“We are intensely focused on what science tells us about what works to support children and families, and what makes the adults who affect their lives, such as teachers, school leaders, and policymakers, create change,” says the organization’s president, Diana Rauner, PhD. “We develop strategies and relationship-based solutions that we know are effective in promoting high-quality early learning experiences for young children.” The organization works on the ground in classrooms and in homes while also focusing on improving the early education systems by advocating at the state and national levels.
Research underpins all its programs: The organization is connected to the leading early childhood researchers across the field. It also has an in-house research and evaluation team that partners with university research programs and that mines its own data in order to ensure continuous improvement and discover effective new approaches.
The Ounce supports a national network of 21 Educare schools that provide financially disadvantaged children with a science-based program that prepares them for kindergarten. Its home-visiting program provides families with regular coaching on all aspects of childhood development including nutrition, attachment bonding, and language, and looks out for conditions such as maternal depression, substance abuse, or domestic violence. The Ounce runs a doula program that works with first-time teen parents, as well as other families, and partners with a network of Early Head Start and Head Start programs to reach more than 1,400 low-income Chicago children.
On the advocacy front, the Ounce provides parents and community members with tools for effectively getting their voices heard by policymakers and consults with advocates, government officials, policymakers, school district leaders, and business leaders to help them build early education systems.
It’s also working to increase the pipeline of qualified early education professionals through programs such as Lead Learn Excel, which has trained more than 300 school leaders across Illinois on how to improve instruction in their schools. The organization also trains home visitors in person and through its innovative online learning portal, and it provides funding, training, and technical assistance to 40 Illinois agencies.