Prevent Blindness

Bio

Founded in 1908, Prevent Blindness America is the nation's leading patient and consumer advocate for eye health and safety. We are dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight. Focused on promoting a continuum of vision care, Prevent Blindness America touches the lives of millions of people each year. We screen. We check the eyes of millions of children and adults each year. Our vision screenings help preschoolers at risk of vision loss from lazy eye (amblyopia), school children who depend on good vision for learning, and adults threatened by glaucoma and other serious vision problems. We educate. We get the word out on better eye health through brochures, fact sheets, public service announcements, newsletters, media campaigns, special events and the web. Every year more than 120 million people read, hear or see our messages about early detection of eye disease and prevention of accidents that can cause permanent loss of sight. We advocate. We work with government officials at the state, local and national levels - building grassroots advocacy movements that will improve our nation's public health policies. We support groundbreaking vision research. We support the work of scientists who will find tomorrow's cures for the eye diseases that threaten Americans with vision loss and blindness. We train. We train and certify adult and children's vision screeners and screening instructors through the only national program of its kind, providing 20,000 vision screening personnel with the skills they need to help people in their communities. We are in your community today. We improve the quality of life for hundreds of thousands through our community programs. Our websites, www.preventblindness.org and our PBA Vision Health resource Center (1-800-331-2020) put us within reach of anyone with Internet access or a telephone.