educating listeners about the importance of child vision screening and the need for protective eyewear. The program will also direct listeners to clinics, classes, and other resources targeting eye health issues. A vision screening or eye exam may be the only way to detect and prevent a threatening condition known as amblyopia (lazy eye), which is, according to NEI, the most common cause of visual ailment in childhood. Amblyopia is preventable, but only 20 percent of preschool children have their vision screened. Pediatricians have been reported to attempt vision screening in only two-thirds of all their preschool patients, and in only 38 percent of their 3-year-old patients. Through six PSAs and one Native American Calling program, individuals, parents, and the public school systems will be directed to clinics, classes, and other resources to help clients better understand and manage vision care issues. Follow-through education efforts will be donated by SCF's Optometry Clinic. Sixty-thousand people tune in to Native American Calling, and the KNBA radio broadcast audience of 17,000 (18 percent of these are Native Americans).

Arkansas Medical Society
Little Rock, AR
The Keep Arkansas Seeing project identifies underserved patients and uninsured children at risk for developing visual impairment resulting from refractive error or glaucoma. The project will provide refractive patients from underserved populations with donated glasses. Uninsured children at risk for impairment due to refractive error will be targeted for caregiver education about AR Kids First, State insurance for low-income persons under age 20. Caregivers will be provided with the application and postage to enroll their children in AR Kids First, which will pay for a yearly eye exam and one pair of eyeglasses per 12 months. Underserved patients will be examined for glaucoma or glaucoma suspected via dilated fundoscopic and glaucoma screening exams. At-risk patients will receive an education brochure and booklet to inform them about understanding and living with glaucoma. Since diabetes is a major risk factor for glaucoma, patients at risk will be examined for diabetic eye disease and be provided with educational resources about diabetes, and with a one-on-one educational session about glaucoma and/or diabetes. Keep Arkansas Seeing is led by the Arkansas Medical Society, in cooperation with the River City Ministry free clinic; this partnership represents an unprecedented public health initiative in eye health education and promotion that builds on the only program in the State to provide free eye health care for the underserved. The HVCA award will enable Keep Arkansas Seeing to update, expand, and computerize the hundreds of donated glasses that often closely match and significantly improve the vision of underserved patients with refractive error.

**Martha's Village and Kitchen
Coachella Valley, CA
The Expanded Diabetic Education and Eye Health Screening project goal is to improve the health status among homeless and uninsured people with diabetes who are patients at the Medical Clinic at Martha's Village and Kitchen. As part of the effort to maximize the Medical Clinic's primary care efforts, the Expanded Diabetic Education and Eye Health Screening project helps people with diabetes learn how to live with and manage their chronic disease. The Expanded Diabetic Education and Eye Health Screening offers free screening and treatment of diabetes-related vision problems, including diabetic retinopathy. Onsite diabetic education sessions, dispensing of glucometers, test strips and lancets, quarterly eye health screenings and community outreach activities are all part of the program that endeavors to positively impact the health and well-being of people with diabetes served through the clinic. The project has contracted with a bilingual certified diabetes educator, which has enabled bilingual diabetes education sessions using this reliable resource. In the first year of the Healthy Vision Community Award, the Medical Clinic of Martha's Village played a vital role in preventing the need for costly trips to the emergency room for acute care resulting from uncontrolled diabetes. In the first year grant period, double the number of patients projected were served. In this second year grant period, Martha's Clinic projects to serve a minimum of 275 patients.

Shifa Community Clinic
Sacramento, CA
The Culturally Sensitive and Language Specific Diabetic Retinopathy and Glaucoma Awareness and Education Program targets the Sacramento population of persons from East India and Middle Eastern countries. In the Greater Sacramento area, more than 10,000 persons come from East India and the Middle East; many are underserved by mainstream health care institutions due to language, cultural, and financial barriers. Survey data by the Shifa Clinic indicates that 82 to 85 percent of the patients served who have diabetes have not had an ophthalmologic exam in the past 2 years. Forty percent of survey participants were confused and lacked awareness or knowledge about eye complications from diabetes. This project will work over a 12-month period to identify eye health influencing factors to create a comprehensive diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma screening program for patients with diabetes facing health care barriers. Upon implementation of the program, it will also encourage annual comprehensive eye exams, compliance with treatment regimens, and appropriate behavior change among this high-risk population. Outreach, peer education and health education workshops are the communications strategies.

Clinicas Del Camino Real, Incorporated
Ventura, CA
The La Vista del Futuro addresses two Healthy Vision objectives: (28-2) increasing the proportion of preschool children who receive vision screening, and (28-4) reduce blindness and visual impairment in children and adolescents. La Vista del Futuro will target the children of migrant and seasonal farm workers who are the second-most vulnerable group-39/1000 being at risk for visual impairment and blindness, behind only disabled children. Over 22 percent of the target children are below 100 percent of poverty with an additional 54 percent below 150 percent of poverty; 83 percent of the school-age children receive reduced price or free meals. The target area has one of the highest rates of linguistic isolation in the State of California, with over 70 percent of the population over age five being linguistically isolated. Large numbers of migrant women and children (40 percent) arrive anemic and suffering from the effects of malnutrition. Many of the families are arriving from towns and villages where only 63 percent had access to safe drinking water, and only 25 percent had electricity. The La Vista del Futuro project has a promotora (community outreach specialist) in the active empowerment of the family of these at-risk group of children. The size and semi-rural location of this school district allow for the realistic management of this project. The target number of children to be served by this project is 2,586, of which 2,140 are below 150 percent of the poverty level. The number of families to be impacted by this project will be approximately 714 households. Promotoras will be trained in vision health, nutrition, and health care referral processes. The population served is the growing indigenous Mixteco population (7,000), which presents us with a set of unique language needs. Some of the strategies will include providing cultural and linguistic relevant services, follow-up, and vision care coordination to our target population.

Health S.E.T.
Denver, CO
The Senior Vision Connection Program is a project dedicated to improving the quality of life of seniors needing vision rehabilitation. The project goal involves increasing the use of vision rehabilitation services and adaptive devices by low-vision seniors. Seniors will be educated about eye disease and treatments available. This program will educate seniors about the different options available to them in terms of services, adaptive aids, and treatment. Participants will also receive in-home safety assessments, training on how to use the adaptive device, counseling, and access to support groups. Health S.E.T. has a monthly vision column called "Vision Matters," which is produced for seniors, monthly. Through the multiple aspects of the projects-including resource fairs, presentations, support groups and assessments-the program anticipates serving 1,425 seniors this year.

Colorado Lions KidSight Program
Highlands Ranch, CO
The KidSight Follow-Up and Education project will work to increase follow-up rates, improve the education of parents of children who are referred for full eye exams as a result of the Colorado Lions KidSight Program, and raise the general awareness of the need for early childhood vision screenings. In collaboration with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and the Center for Hearing, Speech, and Language (CHSL) in Denver, Colorado Lions KidSight Program offers free vision screenings for children up to age 5, and those who require a full eye exam are notified. CHSL will work on a follow-up and education test study that will strive to successfully educate and motivate parents to have their children receive professional eye care as soon as possible in life, and to follow up with recommendations as soon as need is identified. The KidSight Follow-Up and Education project will implement the study results and train Lion volunteers on how to implement these results. The Lions project coordinator will travel over 15,00 miles to train over 200 volunteers in 40 communities across Colorado. Follow-up will be tracked in the existing KidSight database. Colorado Lions KidSight Program currently screens 12,000 children per year, and with the 2007 Healthy Vision support, the number of children screened is expected to increase by plus 2,000, and follow-up efforts are expected to increase (by 300) the number of children referred for full eye exams, and most likely, vision-saving treatment.

**Delaware Ecumenical Council on Children and Families
Wilmington, DE
Healthy Vision Delaware seeks to improve the vision health of Delaware residents through education and outreach in collaboration with faith communities. Healthy Vision Delaware emphasizes prevention and management of glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy, and promotes vision rehabilitation. As a faith-based health advocacy, education and services organization, the Delaware Ecumenical Council on Children and Families has been an active participant in the delivery of public health education messages, and has found that faith communities are considered to be a reliable source of accurate information-as compared to the media and even as compared to some health care providers. The Delaware Ecumenical Council on Children and Families has produced and distributed a series of booklets on health status and health system issues, called Healthy Congregations. Two sets of materials on healthy vision will be developed: one on diabetic retinopathy, distributed to 600 entities in the Fall, and another on the health status issue of glaucoma, to be distributed by January 2007. There are already two existing booklets, published and circulated in summer 2006, which present information on vision health generally, on prevention and rehabilitation, and outlining local and national resources on vision health. Lay health advisers, called Interfaith Health Advocates, serve as local resource persons and referral agents on health-related issues. Interfaith Health Advocates use and distribute the booklets in their ministry around health issues. In the 2 years of the award, Healthy Vision Delaware will reach 600 clergy; 250 parents, caregivers, and other adults; and 100 patients.

Suwannee River Area Health Education Center
Alachua, FL
Diabetic Retinopathy Education, Awareness, and Management (DREAM) is a program targeted to provide diabetic retinopathy education to rural and underserved populations in North Central Florida. This program will partner with different sites to present diabetic retinopathy information in the form of PowerPoint presentations, games, and other activities. The program provides education, encourages good health practices, and facilitates the process of scheduling a comprehensive dilated eye exam. DREAM will raise awareness by promoting comprehensive dilated eye exams and distributing information gathered from culturally sensitive literature. DREAM's goal to reduce visual impairment due to diabetic retinopathy among adults in Suwannee River Area Health Education Center's 12-county service area. DREAM will be presented to 15 sites in North Central Florida. The NEI publication Educating Your Community about Diabetic Retinopathy: Tips and Tools for Making Vision a Health Priority is one of the main source documents. The program will gather culturally relevant literature and distribute it to project assistants.

Heartland Rural Health Network
Avon Park, FL
Play It Safe With Your Eyes is a comprehensive video education program that focuses on eye health, safety, and prevention for children ages 2 to 5, the majority of whom are low-income minorities. The program encourages caregiver involvement and engages children using warm-up activities, video, songs, and post-video exercises. The program works in conjunction with the Redlands Christian Migrant Association and the Heartland Rural Health Network. The Play It Safe With Your Eyes curriculum will be presented at Head Start schools. Play It Safe With Your Eyes is the only comprehensive video education program that focuses on eye health, safety, and prevention for children in preschool through grade 2. This curriculum provides English and Spanish versions, which will enable participates to engage in culturally appropriate education and dialogue.

Prevent Blindness of Georgia (PBGA)
Atlanta, GA
Prevent Blindness Georgia will undertake the Atlanta Glaucoma Awareness Project of African American Churches to help decrease the incidence of preventable vision loss among African Americans. The Atlanta Glaucoma Awareness Project of African American Churches will equip African American church leaders, enabling them and train them to increase awareness and educate their congregants about the risk of glaucoma. The project will encourage church members, through church leadership, to obtain annual dilated eye exams. Church leaders will be invited to a class which will be taught by PBAmerica-certified vision instructors. A special Glaucoma Awareness Day will be planned for January, to be held in the larger churches. Brochures, videos, and stock messages will be made available for use for pastoral announcements, newsletters, bulletin inserts, and church board displays. Risk assessment questionnaires will also be offered for use on the Glaucoma Awareness Sunday. Available referral sources and vision rehabilitation services will also be made available to church members. The Prevent Blindness Georgia project will develop and deliver eye health orientation and training to representatives from 60 African American churches in Georgia. The eye health training is expected to reach 40,000 to 80,000 persons in congregations in Atlanta.

Georgia Lions Lighthouse Foundation
Decatur, GA
The mission of Screen Across Georgia is to provide preventative eye health education to communities in rural Georgia. The program will network with other organizations to provide thousands of participants with visual acuity and diabetic retinopathy screenings. Through their partners, Screen Across Georgia is also able to provide patients with medical referrals and follow-ups with clients, ensuring that patients receive the proper care. Currently only 65 percent of people with diabetes receive an annual eye exam. Project vision screenings will include a test for visual acuity, a client interview which will assess a client's personal risk factors and a diabetic retinopathy screening if appropriate. The many collaborators on this project are organized by the Georgia Lions Lighthouse Foundation. Screenings will take place at large events across Georgia that attract huge numbers of attendees.

TEACH Outreach Ministries
Valdosta, GA
I Can See Clearly: Diabetes and Me is a program designed to help the high-risk minority population that is uninsured or underinsured. The program will provide monthly educational seminars through Lunch and Learn sessions, a Healthy Eyes tea, a Diabetic Health Fair, and a media campaign educating participants about vision care, comprehensive exams, and the importance of proper eye care for people with diabetes. The program will also reach this community through radio and television broadcast. Lunch & Learn sessions will focus on raising awareness of how diabetes can affect the eyes and cause visual impairment and the importance of eye examinations to prevent or decrease the severity of damage to the eyes and the importance of controlling diabetes in order to prevent long-term complications. Teas target seniors and leaders from local faith-based organizations to raise awareness of proper eye care for people with diabetes. The Health Fair will offer diabetes control education as well as blood pressure and blood glucose screenings. The media campaign covers the same territory.

Tri-County Health System, Inc.
Warrenton, GA
Project Sight Increasing Awareness for Diabetic Retinopathy is designed to provide a wide range of medical and dental treatment and prevention services and to serve the clients regardless of their ability to pay. In the service area (four counties in East Georgia), there are 930 adults who know they have diabetes. The actual number of people who have diabetes is likely to be higher, because about one-third of people with diabetes do not know that they have it. Project Sight will provide needed resources to assist with increasing community awareness and increasing our patients' awareness of the importance of yearly eye exams to detect diabetic retinopathy. Currently, Tri-County health System provides follow-up treatment for 75 percent of people with diabetes, yet only 7.4 percent of people with diabetes receive annual dilated eye exams. The Project Sight program will aim to increase the percentage of people with diabetes receiving annual dilated eye exams to 50 percent. Project Sight will also create three public awareness campaigns promoting the importance of receiving annual dilated eye exams if you are a patient with diabetes. The Healthy Vision objectives mesh well with the vision of Tri-County Health Systems: helping individuals of all ages increase life expectancy and quality of life, and eliminating health disparities among different segments of the population. One of the counties in the four-county area has an alarming death rate (76.5 percent) of diabetes-related complications. Project Sight will help to create a health care delivery systems change designed to increase the number of diabetes collaborative patients who receive annual dilated eye exams.

**Nimiipuu Health
Lapwai, ID
Nimiipuu Health has a long-range goal of reducing diabetic retinopathy among the patients served by their facility. The short-term goal is to increase the percentage of patients with diabetes and prediabetes who have annual retinal (dilated) eye examinations. As their Healthy Vision Community Awards project, Nimiipuu Health will conduct an education and outreach campaign to encourage patients with diabetes to have annual, comprehensive vision care; Nimiipuu Health identifies two target groups for this education and outreach program: people with diabetes already served by their facility, and tribal members in general. Outreach to individuals with diabetes and prediabetes patients will aim to increase the percentage of patients who are current with their eye exams from 40 to 60 percent. The outreach and education program also seeks to increase the percentage of patients who are compliant with yearly eye exams to 75 percent by contacting 80 percent of those delinquent with their eye exams and facilitating appointments. Nimiipuu Health has found that more follow-up work is needed to ensure patients keep appointments and to facilitate new appointments for those who miss them. A database is being developed to track efforts to schedule and reschedule appointments for patients. Nimiipuu Health is a renewal awardee, and provides health care services to the Nez Perce Tribe and other Native Americans for whom diabetes and associated complications are major health issues.

**Access Community Health Network
Chicago, IL
Eye Connect, a project conducted by Access Community Health Network (ACHN), will help treat and prevent diabetic retinopathy by educating the estimated 10,000 low-income and minority communities in Chicago who have been diagnosed with diabetes and served at an ACHN facility. ACHN will partner with community organizations, including the American Diabetes Association and the Illinois Eye Institute, to help reach and educate people in need and to provide people with diabetes with critical eye care in underserved communities in Chicago and suburban counties. Patients with limited or nonexistent safety net services are the target population for Eye Connect. The project has outreach, education, and linkage to care components that involve distributing educational materials on diabetic retinopathy through its 46 health centers, conducting outreach to 3,500 patients with diabetes, referring 1,000 patients for full eye exams, conducting 500 eye exams, and conducting diabetic eye care education in conjunction with the Access Community Health Network diabetes education program.

Chinese American Service League, Inc.
Chicago, IL
The Chinese American Service League (CASL) is the largest social service agency serving the Chinese community in the Midwest, with more than 16,000 clients served annually. The CASL Healthy Vision 2007 project will host eye health workshops, in Chinese, for the elderly-covering dry eye, cataract, glaucoma, and macular degeneration; another workshop for parents and children who are concerned with strabismus and lazy eye, and a workshop for teenagers covering nearsightedness and vision therapy. After each workshop, participants will be reminded of the importance of returning to their own eye doctor for examination. Resources have been targeted to support eye exams for the uninsured, through the Vision of Hope Health Alliance. CASL will also translate brochures from the American Optometric Association on eight eye health topics and have them available for the workshops and for the general public. In addition, these translated materials will be entered into the CASL online health resource collection, part of the CASL client-centered Health Resources Library. These documents can be shared with other community agencies serving Chinese-speaking communities, thus reaching a larger audience beyond Chicago. The CASL programs reach a large number of people through several different avenues. Eye examinations and Chinese translated material will be offered to the CASL component that serves about 200 families and 1,000 seniors. CASL youth programs serve about 400 young people, and the CASL Senior Housing Newslettter, which will contain some program material, has a readership of about 600. PSAs will be placed in Chinese-language media outlets which have a combined readership of over 20,000 persons in the Midwest. A total of 170 people are expected to attend the four workshops, and approximately 86 individuals are expected to receive comprehensive dilated eye examinations as a result of the CASL Healthy Vision 2007 programs.

