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Virginia Jacko speaks at awards presentation event.<\/p>\n Virginia Jacko speaks at awards presentation event.<\/p>\n
The Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired has announced that its president and CEO, Virginia Jacko, has been named the recipient of the 2026 Impact Advocate Award by Children\u2019s Week Florida. The prestigious honor was presented during the Advocacy Dinner & Awards Ceremony in Tallahassee.<\/p>\n
The Impact Advocate Award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary leadership in advocating for public policy changes and programs that significantly improve the lives of children, teens, and families. Virginia Jacko, a blind CEO and former financial executive at Purdue University, has spent two decades transforming Miami Lighthouse into a national model for inclusive education and accessible healthcare.<\/p>\n
Under Jacko\u2019s leadership, Miami Lighthouse established the Miami Lighthouse Academy, which includes Florida\u2019s first fully inclusive pre-kindergarten. The model for the Academy challenges the traditional, often isolating, educational pathways for children with disabilities, creating a more inclusive society from the ground up and now serving students from pre-kindergarten through third grade.<\/p>\n
She also created and fundraised for the interdisciplinary Cortical Visual Impairment (CV) Collaborative Center, recognizing the profound need for specialized care for children with CVI which is a leading cause of visual impairment in children.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Miami Lighthouse is the home of the Florida Heiken Children\u2019s Vision Program, which provides dilated eye exams and glasses at no cost to students in schools statewide through their fleet of five mobile eyecare units along with a network of optometrists.<\/p>\n
Many vision problems in children go undiagnosed, leading to academic struggles and developmental delays. This program directly addresses one of Florida\u2019s health disparities, boosts confidence, and ensures that vision issues don\u2019t become a lifelong barrier. The Heiken Program is experiencing a 36 percent surge in demand over last year\u2019s all-time high, with the total number of children benefiting from this program to date being over 225,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdvocacy is at the heart of everything we do at Miami Lighthouse,\u201d Jacko said. \u201cWhether we are creating inclusive classrooms where visually impaired and sighted children learn side-by-side or deploying mobile clinics to provide essential eyecare to underserved students, our goal is to ensure that no child\u2019s potential is limited by their vision.<\/p>\n
\u201cEye healthcare is too often overlooked or simply out of reach for many families. That is why continued funding by the Florida Legislature for essential programs like the Florida Heiken Children\u2019s Vision Program is so important. These programs deliver tangible results in the form of improved academic achievement,\u201d Jacko added.<\/p>\n
For more information about Miami Lighthouse, visit www.miamilighthouse.org\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ABOUT US:<\/p>\n For more Miami community news, look no further than Miami Community Newspapers. This Miami online group of newspapers covers a variety of topics about the local community and beyond. Miami\u2019s Community Newspapers offers daily news, online resources, podcasts and other multimedia content to keep readers informed. With topics ranging from local news to community events, Miami\u2019s Community Newspapers is the ideal source for staying up to date with the latest news and happenings in the area.<\/p>\n This family-owned media company publishes more than a dozen neighborhood publications, magazines, special sections on their websites, newsletters, as well as distributing them in print throughout Miami Dade County from Aventura, Sunny Isles Beach, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Brickell, Coconut Grove, Pinecrest, South Miami, Kendall, Palmetto Bay, Cutler Bay and Homestead. Each online publication and print editions provide comprehensive coverage of local news, events, business updates, lifestyle features, and local initiatives within its respective community.<\/p>\n Additionally, the newspaper has exclusive Miami community podcasts, providing listeners with an in-depth look into Miami\u2019s culture. Whether you\u2019re looking for local Miami news, or podcasts, Miami\u2019s Community Newspapers has you covered. For more information, be sure to check out: https:\/\/communitynewspapers.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you have any questions, feel free to email Michael@communitynewspapers.com<\/a> or Grant@communitynewspapers.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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