Onward House Invests in Special Education with New Leadership Position


Onward Neighborhood House is pleased to announce that it has hired Dr. Kimberly Thier for a newly created position as Director of Special Education and Quality Assurance, focusing on special education and related services to preschoolers and school age children with disabilities. This position will work with the rest of Onward House’s early childhood education staff to continually improve the overall quality of the early childhood education and youth services.

Teachers Corner


My name is Rita B. I have been at Onward House since August. I teach in the Blue Birds Classroom. Blue Birds 2 to be more specific.This is my second go-around here at Onward House. I also worked at Onward House from 2007 to 2016. I was the School Age group worker from 2007 to … Continue reading Teachers Corner

Chicago Early Childhood Employers Ready to Implement New State Education Bill


Onward Neighborhood House joins a new employer-led early childhood education workforce partnership addressing teacher shortage, increasing educator diversity and compensation, and creating better career pathways.  The newly formed employer-led workforce collaborative, Chicago Early Childhood Workforce Partnership, has announced its support of the Illinois General Assembly’s recently passed education component of the Illinois Black Caucus’s omnibus … Continue reading Chicago Early Childhood Employers Ready to Implement New State Education Bill

Invest in our children at birth to build racial equity


Now is the time for radical change to ensure our children have a better world than the one they are witnessing today.
As we rebuild from this pandemic and global recession amid a reignited civil rights movement, we recognize that physical safety is only part of what’s needed to open early childhood programs safely. It will take a significant public and private investment to erase the zip code disadvantage baked into our early childhood education system, when the burden of COVID-19 continues to weigh most heavily on communities already suffering from educational inequity.