Erie Family Health Center
Chicago, IL
The Eye Health Education to Reduce Visual Impairment Due to Diabetic Retinopathy Among Low-Income Spanish Adults project will work in conjunction with an existing diabetes education and management program to reduce visual impairment due to diabetic retinopathy. Erie Family Health Center provides comprehensive health services to nearly 30,000 patients annually. The Erie Family Health Center has three primary health centers, one adolescent-only health center, three elementary-school-based health centers and a dental center. This project focuses on providing services to the low-income Hispanic population that also suffers from diabetes. The Erie Health Center believes that quality health care is a right, not a privilege. Erie currently cares for 1,800 patients with diabetes 20 years old and over. The Erie Center will provide project participants with individual diabetic retinopathy education, opportunities to learn through community awareness events/presentations, and referrals for diabetic eye exams. The Erie Center Program will offer individual health education, community awareness events and referrals for diabetic eye exams.

McHenry County Department of Health
Woodstock, IL
Score with Safe Sight is an initiative of the McHenry County Department of Health that aims to encourage the appropriate use of protective eyewear in football and baseball programs in an estimated 50 to 75 local high schools, park districts, and league teams. Score with Safe Sight will educate coaches first through training provided at team venues, including park districts. Training will focus specifically on risks to the eyes that are associated with team sports, and will highlight use of approved protective equipment. Department of Health research suggests that athletes and parents may be more likely to comply with coaches' recommendations and mandated team regulations. Coaches participating in the training will be strongly encouraged to require athletes to use protective eyewear. Score with Safe Sight will provide a unique service to McHenry County, since, at this time, there are no schools or league teams in the county that require or encourage young athletes to wear protective eyewear. The Score with Safe Sight project director will also display sample eyewear at an information table at appropriate team events, and the project director will be available to conduct education presentations for parent groups in order to increase parental understanding and awareness of the importance of protective eyewear in team sports. Score with Safe Sight is conducted with community partners, including the 15-member organization of Safe Kids McHenry County and both major McHenry county hospitals. The program expects to reach an estimated 300 coaches, 5000 athletes, and an estimated 6000 parents.

Visiting Nurse Services
Des Moines, IA
A Clear Vision educates child care providers and parents on the importance of early childhood eye health, vision screenings, and treatment, because many vision problems begin before children begin school. A Clear Vision focuses on improving preventative vision health education and screening for children in preschool and child care settings, targeting the reported 36 percent of children age 5 and under who have never had their vision screened. A Clear Vision's goals involve increasing preschool-age children's vision screenings by helping to develop sustainable infrastructure in early childhood environments, through training on vision health topics to directors and staff. Visiting Nurse Services supports Child Care Nurse Consultants in this effort to improve the vision health of children in Polk County, Iowa. The State of Iowa ranks second in the nation for the percentage of children under 6 with all parents working, and 85 percent of children in Polk County attend in licensed child care facilities and homes. Thirty percent of child care staff has not completed high school, which supports the need to offer educational support to child care workers. A Clear Vision intends to facilitate the vision health and preventive measures for the 37,000 children in Polk County child care facilities by educating their caregivers about children's vision health and screening.

National Safety Council
Peosta, IA
Eye Protection Education for Agricultural Audiences focuses on occupational eye injury as a Healthy Vision objective. The Eye Protection Education for Agricultural Audiences has as goals to reduce the level of preventable eye injuries among farmers in northeast Iowa, to develop a safety guide on protective eyewear targeted to farm audiences, to distribute the guide to farmers during an annual visit by an occupational health nurse, to determine farmers' continued use of approved protective eyewear during an on-farm visit by a safety auditor, and to provide training on protective eyewear for local high school youth involved in Future Farmers of America. It is a program designed with the goal of reducing the level of eye injuries among farmers in Northeast Iowa. The program will design a new safety guide tailored to the protective needs of the farmer. In addition to new guidelines, farmers will also receive protective eyewear and educational eye health information during their visit to the occupational health nurse.

Breathitt County Action Team
Jackson, KY
The Breathitt County Action Team (BCAT) will launch BCAT Healthy Vision 2007, which is designed to serve the residents of Breathitt County who face an incident rate of retinitis pigmentosa that is seven times the national average. Breathitt County also has a heightened rate of diabetes, which can lead to blindness. BCAT is a volunteer organization that works with residents in the community to bring positive change to Jackson, KY and the surrounding areas. The BCAT Healthy Vision Community Award will help make vision services more readily accessible to local residents by informing adults with vision impairments about the improvements in vision health technology. Members of BCAT and library staff will be trained in the use of assistive devices installed in a donated space of the local public library. They will provide tutoring sessions for visually impaired residents of Breathitt county. BCAT Healthy Vision seeks to better prepare the county's visually impaired residents to advance their education, better prepare visually impaired persons for employment opportunities, and/or better prepare visually impaired residents for advancement at their place of employment.

**Maryland Society for Sight
Baltimore, MD
Eat Right for Healthy Sight is a renewal program, awarded a second year of funding. Eat Right for Healthy Sight educates children, their families, teachers, and caregivers about the link between obesity and diabetes leading to diabetic retinopathy and the possible loss of sight. In Head Start preschools, Eat Right for Healthy Sight stresses with children the importance of healthy eating and exercise, and encourages the parents of the preschoolers to make healthier meal choices for their families and to ensure that their children incorporate physical activity into their daily lives. Eat Right for Healthy Sight gives a presentation to parents about the project at the Parent/Teacher orientation sessions at the beginning of the school year. The project also develops a series of 12 newsletters for parents and teachers building on the information being taught in the classroom. A 16-week curriculum has been developed under the Eat Right for Healthy Sight project, and is presented to the children, stressing how eating nutritious foods can help preserve eye sight. Additional activities include the parent orientation, pre- and post-questionnaires, newsletters, food and fitness lessons, and a story about Eye Care Bear traveling through the human eye. The Eat Right for Healthy Sight project expects to reach 1,965 preschoolers, 58 teachers and 3,600 parents.

