Vision Services Plan, the nation's largest provider of eye care insurance benefits, offers free eye care to uninsured kids as one of its primary charitable outreaches. But
reaching those children - and more importantly, their parents or guardians - with the message that free healthcare was available to them proved to be a grueling task.
Many parents were either unaware that the program was available or unwilling to take advantage of it because of prior experience with other insurance services for low-income
families. The Los Angeles Times reported in January 2000 that "in many households, parents don't want any connection with a government program such as Medicaid, no matter what
benefits it promises for their children." And in other cases, parents couldn't afford co-pays (even low-cost co-pays) or shied away from forms and other documents to verify
eligibility.
VSP launched a major campaign aimed at increasing awareness of the program among parents and groups that work with poor children and increasing the number of children served by
the program by 200 percent.
Academic Angle
The VSP team realized linking eye care to academics would provide a necessary angle to catch the attention of parents and those working with needy children.
The "Sight for Students" campaign was born, and VSP immediately began developing campaign materials around the theme. PSAs were developed and distributed to 200 stations in
high-need cities. The releases were packaged in cardboard "lunch boxes" and included brochures and favorite childhood snacks for hungry broadcasters. A PSA was also developed in
Spanish and distributed to 50 Spanish TV stations across the country.
Press releases were distributed via major wire services at back-to-school time encouraging parents to take their children to an eye doctor for a back-to-school eye exam. VSP
also wrote a bylined article from Edward Hernandez, president of the California Optometric Association, about the role good vision plays in academic success. The team distributed
the letter locally, and later in the year, the article was made available to VSP's 18,000 member doctors to distribute in their own communities using their own byline.
"The challenge is how to identify these kids and get information to them," says Pam Lipinski, public relations manager for VSP. VSP turned to "groups that interact with them on
a daily basis" in order to ensure that they were finding the kids in need of the program. Continuing the correlation between eye care and academics, the team formed partnerships
with the Los Angeles Unified School District and held an assembly at a Los Angeles school in conjunction with an existing partner, the Entertainment Industry Foundation. The
assembly kicked off the campaign and focused on the connection of eye care to literacy.
The event drew media attention throughout Los Angeles. As a follow-up, fliers outlining signs of eye problems were sent to parents of all 850,000 children in the LA Unified
School District. District nurses and administrators posted fliers in classrooms to help teachers identify possible eyesight issues, as well.
Later in the year, VSP partnered with the Sacramento City Unified School District and held an event at the state Capitol which screened 100 Head Start pre-school children for
eye problems.
The partnership with the Entertainment Industry Foundation brought Harvey Entertainment, owner of the rights to Casper the Friendly Ghost, on board as another partner. Harvey
featured a Sight for Students PSA at the beginning of 2 million tapes when it released its new Casper movie on video. Casper posters were distributed to partners with eye care
tips and a phone number for information. VSP doctors received the posters for their offices as well.
VSP also offered partners the resource of a Sight for Students Newsletter, as well as a Sight for Students hotline offering information on how to take advantage of the program
when they encountered kids in need of it.
Visible Results
VSP not only met the goal of increasing the number of children using Sight for Students by 200 percent, it beat it, tripling the number of kids involved. In 1999, 10,185
children had taken advantage of free eye care offered by VSP. By the end of December 2000, 33,966 kids had benefited from Sight for Students.
Best of all, VSP received more than 600 thank-you letters from students, parents and child advocates telling stories of improved academics as a result of students receiving
glasses through Sight for Students.
(Contact: Pam Lipinski, 916/463-7221)
Campaign Stats
Timeframe: January-December, 2000
Total Costs: $105,016 - $240 went to translation fees to include a Spanish speaking option on the Sight for Students Hotline; $42,412 went to the Sight for Students Los Angeles
event; $10,000 went to the development and distribution of partner newsletters; $7,500 went to agency media support; $14,500 went to an outsourced "Find a Partner" database
online; $15,164 covered a telemarketer; PSAs cost $6,000; The Sacramento event cost $5,200; PSA production for the Casper home video cost $500; and the Casper posters totaled
$3,500.
Team: Pam Lipinski, Victoria Martinez
The Power of Partners
Identifying 50,000 children nationwide in need of eye care is no easy task for one office in California. VSP partnered with community organizations including:
- YMCA
- Boys & Girls Clubs of America
- Head Start
- National Association of Community Health Clinics
- National Association of School Nurses
- Communities in Schools
- Prevent Blindness in America
- National Council of La Raza
Local chapters can opt to participate, and those that do receive gift certificates from Sight for Students. When volunteers encounter kids in need of eye care, they offer the
family a gift certificate for an eye exam and glasses, along with a list of VSP doctors.
VSP received a PR NEWS Platinum PR Award Honorable Mention in the Community Relations category for the Sight for Students campaign.