Nov. 5, 2009
More than 100 school children inLeeCountyare being screened for eye problems this week, thanks to college students participating in FocusFirst, a project of Impact Alabama.
Since 2004, more than 1,700 students attending 22Alabamacolleges, universities and high schools have screened over 60,000 children inAlabamafor eye diseases and disorders as part of their affiliation with FocusFirst.
Impact is the state’s first nonprofit organization dedicated to developing and implementing substantive service-learning projects in coordination with select universities and junior colleges throughout the state.
Potential problems have been detected in some 11.9 percent of theAlabamachildren screened to date. All such children received or will receive fully subsidized follow-up care as necessary, coordinated by Sight Savers America.
FocusFirst provides a cost-effective response to the vision problems of underprivileged children who live in urban and rural poverty inAlabama. FocusFirst student volunteers travel to communities of need and conduct vision screenings for children, six months to five years of age, using state-of-the-art photo-screening technology.
Founder and president Stephen Black, a professor/attorney who has developed a Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at theUniversityofAlabama, began implementing Impact in the fall of 2004. Impact now has 23 full-time staff members working out of the nonprofit’s headquarters inBirminghamandTuscaloosa.
“We desperately need young people’s energies, perspectives and talents to make our communities and institutions work well,” Black stated. “I see the college years as an incredible opportunity to engage students in addressing human and community needs through structured service opportunities, while providing them with a sense of their ability as well as responsibility to affect structural change.”
Visit the Impact Web site at www.impactalabama.org.