Greater Boston Guild for the Blind
Boston, MA
SightCare Community Vision Loss Education Program provides community-based vision loss rehabilitation information, education, and training to visually impaired seniors and their caregivers. Seniors in the target audience are from low-income and minority groups in the Greater Boston area. Forty SightCare community-based workshops will be held, where seniors and their caregivers will be provided with education about techniques, devices, and services that can help seniors stay independent and safe in their own homes for as long as possible. Seniors with the greatest need will be identified by collaborating with community partner agencies to identify underserved visually impaired adults. Adaptive devices will be demonstrated and educational materials will be distributed. Available low vision services will be discussed, and follow-up will be provided, emphasizing participant access to community resources, including assistance to arrange transportation to needed services. The SightCare curriculum specifically addresses issues important to seniors who are visually impaired, including topics that range from visual health and wellness, to designing safe home environments, to techniques and devices that help increase independence in daily activities. Workshops are led by health professionals, including optometrists, occupational therapists, registered nurses, psychologists, social workers, and mobility specialists. The SightCare program brings eye health education directly to seniors in their own communities. The SightCare program focuses on the eye and vision, medical management, counseling and support services, activities of daily living, the environment, and low vision services. SightCare is expected to reach 200 visually impaired seniors during the grant period.

National Association for Parents of Children with Visual Impairments
Watertown, MA
Eye Health Education and Outreach to Families of Children with Visual Impairments focuses on the Healthy Vision objectives involving vision impairment in children and adolescents and vision rehabilitation services and devices. This program will provide information, support, and resources on eye health and rehabilitation services/devices to families who have children with visual impairments, including those with multiple disabilities. This program will also strengthen communication and linkages between parents and entities within the education, medical, and vision fields in the New York City metropolitan area. The program will create and implement an eye health conference for families of children with visual impairments, featuring invited speakers in vision care from the medial and vision rehabilitation fields. The conference will hold presentations, workshops, and panel discussions on pediatric eye conditions, the latest treatment methods and eye health related information. Exhibitors from the NYC community and national resource groups, like the National Eye Health Education Program, will be invited to this conference. Through this conference, the program hopes to educate participants about the different eye diseases and latest treatments, and help support this parents organization, which takes seriously the parent's role as the best advocates for their children's health.

Michigan Eye-Bank
Ann Arbor, MI
Ira and Iris Say "Protect Your Eyes" is a program designed to educate early elementary school children about using appropriate personal protective eyewear in recreational activities and hazardous situations around the home. The program targets communication about activities that have the potential for causing eye injury. The Ira and Iris Say "Protect Your Eyes" project has a school-based component that offers students an opportunity to discuss the importance of wearing protective eyewear outside, at home, in school, and during sports activities that have a risk of causing eye injury. Classroom discussion, a handheld game that reinforces eye safety concepts, a lesson poster, and classroom activity sheets contribute to imparting the Ira and Iris Say "Protect Your Eyes" lessons. The safety message is sent home via a family homework project that requires a parent or guardian signature. Students who return the completed homework receive a sticker as a reward. The community-based component of this program offers information about protective eyewear at community gatherings such as health fairs, festivals, and other family-oriented community events. It is expected that 100,000 Michigan schoolchildren and their families will be exposed to the Ira and Iris Say "Protect Your Eyes" program via schools, libraries, community presentations, health fairs, festivals, and other family-oriented community events during calendar year 2007.

Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe
Cass Lake, MN
The Leech Lake Band has a mission that commits the band to the health, well-being, education, and inherent right to live of the Ojibwe people. Gift a Child With Vision is a program dedicated to increasing optical screening, optical care/protection practices, and service provider education for children aged 5 and under. The program will provide quarterly community prescreenings, proper education about the use of protective eyewear, and increase vision rehabilitation services for children. These services will also provide caregiver education and referrals to an eye health professional when and if needed. The Band faces the challenges of providing health care to rural communities. Many are of the reservation, which creates long-term struggles with transportation to health service facilities. The project has a goal to increase optical screenings to 300 children aged 5 and under. Another objective is to increase the use of protective eyewear of tribal children in home and community environments; the goal here is to expose 350 children to education about protective eyewear. The third goal of the Gift a Child with Vision project is to increase vision rehabilitation for children and youth of the reservation.

Southern Nevada Health District, Local Health Department
Las Vegas, NV
The Southern Nevada Healthy Vision Project aims to prevent eye disease and blindness among the African American and Hispanic/Latino populations in the Southern Nevada region. The Southern Nevada Healthy Vision Project aims to address the unaware, including the undiagnosed. In Nevada, data shows a dramatic decline n the number of people with diabetes receiving dilated eye exams (down from 79.1 to 54.8 percent). The Southern Nevada Healthy Vision Project will address the ocular complications of diabetes, and address the estimated 25 times greater likelihood that people with diabetes will develop blindness. The program will participate in preexisting community events to help raise awareness about vision health and send their project information to local eye care professionals. Resources will also be available on their Get Healthy Website (to be created) and through a 2-week radio campaign emphasizing the importance of dilated eye exams. It is estimated that 500 people will be reached through a community outreach event. Website events will be tracked, and the radio campaign will reach a large number of listeners. Overall, approximately 55,000 persons are expected to be exposed to the Vision Project's messages.

HAWC Community Health Center
Reno, NV
The Diabetic Vision Health Care Education Program provides community education, targeting 660 Hispanic patients with diabetes informing them of the importance of protecting their eyes and vision by having an eye care professional examine their eyes at least once a year. Culturally competent community outreach, targeted marketing efforts, and bilingual education materials will support this community education effort. HAWC Community Health Center was established in 1995 as a new start in an effort to provide health care resources for the underserved. HAWC Community Health Center currently has well over 1,000 patients on the waiting list to join monthly Diabetes Collaborative sessions, which encompasses the Diabetic Vision Health Care Education Program. Collaborators include many agencies which conduct key components of the Diabetic Care model-the Washoe health System, Abbott and NovoNordisk Pharmaceuticals, the Nevada State Diabetes Control Project, and the community Diabetic Outreach Program of the Nevada Diabetes Association for Children and Adults. Finally, the St. Mary's Regional Medical Center Take-Care-A-Van helps conduct quarterly diabetes screening services in Latino-prominent areas and events in the community. Vision education and linkages to community resources, and increased enrollment in Nevada Medicaid for the purpose of increasing Hispanic clients' access to vision health care will be primary objective of the Diabetic Vision Health Care Education Program.

