In 2003, Prevent Blindness America entered into a significant partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to address vision and eye health preservation issues.
By merging the capacity of the Prevent Blindness America network of affiliates with state health departments, innovative relationships were established to increase the visibility of the relationship between vision and public health.
These public/private partnerships have fostered state and local collaborations that included integration of vision and eye health messages within existing programs tailored to meet specific community needs.
This report shares four distinctly different collaborations between states and Prevent Blindness America affiliates, with a focus on how targeted public-private partnerships and prevention-based initiatives can work to advance the Prevent Blindness America mission of preventing blindness and preserving sight
SUMMARY
In 2003, Prevent Blindness America entered into a significant partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to address vision and eye health preservation issues. Our cooperative efforts since then have allowed us to create groundbreaking strategies to expand the scope of public health disease prevention and health promotion activities surrounding vision and eye health.

By merging the capacity of the Prevent Blindness America network of affiliates with state health departments, innovative relationships were established to increase the visibility of the relationship between vision and public health. These public/private partnerships have fostered state and local collaborations that included integration of vision and eye health messages within existing programs tailored to meet specific community needs.

This paper shares four distinctly different collaborations between states and Prevent Blindness America affiliates, illustrating the capacity of states and communities to promote vision and eye health as a part of community public health initiatives. Opportunities were identified, in part, by examining data generated from the Visual Impairment and Access to Eye Care module of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System that provides state-level data to support the need for vision programming.

The Vision Connection: integrating vision into State Health Programs

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