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Our Initiatives

FocusFirst

FocusFirst is a game-changer for children’s vision health. Hundreds of thousands of kids suffer yearly due to poor vision, impacting their academics and self-esteem. Early screenings in preschool are crucial, but many miss out due to awareness gaps and financial barriers. Traditional eye charts used in childcare centers fall short, missing vital issues like amblyopia and cataracts. FocusFirst is armed with high-tech screening cameras, it revolutionizes screenings for preschoolers. Efficient, accurate, and accessible, it ensures no child slips through the cracks, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Impact America’s SaveFirst initiative provides vital free tax preparation services in Alabama and South Carolina benefiting low-to-moderate-income individuals and families. Volunteer tax preparers ensure taxpayers access all available credits, maximizing refunds. In the 2023 Tax Season, SaveFirst and its partners assisted 7,043 households. This impactful service relies on community support, with college students, civic organizations, and other volunteers becoming IRS-certified preparers. In 2023, 170 volunteers contributed to this essential effort, making a tangible difference in their communities.

SaveFirst

SpeakFirst

Impact America’s SpeakFirst initiative empowers Birmingham-area high school students, fostering academic excellence and college readiness through competitive debate. Talented students from Birmingham-City schools are brought together to form a formidable debate team, competing in tournaments across Alabama and the Southeast. Beyond debate, the initiative offers one-on-one tutoring, mentoring, college guidance, standardized test prep, and youth development activities. Since its launch in 2004, SpeakFirst students have participated in over 100 tournaments, marking a significant milestone in their academic journey.

Where We Serve

Impact America began services in Alabama under the name Impact Alabama in 2004. Although our offices are in Birmingham, Alabama, through the work of volunteers and AmeriCorps members, we provide services in all 67 of Alabama. 

While those outside of Alabama primarily know of the state for its Civil Rights history or for its rural footprint, we know it as the place and people that we serve. Alabama is an increasingly diverse state, bringing with it differing needs as well as changing challenges in access to care. In 2024, we are excited to start our third decade of service to Alabama and its people.

Since 2004, we have provided vision screenings for over 600,00 children, referring nearly 60,000 on for follow-up care. During these years, we have also prepared over 96,000 tax returns with no preparation cost for the taxpayers. We have been able to accomplish these results through the time and effort of hundreds of AmeriCorps members and countless volunteers. 

If you would like to join our Alabama team, please see our AmeriCorps member page. If you are interested in volunteering, please see our Volunteer page. We would love to have you!

We launched Impact America – South Carolina in collaboration with Wofford College which served as our inaugural campus in 2015-16 and continues to be an integral partner to our efforts in South Carolina.

We are partnering with Claflin University to kick off our SaveFirst tax prep initiative in Orangeburg.

Impact America – South Carolina is proud to partner with SC Thrive to not only operate our free tax preparation sites but also to assist families in applying for a wide range of local and federal benefits.

Since 2015, we have provided vision screenings for over 130,00 children, referring nearly 13,000 on for follow-up care. During these years, we have also prepared over 6,000 tax returns with no preparation cost for the taxpayers. We have been able to accomplish these results through the time and effort of hundreds of AmeriCorps members and countless volunteers.

Want to get involved with Impact America – South Carolina? The Impact Corps Program is a yearlong service and leadership program designed to place talented, committed recent college graduates directly into communities we serve. Corps Members plan and execute all initiatives that operate in their state of service as well as recruit and manage the service of college students as they participate in those initiatives. You’ll learn about poverty through lenses of education, health, and economics—all the while making a real difference in the lives of families living in poverty.

Impact America is an AmeriCorps Program