Deming Public School District
Deming, NM
The Deming Public School District enrolls 5509 students-more than 300 officially migrant children, and 220 children who qualify as homeless. Eight-four percent of all students qualify for free or reduced lunch, although the District provides free breakfast and lunch to all students. The Deming public school district has a bilingual curriculum district wide, since the county shares a 53-mile border with Mexico, and Spanish is the dominant language in many households. The Eyes Right Program is a collaboration between Presbyterian Medical Services and the district's school-based health center. The project will have school nurses lead eye health care workshops at school sites during the spring and fall semesters to educate parents and family members. Bilingual brochures, handouts, and other eye care information will be made available. Local eye health care professionals will be invited to attend, and question-and-answer sessions will be conducted. All of the 5500 students in the District will be invited to attend the educational workshops and receive the eye health data.

Chautauqua Blind Association
Jamestown, NY
The Let's See: the Right Start to Lifelong Health Vision project will serve preschool-age children by increasing the number who receive a vision screening exam. Their families and caregivers will be provided with eye safety information. Preschool-age children throughout Chautauqua County are the target audience, especially those children who live in the rural communities of Western New York State. The Let's See project seeks to protect, for Chautauqua county children, the 80 percent of learning that takes place through sight. The Let's See will identify vision problems in young children, and ensure they are evaluated by an optometrist. Outreach publicity and volunteer coordination is an important aspect of The Let's See project. The project will also provide referral information, protective eye wear information, eye safety educational sessions, follow-ups for those referred for further eye examinations, and information on available financial aid for vision evaluations and treatments. The project's success will be determined by reaching a 25 percent increase in the number of children screened, a 50 percent increase in the number of children participating in eye safety informational sessions, and a 100 percent increase in the number of volunteers active in promoting the program.

Associates for World Action in Rehabilitation and Education (AWARE)
Mohegan Lake, NY
The Online Low Vision Rehabilitation Education Workshop for Consumers, Families of Adults with Vision Impairments, and Community Personnel will create a 16-hour online module to increase the availability of eye health and vision rehabilitation information that is directly related to the needs of consumers, family members and personnel in senior centers, assisted living facilities, retirement facilities, and long-term care facilities. The goal is to reach persons who need or seek improvement in personal independence and quality of life after experiencing vision impairments. This project breaks the 16-hour online workshop into four 4 hour modules, each developed by AWARE and made available on the VisionAWARE Website (www.visionaware.org). With support from Reader's Digest Partners for Sight, AWARE dramatically revised its website so that extensive links to key Government and national vision-related rehabilitation resources and added a Q&A format. The site was pilot-tested at Visions/Services for the Blind in New York with eight older persons with vision impairment, two of whom were totally blind, and six who had low vision. Online family seminars, and online continuing education courses with CE credits are currently in process. The component of the project supported by NEI will permit the design, writing, promotion, launch, evaluation, revision and market-test of an online educational vision rehabilitation workshop, which is based on the prior work serving persons with vision impairments.

Henry Street Settlement-Senior Companion Program
New York, NY
The Senior Companion Program is a project created to deliver language-appropriate education to the diverse New York City senior population about vision rehabilitation services and devices. The program will first educate senior companions about different eye diseases, vision rehabilitation, and risk factors, and then direct them to relate the information to their senior clients. The program will also provide eye screenings to both seniors and their companions, distribute language-appropriate educational materials, and make referrals when appropriate. This peer education approach will bring eye health information to several hundred seniors, as we as conduct eye screenings for cataract, at three Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs). The mission of his companion program is to bring healthy, older adult volunteers together with frail, isolated and homebound elderly individuals. Social isolation must be prevented, and the Companion Project encourages that senior citizens complete their aging at home. Last year, the Senior Companion Program provided information about diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma for its volunteers and clients. This year, the 2007 project will focus on the health needs of seniors at risk for cataract. Eighty senior companions will be educated about the disease, and about adaptive strategies that serve to protect vulnerable seniors who have cataract-related vision impairment. Volunteers are expected to relate information to 100 senior companion clients.

New York City Department for the Aging
New York, NY
Healthy Eye: Senior to Senior is a collaborative project between the New York City Department for the Aging (DFTA) and VISIONS/Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired. The project will educate 50 to 75 senior health promotion volunteers to lead ongoing vision health activities, and to make seniors aware of vision rehabilitation services. DFTA's Health Promotion Unit will recruit, train, and deploy new health promotion volunteers using existing and modified vision education training curriculum: one training each in English, Spanish, and Cantonese. Conducting training in two other languages will encourage volunteerism and attendance among seniors who may not be bilingual. Training will take place at Sellis Manor (operated by VISIONS), a community center specifically designed for blind/visually impaired seniors. Trainees will be carefully oriented toward the needs and strengths of the visually impaired/blind population. Trainees will join the current corps of over 800 senior volunteers for health-related community service programs; this current corps of volunteers, dedicated to serving older adults in their communities, lead ongoing health activities at 215 sites, reaching over 7,500 seniors on a monthly basis. Healthy Eye: Senior to Senior has the following goals: to prevent or slow the progression of age-related vision loss among community seniors; assist seniors who are blind or visually impaired to live safely and independently; and promote healthy behavior as it relates to vision and eye care. An anticipated 50 to 75 new senior volunteers will be trained in the vision health area. Through this corps of volunteers, approximately 350 to 400 seniors will received information about vision loss and referrals for vision rehabilitation services where needed.

Chatham Family Resource Center
Siler City, NC
The Chatham Healthy Vision 2007 project will reach out to at-risk minority populations in Chatham County with materials about having dilated eye examinations at least once a year, as well as information about diabetic retinopathy and about other eye diseases that can arise from complications of diabetes. The Chatham Healthy Vision project will educate people who may not be aware of risk for eye diseases, and assist them in having a dilated eye exam, a diabetes blood glucose test, and will refer them to local vision professionals for screening, detection of eye disease, and eye disease care management. Members of the Chatham, NC community who do not have access to professional vision care with be provided with access to free vision screenings and exams by using the Lions Club Vision Van as the major focus of the project. The project will also provide targeted eye health education for those at risk and referrals for local vision services. The growing Latino migrant community and the population of middle-school-age children have suffered from very limited outreach, and there is a potential epidemic of diabetes and associated eye diseases developing as a potential health crisis in Chatham. Vision exams will be provided for up to 1200 clients.

