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April 2024 Newsletter From ISPB & PBIL



Women’s Eye Health & Safety Month

Prevent Blindness and ISPB have declared April as Women’s Eye Health and Safety Month. According to Orbis International, globally there are 112 million more women than men living with vision loss, including blindness. Prevent Blindness is offering free resources, including fact sheets, shareable social media graphics, educational videos, and web pages, on a range of eye health issues that predominantly affect women.

Women have a higher prevalence of age-related macular degeneration, cataract, dry eye, glaucoma, refractive error and thyroid eye disease. According to The Lancet Global Health Commission on Global Eye Health: vision beyond 2020 report, the gender imbalance can be attributed to demographic factors (women living longer than men) and social factors (women having reduced access to care).

For more information visit HERE


Be a Voice for Vision: Sign Up for Advocacy Alerts from Prevent Blindness

Prevent Blindness regularly issues email alerts when there is an opportunity for advocates to contact legislators in Congress with sight-saving policy and legislative updates. Advocates who are interested in making their voices heard can register with their email address at the Prevent Blindness Legislative Action Center. Advocates who register will also receive bi-monthly advocacy news and policy updates from Prevent Blindness.

If you have any questions, please email advocacy@preventblindness.org. Thank you for your commitment to preventing blindness and preserving sight!


The Illinois Society for the Prevention of Blindness (ISPB) offers unique grant opportunities supporting mentored pre-clinical or clinical research programs designed to foster junior investigator development while advancing clinical care in ophthalmology and optometry

The primary mission of ISPB is to reduce preventable causes of blindness by educating the public on the necessity for and the methods of preventing blindness. ISPB annually awards grants to support research in eye and vision health, with priority granted to areas of inquiry with direct clinical relevance (translation research). Please keep this in mind when filling out your application.

Grant applications are due by Wednesday, May 8, 2024 at midnight. Reviews will take place in June, 2024.
For more information visit HERE


Community Happenings

Our staff, team of interns, and volunteers provide eye health education and outreach at all types of community events – including health fairs, presentations and screenings!

We will be continuing our efforts during these dates:

April 18, 2024
2:00pm – Bickford of Champaign: Champaign, IL

April 30, 2024
1:00pm – Centennial Activity Center Presentation: Park Ridge, IL

July 9, 2024
1:30pm – Carillon Clubhouse: Plainfield, IL

August 9, 2024
11:00am – RUSH’s 9th Annual Community Health Fair: Chicago, IL

For more information, please contact rbarraza@preventblindness.org


Yoan Moncada in his Prevent Blindness Eclipse glasses               
Image curtesy of @WhiteSox Instagram
Prevent Blindness Eclipse Watch Party 

Total Eclipse

The Solar Eclipse was this past Monday. Prevent Blindness hosted a viewing party at 225 W. Wacker Drive in Chicago. Hundreds gathered to view the Eclipse! We hope everyone had a safe viewing! For more information on the eclipse visit HERE

Copyright © 2017 Illinois Society for the Prevention of Blindness

Contact Us
Illinois Society for the Prevention of Blindness | https://eyehealthillinois.org/
Prevent Blindness Illinois https://preventblindness.org/contact-us/




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