Co-Head - ECD Ecosystems

Context:

Sri (name changed for confidentiality reasons), who lives with her family in a village in Maharashtra, was unable to lift her left hand and had limited communication at 11 months of age. At the local hospital, she was given calcium tablets. Her mother was concerned about her developmental progress, but the rest of the family felt that massaging would be sufficient to help her recover.

There are over 50 million children with or at risk of disabilities in India, and support/ services for them are largely non-existent. Conditions such as autism, learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, and language delays are understood by a small minority of our population – this includes professionals such as doctors, therapists, and teachers. Thus, children like Sri fall through the cracks all the time because the healthcare system does not diagnose them in time.

In Sri's case, where doctors failed, a Community Health Worker (CHW) trained by Ummeed identified that Sri had developmental delays in motor and communication domains. The CHW educated the family on how to support Sri's development and also referred them to the local District Early Intervention Center (DEIC) for specialized guidance. Sri's family became her strength as they prioritized her needs to support her development. Sri now walks independently and enjoys playing ball with her family, who are now looking forward to her going to school with other children her age.

About Ummeed:

Ummeed Child Development Center ) was founded in 2001 by Dr. Vibha Krishnamurthy, a developmental pediatrician, an Ashoka Fellow, and resource person to government and international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO). Ummeed's vision is to help children with and at risk of developmental disabilities reach their full potential and be included in society.

Over the last 23 years, Ummeed has provided direct services to 15,000+ children and families, trained over 8500 unique professionals (community workers, as well as doctors, therapists, and teachers) across India, and indirectly influenced the lives of over 0.45 million children and families with or at risk of developmental disabilities. Besides direct clinical services, and training and capacity building, Ummeed's two other verticals of work have included research (to generate evidence of our work) and awareness building (to sensitize people to the cause and shift attitudes).

Ummeed sees child development, delays and disabilities as a continuum and since 2009, has been advocating for Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs to be inclusive of children with developmental delays and disabilities (which they are currently not). Ummeed has itself run inclusive ECD programs in partnership with several NGOs and community-based organizations, besides actively publishing and presenting its work for wider advocacy (e.g., Providing Services for Children With Developmental Difficulties, Delay or Disability - Early Diagnosis and Interventions at the Community Level - PubMed; Addressing early childhood development in healthcare: putting theory into practice). More recently, Ummeed has begun working with government systems (district level in Maharashtra and state level in Meghalaya), as a way to reach a larger number of marginalized children and families and bring about systems change.    

About the position:

Ummeed is looking for a Co-Head – ECD Ecosystem to play a pivotal role in advancing its strategic objective of collaborating with government systems to promote inclusive early childhood development (ECD), early identification, and timely intervention for children with or at risk of developmental disabilities. This role will work in close collaboration with the current Co-Head – ECD Ecosystem (Priti Inje) and the Chief Officer – ECD Ecosystem (Dr. Roopa Srinivasan) to make our vision for inclusive ECD in India a reality.

Primary responsibilities of the role include:

· Be part of strategic thinking and planning for how to make inclusive ECD a reality in India.

· Co-lead the implementation of existing inclusive ECD programs in select geographies and support the identification of facilitators and barriers to their sustainability and wider adoption. Establish and nurture relationships with senior leaders in relevant government bodies and partner organizations, as well as with key influencers in the ECD space, for wider advocacy towards inclusive ECD.

· Support the design, implementation, and evaluation of additional/ future programs in other states and regions, as and when opportunities for this emerge.

· Manage/ coach/ mentor relevant members of Ummeed's ECD team.

· Be part of and support funder conversations, proposals, reports.

· Support data and writing for publications and presentations at various fora.

· Engage with peers from other ecosystems within Ummeed for overlapping interventions and support key organization-wide initiatives.

Essential Qualifications & Experience:

· Master's degree in social work, early childhood education, early childhood development, public health or medical/para-medical professionals

· Experience of 10 to 15 years in settings such as government agencies, nonprofit organizations, hospitals, or primary healthcare units

· Candidate is expected to travel several times a year to rural and underserved areas to enable ECD to be more accessible to vulnerable populations in our country

Other skills:

· Excellent leadership skills

· Excellent relationship-management skills

· Excellent communication and collaboration skills

· Ability to coach/ mentor people

· Preference will be given to candidates who have experience in writing technical reports or research papers

· Preference will be given to candidates who have experience and skills in excel and budgeting

Why Ummeed?

Ummeed is unique in the social sector, not just because of the influence it has been able to create, but also because of its work culture and ethos, that includes:

·       A challenging but flexible work environment that offers opportunities for growth and creating impact at scale

·       A leadership that invests in its people, giving them the freedom to explore, innovate, learn, while responsibly delivering on committed outcomes

·       A strong culture of respecting diversity, being inclusive and committed to serving children with disabilities and their families

·       An opportunity to work in collaboration with a diverse group of highly passionate, motivated and talented individuals

Ummeed is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to diverse representation in its workforce. We welcome people of all genders, orientations, ethnicities, religions, and social backgrounds. We especially encourage persons with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities to apply. 

To apply:

If you are excited by the idea of enabling an organization that works in a niche area to create meaningful impact, please send your CV and a short note on why you would like to join the Ummeed team to