framed
Sean Sylvestre of Mobile Vision Care Clinic, centre, with Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman,
left, and city Coun. Mike Pagtakhan.
Removing barriers
to vision care
By Denis Langlois
Within its first few months of operation,
Winnipeg-based Mobile Vision Care Clinic
provided more than $30,000 in free eye-
wear to children in need.
“The reason I love what I do is because
every day I have the opportunity to ensure
kids who would normally not have access
to vision care, for a variety of reasons,
gain access to these services,” says opti-
cian Sean Sylvestre, founder and chief
executive officer of the Mobile Vision
Q. Why are you so passionate about this business?
A. In the short time that we have been doing this, we have already seen incredible
improvements in literacy scores among the children who were tested. By working
with the schools, we have learned that roughly 80 per cent of children who are not
reading at grade level by the end of Grade 3 will drop out by Grade 9, which has a
significant impact on their quality of life as adults. When you consider that 80 per
cent of learning is visual, it is quite easy to understand the impact that a program
like this has on the lives of these children.
For myself, having been in the optical industry for over 20 years now, I have always
felt that I had a pretty good job, but now, since we started this program I have a call-
ing: to help reduce visual barriers for children so that hopefully we can be part of the
Care Clinic. larger effort to change the cycle of poverty so many find themselves in.
The business was born in 2017 after a
school division in Winnipeg approached
Sylvestre about developing a vision
care program that would allow children in
need to receive comprehensive eye ex-
aminations from licensed optometrists
in their schools as well as eyeglasses,
if needed, without their families having Q. Do you have any stories that stand out about how you were able to help
someone through your service?
A. I am fortunate in that we get to see the benefits of our work on a daily basis. I can-
not tell you how many times we have tested a child that was struggling in school, had
been identified as a non-reader or functionally illiterate only to find that the child
had a significant refractive error which meant they could not see much of anything
they were being taught. Then only a few short weeks later, that child was provided
with eyeglasses and the schools have reported not only that the child has started to
read, but they have exhibited much greater self-confidence and their behaviour in
the classroom has improved dramatically.
to incur any cost.
The program officially rolled out in
September 2017. Currently, six people,
including two opticians, work for the
business and two optometrists provide
their services on a contract basis.
Sylvestre said the plan for this year is to
offer the program to students enrolled
within the 20 more socioeconomically
challenged inner-city schools in Winnipeg.
Optical Prism recently spoke with Sylves-
tre about Mobile Vision Care Clinic and
its future.
48 OPTICAL PRISM | April 2018
There really is no better feeling than seeing the looks on a kids’ face when they
receive their first pair of glasses and you can see their expression as they see their
surroundings clearly for the first time. This moment still gets to me everytime.
Q. What are your plans for the business moving forward?
A. My goal for the business is to continue to have the opportunity to help kids by
removing barriers to success such as lack of access to care. By partnering with other
groups and social supports, we hope to be able to expand our offering to make even
more supports available to these kids in the hopes that we can truly impact their
lives and help break the cycle of poverty that so many find themselves in. While a
very lofty target, my goal would be one day for lack of access to comprehensive
vision care to no longer be a barrier for any child in Canada.