Thanks to our generous donors and volunteers, the community and global programs at OHSU Casey Eye Institute are making a big impact on improving access to high-quality eye care in Oregon and beyond. Through sustained community-driven partnerships, these programs are creating extensive access points for vision care directly where people live, work, and play, drastically improving access to vital vision saving care across Oregon and around the world.

Read the 2025 Impact Report →

The Casey Community Outreach Program’s mobile eye clinic is a cornerstone of its mission to bring free, high-quality vision screenings directly to people across Oregon who might otherwise go without care.

Since 2010, the adult mobile clinic program has been building partnerships with trusted community-based organizations to deliver on-site vision screenings and provide prescription glasses at no cost to low-income, uninsured, and underinsured Oregonians. Clinics are volunteer-powered, mission-driven, and designed to reduce barriers to care while honoring each community’s unique needs.

Focused on Jefferson County School 509J and Seaside School Districts, the program’s school-based mobile services are designed to support healthy vision for school-aged students and ensure access to timely, comprehensive eye care. 

Care coordination with local eye doctors is the program’s first priority. However, many children face barriers to accessing care, such as limited or no insurance coverage, transportation challenges, distance, or other social determinants of health. This program is able to reach more kids by delivering eye care services directly at the school.

Community health workers from local health organizations are trained as Vision Health Navigators so they can use advanced vision imaging equipment, deliver vision health education specific to their community, and effectively screen for vision impairment, while receiving technical and medical support by Casey Eye Institute Outreach. This allows patients to receive high quality eye care right where they are and where they feel comfortable.

Telehealth is a powerful vision health tool, especially for communities were geography, workforce shortages, or cost limit access to specialty care. Through the Oregon Vision Health Network, the Outreach Program’s telehealth vision screening services have brought preventive eye care to individuals in Klamath Falls, Roseburg, Burns, Hood River, Woodburn, Coos Bay, and Madras.

Building on the program’s community-based partnerships, local primary care teams identify patients with known risk factors for eye disease. These patients are then scheduled to get pictures of their eyes taken directly on-site so they can be screened for vision-threatening diseases where they already receive care.

The eye images are captured on a local device, then sent to Casey Eye Institute to be interpreted by ophthalmologists. Community-based care teams then coordinate next steps, including referrals to local eye providers if needed. This process limits the need for a patient to travel to see a specialist, reduces the amount of time a patient has to wait for a doctor's recommendation, and improves vision health by detecting any potential problems early. 

Launched in April 2026, Bridges to Sight (B2S) operates as a formal extension of the Outreach Program and is located in Transition Projects, Inc. The clinic operates one day per month in the same location, known as a “fixed-site” clinic. It is strategically located near the OHSU Bridges Collaborative Clinic, complementing the existing medical services OHSU is providing at this location in the downtown Portland area. B2S represents an important evolution of our community-based service model, improves access to eye care across Oregon, and provides valuable educational opportunities to OHSU's trainees.

Having a permanent location for vision screenings in Portland improves the Casey Community Outreach Program's ability to serve more patients in two ways. The first is by providing more clinics in Portland, which allows more people to receive vision screening services. The second is by freeing up our adult mobile clinic from the Portland area to travel to other parts of the state to serve more individuals across Oregon.

In addition to providing high quality eye care and expanding access to Portland, the B2S vision clinic provides a valuable educational environment for OHSU's faculty, residents, fellows and medical students. Volunteers gain experience providing vision care while seeing fewer patients, offering a greater learner engagement while retaining the important focus of service first.