Growing up is South Jersey, Emily Vasile, MAT, TVI, MS ‘16, CLVT, VRT '23 was one of those people who needed low vision services and had to cross the river into the greater Philadelphia area to go to the William Feinbloom Vision Rehabilitation Center housed at The Eye Institute for the help they needed.
A generation later, those who need low vision services in South Jersey won’t have to travel so far.
Salus at Drexel University and Bestwork Industries for the Blind, Inc. in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, have partnered to open a clinic to serve those in need of blindness and low vision services.
A signing ceremony was held Jan. 13, 2025, at the Elkins Park, Pennsylvania campus of Salus/Drexel to officially move the project forward. And, Vasile, an assistant professor in the Blindness and Low Vision Studies (BLVS), Division of Global, Interprofessional and Specialized Programming (GISP) at Salus/Drexel, will be the University’s point person to help Bestwork establish the clinic. They will have an office at the Cherry Hill facility and will be on site one day a week.
“To be able to provide these specialized vision services where I grew up is really exciting,” said Vasile. “It’s something that all of us have wanted - a BLVS center where we can provide highly specialized, comprehensive blindness and low vision rehab services.”
Bestwork is a private, not-for profit corporation dedicated to improving the quality of life for people who are blind by providing training and employment opportunities in a supportive work environment. More than 70 percent of its employees have low vision.
“It’s wonderful to be able to partner with an organization that’s giving its employees something useful as part of their job,” said Salus/Drexel president, Michael H. Mittelman, OD ‘80, MBA, MPH, FAAO, FACHE. “You’ve given them employment, but you’ve also given them skills. The other thing I’ve noticed is that you’ve also given them camaraderie.”
The spark for the idea started two years ago at a “Veterans of Influence” event in Philadelphia, when Jon Katz, president and CEO of Bestwork Industries, noticed Dr. Mittelman was one of the veterans being honored for his 33 years of service in the United States Navy.
Katz then had a subsequent conversation with Bestwork board chairman John Shaw, former vice president of operations for the Battleship New Jersey. Both attended the signing ceremony.
“I told John that I didn't want Bestwork to be just another nonprofit in the community with its hand out asking for grants and money,” said Katz, who noted that the Bestwork board also now includes Fabiana Perla, EdD, MS ‘93, COMS ‘94, chair of the Salus/Drexel BLVS programs.
“I think if we want to really become a fabric of the community, we have to find a way to give back. And, it didn't take me long to realize that South Jersey is a very underserved community in terms of low vision services.”
In addition to a BLVS center, Bestwork wants to start providing adult vision screenings on a monthly basis in the greater Camden and Burlington, New Jersey, areas because the clinics in those counties are only open one or two days a month for a few hours and not many people have access to them, according to Katz.
Vasile said down the road, they are looking forward to the clinic serving as a site for students in the Low Vision Rehabilitation and Vision Rehabilitation Therapy programs to complete their fieldwork and interships.
“We’re all just kind of itching to get it going and having it become what we all dreamed and know that it can be,” they said.