Out Came the Sun Foundation, Inc.

Out Came the Sun Foundation, Inc. (OCTS) specializes in delivering high quality community-based services to young children with developmental delays. Building on years of service in the community, in 2008, OCTS became a 501(c) 3 non-profit corporation. Our mission is to deliver the best community based services to young children with developmental delays. Our overarching goal is to provide the most intensive developmental services appropriate to children in their natural environment, regardless of a family’s socio-economic status. By working for more than 20 years with children and families, we have developed a unique child-centered and family-empowering approach. This hallmark approach is utilized to deliver comprehensive services to the children and families we serve. Providing families with children with special needs with quality information and services is the impetus that drives our efforts. The loss of a 4 year old child, Tenisha Louise Barnes, from illnesses compounded by late intervention and lack of services in the Washington, DC region was the catalyst for the founding OCTS. It is the sole driving force behind our mission to help young children with developmental delays. OCTS has been an approved provider of early developmental services for children in Washington, DC for several years. Our primary focus is to deliver comprehensive pediatric developmental services in the natural environment to the most vulnerable families (teenage mothers, low socioeconomic status, newly identified developmental concerns, children in foster care and those children who are medically fragile). We serve each child and family with the most intensive therapy model utilizing a child-centered and family empowering approach. Early detection through developmental screenings and evaluations, followed by initiating immediate direct service, proves to be the most effective method in promoting positive outcomes. Over the past 20 years, OCTS has supported District of Columbia Early Intervention Program (DCEIP) eligible families and has been a vendor for the DC Early Intervention Program. OCTS’s tax-exempt status allows us to solicit tax-deductible contributions and funding from individuals and corporations. This funding provides scholarship opportunities to ensure the provision of the same level of care for families who don’t have insurance or the financial means, and to defray use of federal funds. OCTS continues to provide services to families of all socio-economic status.