Child Care Now More Accessible for West Lane Families

The COVID-19 pandemic has created many challenges for families across Lane County, as many face job loss and tighter budgets while navigating distance-learning, child care, and more.

Families with school-aged children have been particularly impacted— in having to now budget for child care for their children who’d otherwise be in school. With the shift to distance-learning, affordable and accessible child care has become essential to keeping parents in the workforce and ensuring kids don’t fall behind.

“We know how important it is, not only for our kids to have a safe place to go, but how important it is to our workforce to have a safe place for those kids to go while their parents are being a member of the workforce, ” said Sarah Moehrke, Economic Development Catalyst for the City of Florence.

After hearing from families, child care providers, and funders about challenges and opportunities, United Way helped strategize a new series of grants to expand the availability and affordability of child care for struggling families.

Thanks to CARES Act funding from the City of Florence and additional investment from the Tykeson Family Foundation, United Way of Lane County was able to fund 30 child care slots for families unable to otherwise afford it. This partnership is just one example of United Way mobilizing people and resources to address community needs and is in addition to 400 child care spots made available in partnership with the City of Eugene.

We believe that supporting our kids in school and life creates a more successful, just, and resilient community for our future. 

“We feel a deep responsibility to this community and to our kids. Because if you think about it, our future teachers, our doctors, our bankers, our plumbers, our electricians, the people that are healthcare providers, the people that are the future child care providers, they're in our clubs today. At the end of the day, if we're not doing our part to make sure these kids stay at grade-level, that they have the kind of support services they need, the community is the one that suffers the most. We’ve got to do everything we can today in order to make sure that there's a bright tomorrow.”

Learn more about this initiative and hear from our partners in the video above.

Read more about the expansion of child care in Eugene, and its impact on families here

“Raising funding and investing back into the community to help families is something that’s our superpower. It’s what we do. - Bess Jayme, United Way’s Director of Education”