Warby Parker's Pupils Projects teams up with the nation's largest school systems to give every student the vision to succeed.
Laureate
Dave Gilboa
Venture
Pupils ProjectProgram
McNulty PrizeLocation
NYC & Baltimore, United States
McNULTY PRIZE LAUREATE
Millions of American children have vision disabilities, which are disproportionately left untreated in students from low income households. This disparity has significant consequences, including a major negative impact on educational outcomes. Pupils Project addresses this need by providing free in-school eye exams, and free, fashionable Warby Parker glasses to children in New York City and Baltimore public schools.
200,000+
NYC public school students lack the glasses they need to learn.
185,979
Vision screenings already performed, along with 51,936 eye exams.
43,623
Pairs of glasses distributed to US students in need.
Dave Gilboa is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Warby Parker. Since the start, the company has maintained its identity as a socially-conscious for-profit business and has committed to distributing a pair of glasses to someone in need for every pair sold. Dave recognized Warby Parker's unique capacity to provide access to eye care and forged strong public-private partnerships with city governments to solidify direct access and distribution channels to American school children.
We’ve seen firsthand how providing glasses to kids works around the barriers to access to vision care and influences students’ academic potential.
Prior to Pupils Project, the majority of the over 3 million pairs of glasses donated through Warby Parker were distributed through international nonprofit partners like VisionSpring. However, as the Warby team conducted analyses of vision care in the US, they recognized a huge need in their own backyard. Starting with New York City and Baltimore, Pupils Project works to eliminate any financial and logistical hurdles that get in the way of obtaining vision care. Their medical partners administer vision screenings and eye exams in the children’s classrooms and Warby provides the glasses, which each student handpicks in trunk show setup at school. For many kids, this is their first pair of glasses - a fashion statement and a critical tool for learning.
Through Warby Parker's resources and Baltimore and NYC city government and school districts' existing local channels, Pupils Project successfully delivers quality eye care to students. Ultimately, Pupils Projects aims to ensure that every US public school student that needs glasses has access to them.