Mission:

The mission of JVQ California is to provide economically disadvantaged children with opportunities to improve their capacity for learning and overall health and wellness through free vision exams and provision of corrective eyeglasses.

 History:

JVQ California is the first national replication of the eminently successful Florida-based program, Jeppesen VisionQuest (JVQ).  Founded in 1994 by Nancy and Richard Jeppesen, JVQ Florida has given free glasses to over 50,000 children. JVQ California was started as a project of the Florida parent company in 2003, and has since become an independent 501©3 with its own program and funding stream.

 Out of offices located in the Thoreau Center in the Presidio in San Francisco, JVQ California (JVQCA) began serving children in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties in the fall of 2003. Thanks to a generous two year grant from Blue Shield of California, JVQCA served hundreds of children in its first year of operation. In the 2004 – 2005 academic our program has expanded to include Marin County and San Francisco. 2005 will see us begin pilot programs in San Joaquin and Santa Clara counties. 

Program:

JVQ California is funded to fill a significant unmet need in education and healthcare.  Each year thousands of school children in the Bay Area go without corrective eye wear because they have no vision insurance and their parents can’t afford to pay for them.  The consequences of uncorrected vision can be profound.  JVQ California seeks to provide the gift of clear vision to children so they might realize their full potential.

The JVQ California approach is straightforward. We work with Student Health Services personnel in local schools to identify students who fail state mandated vision screenings, and qualify those in need for our program. We then pair the child with one of our volunteer optometrists who provides a free vision exam and his/her choice of frames. The prescription is sent to our lab, where high quality custom glasses are made and returned to the optometrist for dispensing. Our program is successful because we closely manage the entire process, effectively linking all partners.

 The JVQ approach is an innovative and successful model of collaboration. The optometric and ophthalmologic communities contribute vision exams, the corporate community provides program funding, the school system manages vision screening and referrals and the community-at-large contributes lay volunteer labor. JVQ recruits and manages dozens of volunteers in order to make it all work.