Facts and Figures
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. The Ounce reaches thousands of infants, toddlers and preschoolers through our programs, training, evaluation and advocacy efforts each year.
- We serve 3,300 children and families through Early Head Start and Head Start programs we fund and operate in Chicago, as well as through our network of home-visiting and doula programs throughout Illinois.
- We educate more than 3,000 program, community and opinion leaders about key issues in early childhood development.
- We teach 150 low-income infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their families at Educare, our birth-to-five school in Chicago that has become a national model for early childhood education. Across the nation, we serve more than 2,000 children and families at the 13 operational Educare Schools in the Educare Learning Network, a collaboration of the Ounce of Prevention Fund and the Buffett Early Childhood Fund.
- We advocate for sound public policies for young children in Illinois through the Kids Public Education and Policy Project (Kids PEPP) and nationally through the First Five Years Fund.
- We partner with advocacy organizations in 16 states and Washington, DC, to build their capacity to advance policy change and increase public investments in effective birth-to-five programs.
- We train nearly 3,000 community-based early childhood professionals throughout Illinois.
- We also provide technical assistance and training to more than 650 staff members working in 10 states where the Educare Learning Network has operating schools.
- We reach an estimated 11,500 children and families through a network of early childhood providers who have been trained by the Ounce.