ESFA Grants FY2013-2014
PATIENT CARE/ACCESS TO CARE
 UAB Callahan Eye Hospital: Indigent Care - $400,000 – continuation: To provide indigent patient care
services to the community and the state.
 UAB Callahan Eye Hospital: Equipment - $35,000: To update equipment in the Lions Eye Clinic to better
provide indigent patient care services to the community and the state.
 Kid One Transport: Transportation to Eye Appointments - $10,000 - Continuation: to provide transportation
for low-income children and expectant mothers to eye appointments. *
 UAB School of Optometry: Indigent Care - $25,000 -CONTINUATION: Providing vision care for patients who
are the working poor or indigent. To defer costs of frames and lenses for indigent patients who receive exams
at no cost through the UAB Eye Care Clinic and its community outreach clinics such as Western Health Center,
West End Health Center, The Foundry, M-Power Ministries and the Lovelady Center; serving patients who may
be referred from shelters such as the Jimmie Hale Mission, Salvation Army, Fellowship House, the Damon
Project, and the Big Oak Ranches.
 Cahaba Valley Health Care: Vision Program - $10,000 - continuation: To bring vision care to the indigent,
underserved and Hispanic populations of Shelby and Jefferson Counties. *
 Impact/An Alabama Student Service Initiative: Focus First - $35,000 - continuation: For core operating
support to continue to expand vision screening services for children. Focus First takes undergraduate and
graduate students, along with trained community volunteers, into Head Start and daycare centers to screen
children in all 67 counties across the state. Children who are identified as having a potential vision problem
will receive subsidized follow-up care as necessary through Sight Savers America. *
 Sight Savers America: Pediatric Follow-up Eye Care - $100,000 and $45,000 - continuation: To support vision
screening follow-up activities, which include eye exams, glasses, treatment, etc., to children identified through
various statewide vision screening efforts to ensure that Alabama’s children view the world with their best
possible vision. Sight Savers also provides rehabilitation services for blind and legally blind children, and
through its low vision program places CCTVs and other devices in the homes of visually impaired children in
indigent or low-income families. $100,000 of this grant is from Crippled Children’s Foundation as a gift
designated for Sight Savers. *
 River Region Lions Clubs/Montgomery Lions Club: River Region Lions Eye Clinic - $25,000: To equip an
optometry lane at Health Services Inc. as a partnership of seven Lions Clubs in the Montgomery region, as a
local match to Lions Club International Foundation’s challenge, with supplemental contributions from local
clubs. This clinic replicates the collaborative effort at the Mobile County Health Department which was also a
match to a LCIF challenge.
 Victory Health Partners: Eye Clinic - $10,000: To provide equipment for an optometry lane in this health clinic
serving the Mobile area which operates similar to a FQHC – yet without any government funds – as a missionbased nonprofit. *
 UAB School of Optometry: Black Belt Adult Eye Care - $25,000 - continuation: To support adult eye care
clinics in five counties in the Black Belt region as prevention and intervention methods of addressing lack of
accessibility for eye health. Patients will be recruited, receive dilated eye exams, and treatments and glasses
as prescribed. Detailed records will be maintained in a database for comprehensive follow-up services and to
produce an outcome based measurement of the program.
 Eye Care Alabama: Outreach Project - $20,000 - continuation: To purchase slit lamps in support of the Black
Belt Adult Eye Care. *
 Community Services for Vision Rehabilitation: Vision Rehab Program - $40,000 - continuation: To provide
vision rehabilitation services to the southern part of our state. *
 UAB Department of Ophthalmology: Mental Health Services for Persons and Families with Visual
Impairments - $20,000 - continuation: To develop and implement psychoeducational-based support groups
and innovative health promotion-based efforts designed to foster knowledge about eye health, promote
quality of life, safety, independence, and motivation for low vision rehabilitation.
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UAB Center for Low Vision Rehabilitation: Operating Support - $80,000 - continuation: To support basic
operating expenses for this program that adds to the recognition our area is receiving as a leader in low vision
efforts. The Center is a multi-disciplinary rehabilitation center created to provide state of the art care for
persons with vision impairment not correctable with glasses, contacts, or other treatments.
United Cerebral Palsy: Health and Wellness Center - $10,000 - continuation: To support the vision
component of the Comprehensive Health and Wellness Center for Persons with Severe Disabilities, where
adults and children in this vulnerable population receive vision services provided by the UAB School of
Optometry. More than 50 percent of the adults served by UCP wear corrective lenses, and many have serious
visual conditions. About 50 percent use communication devices; without vision services they cannot properly
use these or other technology devices that significantly improve the quality of life. *
EDUCATION
 Lakeshore Foundation: Operation Night Vision Recreation and Sport Clinic for Military Personnel - $15,000 continuation: To fund a five-day camp for injured armed forces members with service-related vision
impairments or blindness; for many, this is their first opportunity to take part in recreation or sports since
experiencing combat injury and loss of vision. The outcomes from this camp include improved confidence,
self-esteem and courage, and an increased willingness to use adaptive equipment and to try new activities, all
of which lead to more fulfilling, productive and energized lives as these servicemen adjust to their injuries.*
 Lakeshore Foundation: Sports and Education Camp for Children and Youth with Vision Impairments $10,000 - continuation: The residential camp helps participants overcome barriers to physical activity by: (1)
introducing them to sports and activities adapted for young people with vision impairments and (2) providing
fun opportunities to learn basic sports skills and body mechanics. Like the military clinic (above), this youth
clinic prepares vision-impaired youth of our community to adapt, compete and succeed in a sighted world. *
 WBHM: Alabama Radio Reading Service - $15,000: The ARRS provides members of the blind and/or printimpaired community a variety of programming transmitted via designated frequencies on specially-tuned
radio receivers. This gives these individuals indepente access thay would not other wise have to in-depth
coverage or regional and national news, consumer information, books, magazines, and entertainment news.
