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 I feel like every few months I write with news that I’m either changing jobs or we’re having another baby.  Well this e-mail is of the job variety not the baby variety.  My time at ISPCAN was short, but I have moved on to another opportunity that will challenge me and help me to grow while having the greatest impact possible.  On Wednesday I started my new position as a program associate with the Ounce of Prevention Fund. 

The Ounce invests in the healthy development of at-risk infants, toddlers, preschools and their families.  We use an innovative cycle of family-focused programs, research, training, policy analysis and advocacy to help young children succeed in school and throughout life.  The essential theory of change is that early interventions are cheaper and more effective.  Simple interventions like getting parents to read to their children in the first two years of life have a multiplier effect and pay dividends for a lifetime.  

The division I will be working in is called the Bounce Learning Network.  In 2000 the Ounce started a model early education center on the South Side of Chicago.  Since then they’ve researched the heck out of it and developed a research based practice model that is replicable in other places.  The job of the Bounce Learning Network is to work with partners to replicate the model.  There are now 9 centers all over the country (from Miami to Seattle) established through public-private partnerships and the division is expanding rapidly.  My role in all of this is as the Program Associate to the Senior Vice President who leads the division.  I’ll function essentially as a senior aide to her.  Her job is to to do the high-level strategic thinking as she goes from meeting to meeting, while my role is to take the outcomes of those meetings and make sure whatever was decided at those meetings gets implemented.         

There are so many positives about this job that they’re hard to enumerate.  I’ll be working downtown which means I can take the train to work (our house is a 5 minute walk from the commuter rail).  The Ounce is one of the leading agencies in Chicago and well known nationally for it’s work in early childhood intervention.  It’s staffed by smart, driven people in a fast paced environment.  The complexity of the work is amazing and interesting.  It will push me to be the best I can be and I will learn a ton.

I’m sorry to go on and on, but I’m very excited about this opportunity.  I feel very lucky not only to have gotten a job (or several in fact) in this difficult time for the economy, but to have found essentially my dream job at a place that will be a good match for me long term.  In case you haven’t heard enough, here are the websites of the organization where there is even more information about what I’ll be doing: