The Ounce stands in solidarity with the Black community

The Ounce’s president, Diana Rauner, shares her thoughts on the country's recent events and commits to strengthening and deepening our work as an anti-racist organization that works in true partnership with communities to ensure equitable access to high-quality early childhood care and experiences. Read our full statement.

Your generosity is making a big impact

We can't thank you enough

Over the past several months, we have all witnessed innovation, heroism and kindness across communities as we look for ways to continue to support one another. This is especially true for the many supporters and partners who have stepped up to support children and families who have been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to your generosity, we have raised over $169K to provide resources and immediate relief to our families in Chicago.

As we look forward, the Ounce is focused on using lessons learned both through our challenges and moments of resilience to determine how to build a stronger, brighter future for young children and those who care for them. Building a stronger system starts with you. Become a monthly donor to help rebuild the state of early childhood in America.

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Families need child care relief

New national campaign aims to stabilize and rebuild America’s child care system

Our nation’s long-term well-being depends on a child care infrastructure that works for every family. An abundance of quality and affordable child care is critical to both our economic recovery from the pandemic and our social welfare.

The Ounce joins a coalition of the country’s leading child care, business and advocacy organizations in launching Child Care Relief — a campaign to ensure federal lawmakers prioritize and address the needs of child care providers and families in the COVID-19 recovery effort — and beyond.

The Ounce offers complimentary virtual professional development in response to COVID-19 crisis

Online training offered free-of-charge to support home visitors and supervisors

In an effort to support early childhood professionals who are struggling to provide their vital services remotely to families and children in need, the Ounce provided complimentary access to Achieve OnDemand — a high-quality, online professional learning platform for home visitors. To supplement this virtual training opportunity, experts from the Ounce have been consulting with state and system leaders to plan for and respond to the evolving conditions and connect them to virtual resources to support their work.

See our educators in action

Early learning and care in a new world

When the reality of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was clear many months ago, the Ounce and our partners quickly pivoted to support our youngest learners virtually. Now that the pandemic is pushing into summer and likely beyond, we’re continuing to innovate and evolve our approach to ensure our most vulnerable children and families don’t get left behind.

While we do not know what the future holds, the Ounce is committed to ensuring that when the dust settles, the state of early education and care in America is better, stronger and more equitable than ever before.

Learn more about what we are doing.

Did you see us?

Proud of our ongoing Red Nose Day partnership

The Ounce is thrilled to be a recipient of Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day grant in support of the Educare Learning Network, for the second year in a row. The Ounce partners with other early childhood champions through the Network to serve young children in under-resourced communities across the country.

While many Educare schools are currently working to safely reopen to serve families and children of essential workers, they’ve all pivoted to providing remote learning, as well as critical relief services during these challenging times. For already vulnerable families, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in widespread job loss and created a gap in the services they rely on, including school meals.

We were proud to be featured for this work during the May 21 Red Nose Day Night of TV broadcast on NBC alongside other national organizations providing critical relief services during this time.

Learn more about Red Nose Day.

The Ounce of Prevention Fund gives children in poverty the best chance for success in school and in life by advocating for and providing the highest-quality care and education from birth to age five.

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33 West Monroe Street, Suite 1200, Chicago, IL 60603 • 312.922.3863

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