NEPA Gives 2024 Gives Sights for Hope Donors Chance to Support Monroe County Services

By Sights for Hope Team |
The NEPA Gives 2024 logo with the with the words "Five Years of Giving" on a computer screen

Sights for Hope’s participation in the NEPA Gives 2024 event will give donors an opportunity to support its services in Monroe County.

Led by the Scranton Area Community Foundation, the June 6-7 event encourages people in Carbon, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, and Wayne counties to support their favorite organizations by contributing through the NEPA Gives digital platform. NEPA Gives sponsors also provide matching funds for some of the contributions made.

All NEPA Gives contributions to Sights for Hope will benefit its services in Monroe County, which it has served since 2002. During Sights for Hope’s 2023-2024 year as of April 30, 31% of its service hours for clients and patients have benefitted Monroe County residents and 38% of the pre-kindergarten children who have received its vision screenings are from the county.

A 2022 study by The Ohio State University and the national VisionServe Alliance stated that 7.3% of Monroe County residents ages 65 and up lived with a visual impairment or blindness. This rate was 22% above Pennsylvania’s state average of 6.0% and Monroe County had the sixth highest rate among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.

Sights for Hope transforms the lives of people with visual impairments and blindness by removing the barriers to their independence. Sights for Hope’s services teach adaptive skills to accomplish daily life activities; provide supports that counter the effects of visual impairments and blindness; increase access to medical care, healthy food, and other essentials; and advance solutions that enhance sight capabilities. More than 40% of Sights for Hope’s clients live below or near the federal poverty line. Founded in 1928, Sights for Hope carries forward in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley and Monroe County a tradition of service inspired by Helen Keller and is a member of the Pennsylvania Association for the Blind.

Image: The NEPA Gives 2024 logo with the with the words “Five Years of Giving” on a computer screen