PSA 3 Area Agency on the Aging
Lima, OH
Magnify Awareness of the Aging Eye works to increase community awareness of potential visual impairment due to glaucoma and cataract. The seven-country area served by the PSA 3 Area Agency on the Aging is located in Ohio, where 16,000 people turn 60 each month. The Magnify Awareness of the Aging Eye project aims to reach these populations in Ohio before they suffer permanent vision loss. The Magnify Awareness of the Aging Eye will launch an Awareness Campaign offering an educational session to professionals (health care personnel, home health agencies, social workers, nurses, and other professionals within the aging network) and another to the general public. The purpose of these sessions will be to increase awareness of glaucoma and cataract, to discuss what can be done to slow the effects and to explore different treatment options. The Awareness campaign also has media components including PSAs on WLIO television, which will reach 138,000 households. Radio ads which will reach 44,600 people; printed ads and articles to be published in the Lima News, which reaches 42,000; and finally, a digital billboard will display an eye health promotional messages for 1 month, and this display has the potential to reach 23,000 people each day.

Deschutes County Healthy Beginnings, Inc.
Deschutes County, OR
Healthy Beginnings-Vision for the Future is a program targeted for children aged 5 and under. This program provides free vision screenings and seeks to enhance vision education for parents and caregivers with 12 full-day screenings per year rotated in a five-county community. The project will also conduct a media campaign that will include advertisements, flyers, and educational brochures focusing on vision health for young children. The message: Vision Health Begins in Infancy. Healthy Beginnings is the first step in connecting parents and their children with available vision care services. Deschutes County in Oregon further helps this community by promoting the importance of early and periodic vision screening in improving and protecting vision development. Although most of the County is Caucasian, the program serves all ethnic groups and special efforts are made to connect with the non-English-speaking families in the County. The Healthy Beginnings project expects to screen 330 to 400 children through the project's effort.

Bucks County Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (BCABVI)
Newton, PA
Increasing Referrals for Low Vision Rehabilitation by Educating Staff at Community Senior Centers makes an effort to increase the knowledge base of senior center staff so that staff can more readily identify individuals with low vision and make appropriate referrals for rehabilitation services offered at the Bucks County Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired. To ensure that staff are appropriately informed, BCABVI is tailoring the language of materials and presentations for non-medical personnel. The BCABVI project taps into highly organized systems which routinely interacts with at-risk older adults. Key activities of the BCABVI project include educational sessions and resource materials for staff at 13 senior centers in Bucks County, PA. The project goal is to educate senior center staff to recognize which patients could benefit from being referred to the program. This project concentrates on early intervention, targeting those older adults in the early stages of their visual impairment. BCABVI believes that early intervention increases the chances of successful rehabilitation and continued engagement in a meaningful and satisfying life. The BCABVI project expects to educate 130 people at senior centers, and to refer 30 people to targeted vision rehabilitation services.

San Juan Rotary Club
San Juan, PR
Preventing Visual Impairment in Children is a project that aims to educate public school directors, teachers, nurses, and parents on the impairment caused by uncorrected childhood visual problems, with emphasis on the impact on their learning process. Preventing Visual Impairment in Children also will develop materials on the prevention and management of children's visual status and dysfunctions for distribution to caregivers and teachers in the San Juan Educational District. Collaborations involve the InterAmerican University of Puerto Rico School of Optometry. The project will obtain clinical data to inform educators and children's health personnel, and inform physicians about the importance of vision care referrals for children. Most children's eye exams in Puerto Rico must come from a primary care physician, and so posters and brochures will be developed and sent to educators, administrators, and nurses in schools, as well as to medical professionals and physicians. Presentations, lectures, vision screenings, and data collection and analysis are all part of this campaign to raise awareness of the problem of uncorrected vision dysfunctions for children. Preventing Visual Impairment in Children expects that the media elements of the campaign will provide exposure to 5,000 persons. About 1,000 children will participate in vision screenings, and 200 to 400 teachers, school nurses and parents will participate directly in the training sessions.

Rhode Island Optometric Association
North Kingstown, RI
The Save Your Vision Campaign will educate parents regarding the new Rhode Island law requiring all kindergartners to have a vision screening with their pediatrician or family practice doctor. The law requires that children who fail the vision screening or who have a known neurodevelopmental delay must see an eye doctor for a comprehensive eye examination. Increased awareness of this new law will address the Healthy Vision objective 28-2; the law will dramatically increase the number of children who undergo vision screening. A new public service announcement regarding the new law has been completed with input from optometry, ophthalmology, pediatrics, school nurses, and family practice-specialists in all areas joined and comprised an implementation committee overseen by the Department of Health. The Committee decided that a PSA shown numerous times to the public would be more effectively than a single written document made available to parents. Funding will permit the PSA to be shown during times and during programming when parents of young children are likely to be viewing, rather than during the late night options offered for free PSAs. In Rhode Island, each child has their own health-based Web page called KIDSNET, which is currently used to track immunization records for school. Additional fields will be added to the Web page to include vision data regarding which children were screened, which screenings were failed, and which children were referred for comprehensive examination. This data will provide regular reports of the progress of this initiative.

Margaret J. Weston Community Health Centers
Clearwater, SC
The Margaret J. Weston Educate Your Eyes Project (EYE) is a promotional plan focusing on increasing awareness of the risk of diabetic retinopathy. The multi-component program will include provider and patient education about retinopathy screening, community outreach, and social marketing through special events that highlight experiences and lessons learned. The program will also provide patient follow-ups and education about appropriate disease management. The EYE project intends to increase skills of providers through continuing education so that they can better identify patients at risk, explain procedures, examinations, and plans for follow-up. The project intends to increase awareness of the risk for diabetic retinopathy, including the need for dilated screening and management of diabetic retinopathy for 300 already diagnosed patients with diabetes. The EYE project will contact at least 650 congregants of churches involved in the Aiken County Diabetes Coalition. The EYE project also wants to increase awareness of the risk for diabetic retinopathy and the need for dilated screening to 500 community members (noncongregants).

