Columbia, SC – Sixteen organizations are celebrating World Sight Day with an unprecedented statewide collaboration for vision health. The Palmetto Vision Alliance is a new program spearheaded by Lions Vision Services to maximize resources for blind and visually impaired persons in South Carolina through collaboration, cooperation, and coordination among key service stakeholders. The group’s first meeting will be held virtually on October 8, 2020.
“We want to create a safe, transparent environment in which organizations that are serving the blind and visually impaired can come together,” says Daniel Prohaska, Director of Development for Lions Vision Services. “There is currently no statewide forum to facilitate this kind of collaboration. We believe that by bringing together all stakeholders we can do more to advance a common goal: improve vision health for all South Carolina residents.”
The Palmetto Vision Alliance (PVA) will meet quarterly to share successes, share organizations’ vision, goals, and priorities, support existing programs, maximize resources, ask questions, get support, coordinate volunteers, discuss collaborations, and coordinate advocacy by speaking with one voice on relevant issues.
World Sight Day (WSD) 2020 was selected as PVA’s first meeting date to bring awareness and focused attention to the global issue of eye health. This year’s WSD call to action is: Hope In Sight. Join us using the hashtags #WorldSightDay and #HopeInSight. WSD provides a platform for organizations to encourage governments, corporations, institutions, and individuals to actively support universal access to eye health.
Sixteen organizations currently comprise PVA, including Able SC, Association for the Blind & Visually Impaired South Carolina, Impact America, Lighthouse for the Blind, Inc., Lions Vision Services, National Federation of the Blind of South Carolina, Operation Sight, South Carolina Assistive Technology Program, South Carolina Optometric Physicians Association, South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind, Servants for Sight, South Carolina Commission for the Blind, Storm Eye Institute, The Vision Institute of South Carolina, Inc., Transition Alliance of South Carolina, and WellPartners Dental and Eye Health Clinic. Any organization serving the blind and visually impaired in South Carolina is welcome to participate.
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About Lions Vision Services
Lions Vision Services (LVS) was created by the Lions Clubs of South Carolina in 1969 and exists today to empower the under-served blind and visually impaired in South Carolina to live safe, meaningful, and fulfilling lives. LVS offers a range of programs and services to low income South Carolina residents who apply for need-based financial assistance with obtaining affordable eye surgeries, low vision equipment, health screenings, and hearing aids. To learn more about LVS’s services, visit www.lionsvisionservices.org.