Community Outreach
The Community Outreach Fund serves children from marginalized and underserved communities in the Washington DC Region. Launched in 2023 with the generous support of The Green Family Foundation and The Robert I. Schattner Foundation, this initiative addresses the critical language and literacy gap in children with hearing loss by providing no-cost speech-language and hearing screenings and diagnostic testing to children in our nation's capital.
Nationwide, approximately 25% of children who do not pass their universal newborn hearing screening, do not receive the necessary follow-up testing and care. In Washington DC, this number is a staggering 80%. Studies have identified several barriers to care including lack of access, long wait times, logistical difficulties, and expense including problems with insurance coverage or reimbursement.
Through the Community Outreach Fund, we strive to remove these barriers and provide the earliest access to intervention and hearing technologies for all children with hearing loss in the region, to close the gap between underserved children with hearing loss and their hearing peers and to help children with hearing loss reach their full potential.
Impact Highlights
Through the Community Outreach Fund, we have already made significant strides:
- Increased outreach to local hospitals and birthing centers, leading to a significant increase in referrals for auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing, a critical diagnostic tool to determine if an infant has a permanent hearing loss.
- Provided infant diagnostic testing at no out-of-pocket cost, with families experiencing an average wait time of just over a week.
- Ensured that children diagnosed with hearing loss receive essential medical equipment—including hearing aids, batteries, and related supports—at no cost to their families.
- Strengthened parent engagement and literacy development by expanding our summer programs for both children and families.