Dr. Shane Foster remembers growing up in Athens County and wearing glasses from an early age. The southeastern Ohio optometrist understands the unique challenges of being a kid in Appalachia and the gaping need for vision care.
And as president of the Ohio Optometric Foundation, a statewide vision advocacy organization, he s seen how that need limits educational success throughout the region. Ohio has a third-grade reading guarantee but not a third-grade vision guarantee, Foster said. We expect them to read at a certain level, but we’re not giving them the tools to do that.
But thanks to the Ohio Optometric Foundation s partnership with the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio, the region s philanthropic arm, and Vision To Learn, a national nonprofit group that provides eye care to students across the country, 7,500 kids across 20 school districts in Appalachian Ohio will receive an eye exam via mobile clinic over the next three years.
Mar 3, 2021
Though much of the rest of the nation might not think of Ohio this way, more than a third of the Buckeye State is part of Appalachia. Those of us living along the Ohio River know quite well the similarities in communities on either side of that boundary. In those communities there are needs that simply do not exist in Ohio’s more urban and midwestern regions.
Among them is a challenge being tackled by a Foundation for Appalachian Ohio proposal, which has just been deemed “Pay for Success Appropriate and Ready” by state Treasurer Robert Sprague’s office.