The ARRS receives referrals from health-care professionals such as optometrists and opthalmologists, doctors,
social workers, and vocational rehab specialists. Once an individual has been referred to and approved for
participation, the ARRS sends out one of the receivers that provides access to ARRS programming. Volunteers
read the local programming and also assist with a variety of production and office responsibilities.
 Birmingham Museum of Art: Visually Impaired Program - $12,900: To provide materials and training for the
staff and volunteers who head the VIP program for adults with vision disabilities. Specially trained docents
present the permanent collection by means of verbal description, three-dimensional tactile models based on
original works of art, and sculpture. VIP tours are also available for school-age children. *
 Bell Center for Early Intervention: Functional Vision Assessments and Therapeutic Sensory and Visual
Devices - $5,000: To provide evaluations on-site for special needs children in collaboration with the UAB Eye
Care Clinic. *
 UAB Callahan Eye Hospital: Patient Education Videos - $25,000: To improve patient care communication in a
video format to explain and demonstrate certain procedures and treatments so that patients are better
informed about potential clinical options, enable better compliance with the clinical management of their
disease, and provide other vital information that will improve their knowledge about eye care.
 UAB Department of Ophthalmology – Cynthia Owsley, PhD and Chris Girkin, MD - $100,000 - continuation:
CDC Match/ Improving Access to Eye Care Among Persons at High Risk for Glaucoma: Program support to
match a newly-awarded CDC grant to develop and implement a demonstration program intended to improve
glaucoma screening, referral, and treatment for those populations experiencing the greatest disparity in
access to glaucoma care, including African Americans. A signature feature of the CDC initiative is that it must
be community-based with a collaboration and partnership with non-profit organizations, public health
agencies, and academic settings. The ultimate goal is to develop a design model for glaucoma care with
proven performance measures that can serve as an example of best practices. This is an excellent opportunity
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to build upon ESFA's recently-completed Survey of Eye Care Providers, which was incorporated into the CDC
proposal.
UAB School of Education: Rural Alabama Professional Training for Teachers of the Blind and Visually
Impaired - $20,000 – continuation: A collaborative program between UAB and the public schools of Alabama
to recruit teacher trainees from rural areas of Alabama; to provide teacher trainees stipends for training in
visual impairments and orientation and mobility; and to provide field mentorship and training consultants to
address identified needs of trainees in the local school districts and support for teaching in rural areas.
UAB Department of Ophthalmology: Core Support Education - $423,862 – continuation: To provide core
operational support for the education activities of the Department of Ophthalmology.
RESEARCH
 UAB Department of Ophthalmology: Core Support Research - $750,282 - continuation: To provide core
operational support for the research activities of the Department of Ophthalmology.
 UAB Department of Ophthalmology: Research Acceleration Initiative - $62,500: To recruit collaborative
faculty in ophthalmology/biomedical engineering; Crawford Downs PhD.
 UAB Department of Ophthalmology: Research Acceleration Initiative - $50,000: To support the Clinical
Research Unit; Cynthia Owsley, PhD.
 UAB Department of Ophthalmology: Research Acceleration Initiative - $35,000: To support Mechanical
Constitutive Modeling and ECM/Cell Imaging; Raphael Grytz PhD.
 UAB Department of Ophthalmology: Research Acceleration Initiative - $45,000: To support Human Scleral
Testing and Mechanical Properties; Crawford Downs PhD.
 UAB Department of Vision Science: Research Acceleration Initiative - $50,000: To support the Center for
Functional Imaging; Timothy Gawne PhD.
 UAB Department of Biomedical Engineering: Research Acceleration Initiative - $117,500: To recruit
collaborative faculty in ophthalmology/biomedical engineering; Timothy Wick PhD.
 UAB Department of Biomedical Engineering: Research Acceleration Initiative - $117,500: To support
Mechanisms of Fibril Cell Adhesion and Interaction; Joel Berry PhD.
 UAB Division of Pulmonary, Allergy & Critical Care Medicine: Research Acceleration Initiative - $50,000: To
support Molecular Cell/Tissue Mechanotransduction and Remodeling Pathways; Yong Zhou MD.
 UAB Division of Molecular and Cellular Pathology: Research Acceleration Initiative - $50,000: To support
Cell/Tissue TGFbeta/Thrombospondin Remodeling Pathways; Joanne Murphy-Ullrich PhD.
* Grants totaling $322,900 as indicated with an asterisk are being recommended to the Community Foundation of
Greater Birmingham, for awards to be made through the EyeSight Foundation field of interest fund held there.
Grants to UAB, Callahan Eye Foundation Hospital, and Alabama Lions are paid directly from ESFA, and total
$2,750,004. Total grants approved or recommended in this cycle: $3,072,904.