OUR MISSION:
Vision To Learn provides vision screenings, eye exams, and glasses, free of charge, to children in low-income communities.
Words from our Founder.
2020 has been a year none of us will soon forget. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all our lives. And this crisis has had a disproportionate impact on those living in poverty and communities of color – the same communities served by Vision To Learn. The important progress Vision To Learn made this year provides it an even stronger foundation as we return to helping children at schools.
Recently, Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute completed a 3-year study of Vision To Learn’s program in Baltimore City Public Schools. Results from this study will be published in early 2021, as Vision To Learn is returning to school campuses that have been closed since last March. The findings are the most extensive review of the impact providing glasses to students who need them has on their academic progress. This controlled, randomized study, from a world-renowned institution, will be an important guide for our work in the coming years.
Students in public schools across the country made an overnight transition to online learning and the many challenges that came with it. For some, just seeing the
screen was not possible without glasses. It’s worth noting that 88% of the glasses we provided during summer 2020 were to children who needed them to participate in class online. We’ve helped so many children over the years who had tried to compensate for the inability to see things far away by sitting in front of the class or asking a classmate for help. Imagine a child at home who can’t read the computer screen which is their only connection to school and the world around them.
After seven years of work by Vision To Learn providing more than 148,000 students with glasses, the State of California recognized the value of providing needed health services, like glasses, to children at schools. A new law authored with the support of Vision To Learn opens the door to collaboration with health insurers and to additional funding from Medicaid and CHIP.
Black Lives Matter protests have caused our country to take a hard look at systemic bias in all parts of society, including health care. The need for Vision To Learn’s service is a staggering reminder of the consequences of inequity, as
more than two million kids in underserved communities lack access to vision care.
The progress Vision To Learn made in 2020 will provide the foundation for the next chapter. Since Vision To Learn was founded eight years ago, it has now provided vision screenings to more than 1,250,000 children, exams to nearly 300,000 and glasses to almost 225,000. Our goal over the next eight years is to make sure every child in the country who needs glasses has them.
Vision To Learn’s progress has only been possible because of the brilliant leadership of Ann Hollister, the tireless efforts of a dedicated staff and the generous support of many individuals and organizations. I’m grateful for all of them. We’ll keep working until every kid who needs glasses has them.
Thanks for your support.
Austin Beutner
Founder
YEAR IN REVIEW
WHERE WE WORK
LOS ANGELES
LA Unified is our
biggest project yet
2017 - 2020
VISION SCREENINGS
EYE EXAMS
GLASSES
Meet Principal Rosas
Click on the map to explore LAUSD schools helped by Vision To Learn
COVID-19 RESPONSE
Addressing a
different kind of need.
In March, COVID-19 closed schools across the country. While Vision To Learn continued to serve our core mission by mailing glasses to students examined before the shut-down, as well as replacing students’ lost or broken glasses, we were forced to pause our school-based mobile vision service for several months.
Undaunted, we immediately turned our mobile clinics to COVID-19 relief efforts across Vision To Learn regions.
SPORTS PARTNERS
Los Angeles
Clippers
Los Angeles
Dodgers
Philadelphia
Eagles
Atlanta
Hawks
Golden State
Warriors
Detroit
Pistons
Our All-Time Top Supporters
$1,000,000+
Beutner Family Foundation
The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Deerbrook Charitable Trust
Eagles Charitable Foundation, Inc.
L.A. Clippers Foundation
$500,000 – $999,999
Essilor Vision Foundation
Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation
Overdeck Family Foundation
Rotary District 5280
$250,000 – $499,999
The Ahmanson Foundation
Annie E. Casey Foundation
The Ballmer Group
Bank of America
Barings
The California Endowment
The Gambrell Foundation
The Heinz Endowments
Jamie and Denise Jacob Family Foundation
The Robin-Hwajin Yoon Kim Foundation
Longwood Foundation, Inc.
The Rathmann Challenge
The David Tepper Charitable Foundation Inc.
Warriors Community Foundation
The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation
Weingart Foundation
Vision To Learn is a nonprofit organization that provides vision screenings, eye exams, and glasses, free of charge, to children in low-income communities. Vision To Learn has helped students in 422 cities and 152 school districts in 13 states, and has provided more than 1.25 million vision screenings, 285,000 eye exams, and 225,000 pairs of glasses to children.
12100 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 1275 | Los Angeles, CA 90025 | (800) 485-9196