Hardeman County Community Health Center
Bolivar, TN
The goal of the Hardeman County Vision Program is to increase the rate of annual dilated eye exams in people with diabetes residing in Hardeman and Haywood counties. This project will provide these communities with preventative vision education, referrals, and screenings using their primary care facilities. The project proposes to track patients with diabetes in Hardeman and Haywood Counties in order to increase the rate of annual dilated eye examinations. The project also endeavors to increase awareness of diabetic eye complications and to provide patients with diabetes with comprehensive and preventive vision education. The Hardeman county partnership with Prevent Blindness Tennessee will also improve the access that patients have to dilated eye exams. Hardeman County Health Center is a Federal, qualified health center, and estimates that 21,000 clinical encounters will yield about 2,100 visits from patients with diabetes.

Cherokee Health Systems (CHS)
Knoxville, TN
Cherokee Health Systems, a nonprofit community health organization, which provides safety net services to underserved and medically needy populations in 11 East Tennessee counties. In an effort to address impairment due to diabetic retinopathy, CHS has instituted a Diabetic Retinopathy Education and Outreach program which will educate CHS patients and the community about the importance of annual retinal exams for people with diabetes and will increase the rate of CHS patients with diabetes who receive retinal exams to at least 50 percent by the end of the project period. The CHS Diabetic Retinopathy Education and Outreach program will undertake a number of objectives: current patients with diabetes will be recruited as volunteer community educators about the risks and signs of diabetic retinopathy; educational materials will be distributed; CHS patients with diabetes will be contacted to inform them they are due for a retinal exams; a PSA will be developed and broadcast on local television to increase public awareness of the importance of diabetic eye exams; and a billboard campaign will also be mounted to increase public awareness of the importance of dilated eye exams for people with diabetes.

Clovernook Center for the Visually Impaired
Memphis, TN
The Transportable Model of Life with Low Vision project will educate and increase awareness of vision rehabilitation to assist individuals who are living with treatable vision disabilities. Too many people are identified as living with needless disability as a result of vision impairment. The 2007 Healthy Vision Community Award will enable the Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, in collaboration with the Southern College of Optometry and the Memphis Grizzlies, to reach thousands in a six-State area. The project will use a device to simulate low vision while individuals watch a short video and perform day-to-day tasks, as well as informing the participants of how rehabilitation can assist with these vision impairments. These services will be available at sites in Cincinnati, OH, and Memphis, TN, which are equipped with low vision clinics and full rehabilitation staff. The model described by this project will reach 3,000 people generally, and when collaborative activities are undertaken with the Memphis Grizzles, the program will reach 8500 individuals at a time.

Rural Health Services Consortium (RHSC), Inc.
Rogersville, TN
The Focus for the Future program is intended to help persons living in rural underserved counties in Northeast Tennessee. RHSC operates 12 primary care clinics in these counties, where communities are small with populations usually less than 2,000. Access to major health care networks and hospitals requires a minimum 1-hour drive. In 2005, RHSC served 33,954 patients which resulted in 120,320 patient visits. Sixty-eight percent of patients meet low-income and poverty guidelines. The Focus for the Future program will directly target the 9 percent of patients diagnosed with Type I or II diabetes who have not had a dilated eye exam in the previous 12 months. The program will also determine other patients have not had an exam the prior year. Each patient will be individually contacted to schedule the examination. Focus for the Future will also conduct a series of vision-specific health fairs throughout the eight-county rural area. RHSC is a member of the National Health Disparities Diabetes Collaborative.

Retina Foundation of the Southwest
Dallas, TX
The Senior to Senior Connection for Healthy Vision will establish much-needed vision education programs for senior citizens in low to moderate income areas of Dallas County. Senior Volunteer instructors will be recruited and trained to provide continuing education programs twice a year. The training programs are designed to ensure that seniors receive education about vision that is current and applicable to their individual needs. Training sessions are also designed to provide adequate education about eye disease so that seniors have appropriate eye health literacy, and do not misinterpret early symptoms of eye disease as the natural process of aging. Treatment may be most effective at the early stages of eye disease, therefore, there is a great need to provide and continue to provide educational programs to seniors. Greater eye health literacy for seniors is an appropriate objective because one factor underlying seniors' higher prevalence of vision impairment and blindness is that older adults are less likely to receive education about the symptoms of different eye diseases and the importance of routine comprehensive eye examinations, when newly emerging eye conditions can be detected and treated in a timely fashion. Older adults are at higher risk to suffer vision loss through lack of knowledge. The public health challenge is to educate people about the importance of early detection and treatment in preventing serious visual impairment. The Senior to Senior Connection for Healthy Vision will use feedback from everyone who participates in the effort, through use of questionnaires designed to look at both quantitative and qualitative data. Because vision impairment and eye disease rates differ across ethnic groups, one of the project's long term goals is to expand the education program throughout Dallas County, training additional senior volunteer teams at other sites covering a wide range of ethnicity and social-economic conditions.

District Three Senior Services
Marion, VA
The I-CARE (Info on Eye Care, Assistance, and Referral Services for the Elderly) program identifies seniors that are at high risk for developing eye diseases. The objective of the program is to increase dilated eye examinations for seniors and to reduce impairment due to eye disease. The program proposes to educate 400+ seniors and caregivers. I-CARE also provides financial assistance for those who need dilated eye exams and eye glasses. Collaborators include Elderly Care Management, Caregiver Support, Emergency, Information and Assistance, and Homemaker services. Last year, 1,003 seniors were served at the agency's 16 congregate nutrition sites, 2,018 persons received information and assistance services, 363 seniors received emergency assistance; 293 seniors were provided care management and 247 seniors received homemaker services. This service level is the base from which the program operates.

**Selected for renewal award from 2007 Healthy Vision Community Awards