Background

The leadership of Anne F. Ratner, the Foster Family, Jerome and Miriam Katzen and other philanthropists has established what has become the Save Our Children's Sight program to benefit the underprivileged young children of San Diego and to provide a model for other communities.

Save Our Children's Sight, in conjunction with the Anne F. and Abraham Ratner Children's Eye Center, at the UCSD Shiley Eye Center is a complex, systematic and multifaceted program that is unprecedented anywhere. The program also serves as a public health model in overcoming barriers to care for the underserved.

The program consists of 4 key complex projects. The first is vision screening of low-income preschoolers in over 150 locations throughout San Diego County and at the San Diego Regional Center for the Developmentally Disabled. The second is a mobile pediatric clinic program on the EyeMobile for Children that includes the provision of glasses for all children who fail screening. The third is parent and community education about the need for vision care with follow-up of children who receive glasses and other treatment to assess adherence. Fourth is research to determine patterns of eye disease and the impact of early intervention on the cognitive and motor abilities of preschool children. These large academic based community projects for children have been remarkable accomplishments resulting in additional multiple university-community partnerships and funding from multiple private and public sources.

The forging of these partnerships has been an incredible undertaking that has proven to be highly successful. All services to over 30,000 low-income underserved children have been provided at no cost to their families.

Importantly, the children's program also is quite significant as the foundation for the development of major research programs. For example, this work has resulted in a research partnership between UCSD and the San Diego Head Start program, which is one of the largest Head Start programs in the nation. These research studies are now in the pilot stages and will for the first time provide information about 1) the patterns of eye diseases in diverse children in the border region, and 2) the impact of glasses for bilateral severe refractive errors in the cognitive and motor development of young children. In addition to the community partnerships, interdisciplinary research collaborations have been forged between the Departments of Ophthalmology, Family and Preventive Medicine, and others to undertake pilot studies in these areas. This is a successful and compelling program that has been embraced by the community and the faculty. In addition, dozens of UCSD students have had outstanding internship experiences through volunteering in these children's projects.

Very significant and noteworthy funding for the Save Our Children's Sight projects has included the first grant that UCSD has ever received from The California Endowment and the only grant ever received in California from the Lions Clubs International Foundation. These are only two of the many public and private sources that fund these children's projects. Others include First 5 Commission of San Diego County (Prop 10), Alliance Heatlhcare Foundation, and generous private donors. This unprecedented program for underserved children began in January 2000 and has grown into a complex set of projects and continues on a trajectory of increased research and expansion of community service.