Child care providers in Central Texas have struggled to obtain cleaning and protective supplies since the pandemic began in 2020. With limited resources, providing quality care becomes a challenge.
To support our providers, Workforce Solutions Capital Area and Austin Public Health hosted curbside pickup events for providers to receive cleaning and PPE supplies, at no cost on January 7 and 8 at the Rosewood-Zaragosa Neighborhood Center. Over the two days, we distributed 24 pallets of supplies, including hand soap and sanitizer, gloves and paper towels, bath tissue and bleach, for 128 providers. These providers care for 6,821 children across Travis County.
Austin Public Health also provided bleach and hand sanitizer, as well as at-home testing kits for COVID19 for centers located in zip codes with the highest transmission rates.
One of the providers was Valerie Johnson, Director of Gethsemane Lutheran Children’s Ministry. Her center has 16 staff and cares for 90 children.
“I was excited when I heard about this event. I have to say,, PPE is really cutting into my budget because everything is so expensive, so having WFS do this for providers is awesome,” Valerie said.” It’s really great you have the funding to do this for us. It helps out a lot.”
WFS staff load supplies into a provider’s vehicle.
With WFS Capital Area and Austin Public Health helping to meet her center’s high need for cleaning supplies, Gethsemane can now put their resources toward other needs.
“We go through gloves like water. We use sanitary wipes to sanitize our handrails, door knobs—the teachers are using them for everything,” Valerie said.
“This really helps us a lot because we can devote more monies on food or new toys, and helping the parents out if they need scholarship money to cover tuition if they are not working or in between jobs.”
Workforce Solutions Capital Area is committed to supporting providers in Austin who care for the children of our region’s workforce. By providing care in a safe and nurturing environment, Austin’s child care providers are helping to develop a future workforce that is skilled and productive. Learn more about how we support child care providers.
