Earlier this month, Vision for Baltimore (V4B) celebrated the distribution of its 10,000th pair of eyeglasses to Baltimore City Public Schools students during a ceremony at Fort Worthington Elementary/Middle School.

Vision for Baltimore operates as a partnership between Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine, the Center for Research and Reform in Education at the Johns Hopkins School of Education, Baltimore City Public Schools, the Baltimore City Health Department, direct-to-consumer lifestyle brand Warby Parker and national nonprofit Vision To Learn. The Baltimore City Health Department conducts screenings, Vision To Learn performs eye exams, and Warby Parker provides eyeglasses for the program through an in-kind donation to Johns Hopkins and distributes them as part of its Pupils Project program. The Hopkins team leads research efforts and works with schools to coordinate the services delivered by all program partners.

Since its launch in 2016, V4B and its partners have conducted more than 75,000 vision screenings and 12,000 eye exams and have now given away 10,000 pairs of eyeglasses. Wilmer has been involved from the beginning, says Megan Collins, the Allan and Claire Jensen Professor of Ophthalmology at Wilmer and the Hopkins lead for the project.

The 10,000 eyeglasses milestone shows how V4B and the collaboration between local partners has survived and thrived in the last six years, Collins says. “It underscores the powerful impact that can be had when city stakeholders work together to solve a problem,” she says. “It connects our team’s research with the reality of how many children’s lives can be transformed, simply with a pair of eyeglasses and a model of eye care delivery that overcomes access barriers.”

As part of V4B, Wilmer and the JHU School of Education conducted the largest US-based randomized controlled trial measuring the impact of eyeglasses on academic performance. The study found that students who received eyeglasses through Vision for Baltimore scored higher on reading and math tests. Moreover, students who struggled the most academically before receiving eyeglasses showed the greatest improvement. The findings, Collins says, have implications for the millions of children across the country who suffer from vision impairment but lack access to pediatric eye care.

As principal investigator, Collins has also led a number of other research projects measuring vision outcomes and how to best implement a school-based model for vision care, a key factor in increasing access to eyeglasses in disadvantaged communities. Collins also works closely with Hopkins leadership, the Hopkins program team, and program partners on building program sustainability, including advocating at the state and national level and directing the Johns Hopkins Center for School Health, which Collins says will expand research, education and implementation of school-based health delivery models to address health disparities in high-poverty schools across the United States.

The recipient of the 10,000th pair of eyeglasses given through V4B was Romeo Merritt, a seventh grader at Fort Worthington Elementary/Middle School. "I will be able to tell people and say it proudly that I'm the 10,000th person to get glasses," he says. "I was excited to get glasses because I've been frustrated, since I couldn't really see some of the [math] problems written on the board. I had to move closer to look at the board and try to answer the problems."

As the program enters its seventh year serving Baltimore students, it also celebrates a new $1 million grant from the Maryland Department of Health. The additional funds, administered by the Baltimore City Health Department and Vision To Learn, will support thousands more screenings and eye exams for students. The program will expand operations across 62 schools annually, so that it can now serve all Baltimore City elementary and middle schools over any two-year cycle.

Collins says she enjoys being part of an initiative that focuses on the intersection of public health, vision care, and education and brings eyecare to students in need. “This project is a constant source of inspiration and one of the highlights of my career,” says Collins. “The program has shown how impactful something as simple as eyeglasses can be on a child’s life, both in terms of vision and academic trajectory.”

Johns Hopkins University Central Communications contributed to this article.