Conexus, through a grant from the Jenkins Foundation, provided VisioCheck programming to over 3,000 kindergarten and third grade students in Richmond City Schools.  Students in need of follow-up services were then supported with free eye exams and glasses through two mobile clinics.
 
Conexus partnered with the Texas-based Kids Vision For Life mobile vision clinic to bring on-site eye exams and glasses to Virginia students as part of the Mobile Clinic’s east coast tour.  One of the stops on the tour was Richmond City’s G. H. Reid Elementary.  See what our nurse partner had to say about the program:

Conexus has collaborated with two major partners to bring VisioCheck programs to North Carolina elementary students!  Conexus was recently awarded a grant from the Walmart State Giving program to help support enhanced vision programs for needy students in North Carolina.  The grant targets 2,500 students in communities where more than 50% of the students are eligible for the free or reduced lunch program.
 
Prevent Blindness North Carolina will coordinate programs in the designated communities and use the manpower of their screening teams to provide the technology based screening.  From there, results will be uploaded to Conexus to provide all the “back end support” which is the specific component designed to create a response to the screening.  Conexus will issue full color, informative student screening reports for all students, pass and refer; provide educational material to parents; offer access to care for qualifying students in need; and manage data collection, program analysis and follow up.
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The program is expected to identify 625 students in need of follow up. 80% of what a child learns in school is through their vision, so it’s critical to identify potential vision problems early and link children to care before poor vision can interfere with success in school.