The Cobb County Public Library distributed the following report on the success of its Vision to Learn mobile clinics:

Vision To Learn mobile clinics at Cobb County libraries in June through mid-July provided more than 400 eye exams, resulting in glasses for over 300 students. The professional eyecare teams of VTL have worked through about two-thirds of the exam appointments at the nine host Cobb library locations on the 2025 summer break calendar.

“Vision To Learn staff and Cobb library workers strive together to provide this solution – free eye exams and glasses – for as many children as possible,” said Cobb County Public Library’s Tom Brooks, Communications Specialist and a lead organizer of the VTL clinics at the libraries. “We are very grateful for the support for Vision To Learn by everyone involved benefiting communities across Cobb to promote literacy, social and emotional wellbeing, and cradle-to-career workforce development.”

About 3,000 children have been given exams by Vision To Learn through the Cobb Library partnership since 2018, the year Cobb libraries became the first library system in Georgia to host VTL. Still, Brooks added, the life-changing success of the program each year is against the backdrop of many children not securing VTL exam appointments before the start of the new school year as registration fills up fast.

The Cobb libraries eye exam clinic visits in June through July include the Switzer, South Cobb, West Cobb, North Cobb, Powder Springs, Sewell Mill, Gritters, Stratton and Sibley libraries.

Vision To Learn, a national nonprofit, partners with school systems to provide eyecare on-site at schools. Marietta City Schools has been a local VTL partner since 2021.

Across metro Atlanta, so far in June through July 11, Vision To Learn teams at public libraries conducted more than 1,250 exams resulting in nearly 900 glasses for children. The official count for Cobb libraries as of late last week was 433 exams and 304 glasses. In addition to Cobb, VTL libraries for summer break 2025 also include Gwinnett, Fulton, Clayton, Douglas and Henry counties.

“Children putting on their new glasses a few weeks after the exam often say, ‘Wow! I can see clearly now’ or ‘What a difference, I can see way over there’. Parents report days later to our team about how headaches caused by eyestrain have gone away,” said Alexandra Beswick, manager of the Cobb Library Central Region and Switzer Library. “Witnessing and being part of a partnership with this level of community impact is deeply powerful and meaningful for our library team.”

A regional campaign in the five core metro Atlanta counties is about closing the costly glasses gap.

Learn4Life (L4L), the Metro Atlanta Regional Education Partnership, is leading The Atlanta Vision Project initiative, backed by community partners with foundation and individual funding support, to accelerate the pace of children in need receiving eyecare and glasses. The initiative’s partners include Georgia Lions Lighthouse Foundation, Prevent Blindness Georgia and Vision To Learn.

L4L’s regional goal: “All elementary school students in need in metro Atlanta will receive a free pair of glasses by 2028.”

For information on The Atlanta Vision Project, go to Learn4Life’s site at l4lmetroatlanta.org/the-atlanta-vision-project.