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Workforce Solutions Capital Area is seeking nominations from interested and qualified individuals to serve on its Board of Directors as a Child Care Workforce Representative. We will interview qualified applicants whose nominations are received by the deadline of October 18, 2023 at 5:00pm CT. The final appointment decision will be made by Travis County Judge Andy Brown.
Learn more and make your nomination here.
Growing the future skilled workforce of Central Texas involves providing quality child care to eligible parents living and working in our community. To achieve this essential goal, Workforce Solutions Capital Area hosts the annual Child Care Symposium for child care directors, owners and workers in Central Texas.
ICYMI: Attendees enjoyed a full day of training opportunities and heard from speakers representing state and local governments and a fellow child care provider.
Why it matters: At the free symposium, attendees learned and grew in their fields, and heard from local organizations and leaders in the child care industry, including Austin Public Health, Conscious Discipline, United Way for Greater Austin, childhood education professionals and more.
Speaking on the first day was Tamara Atkinson, Chief Executive Officer for WFS Capital Area.
“We invest in our child care partners to make sure that they have access to valuable learning opportunities and are continuing to positively impact children’s lives through their important work,” Tamara said.
What they’re saying
For the directors and teachers who participated, the Child Care Symposium provided valuable learning opportunities and moments to connect with one another.
“Thank you for all the hard work that I know each of you contributed into making the Symposium such a success last weekend. You guys were amazing!” Irma Arrambide, owner/director at A New Day Child Development Center, said.
“My teachers were so grateful to be acknowledged for all the hard work that they have put in to make our little preschool a 4-Star school. I feel so truly blessed to call you all not only mentors but I feel like more of a close friend. We are all so blessed to have each of you on our side as we help the children in our communities thrive to be the future of the world. Thanks again for your dedication and your support,” said Irma.
“I really appreciate Workforce Solutions. There are so many things you guys help us with and so many mentors that go above and beyond to help our centers be successful. Thank you for all you do,” said one provider.
Another attendee said, “I’m grateful to have had the privileges to be a part of this event. To meet new people and the interactions with one another was a pleasure.”
Workforce Solutions Capital Area works with 400-plus providers across Central Texas to provide care for over 5,000 children.
Child care in Travis County is more expensive than anywhere else in the state, according to the National Database of Childcare Prices (NDCP), a new data source released this year by the U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau.
Families can check if they qualify for child care financial assistance in Travis County on the Workforce Solutions Capital Area website.
A pilot program at Austin Community College is aiming to help parents in marginalized communities go to college and grow their careers.
The pilot program is a partnership between ACC and nonprofit AVANCE-Austin, which helps low-income families, predominately Latino, and Workforce Solutions Capital Area.
Several funding measures approved by Austin officials May 18 will send around $2 million toward workforce development, child care and early childhood education in Central Texas.
Three contracts totaling $1.85 million will go toward education for aspiring medical workers and training and supporting local child care staff. The items include:
Mother’s Day isn’t the only day in May that we celebrate those individuals who nurture and develop children. Child care providers also deserve recognition, which is why today is National Provider Appreciation Day.
Workforce Solutions Capital Area provides scholarships for child care for eligible low- to moderate-income families in Travis County while parents can find work or complete training to support their families.
Our services related to child care are not just for Austin’s parents, however, but child care providers as well.
To celebrate the providers caring for Austin’s children—our community’s future workforce—we’re joining the national observance of National Provider Appreciation Day!
We understand the value that child care providers create for their community. By guiding the growth and development of children today, they help positively shape our community tomorrow.
As part of our commitment to quality child care, Workforce Solutions Child Care Services offers quality rated programs, quality initiative activities and other community resources to child care providers who strive for quality.
One of our largest offerings is the annual Child Care Symposium. This two-day event features keynote speakers and workshops to inform and inspire the leadership of our community’s child care providers and provide professional development opportunities for staff.
The 2022 symposium was held August 5 – 6 with 319 early learning professionals in attendance.
To support our providers, we partnered with Austin Public Health to host curbside pickup events for providers to receive cleaning supplies and at-home testing kits. At our last event in December 2022, we distributed 20 pallets’ worth of supplies to 134 providers.
Use the hashtag #ProviderAppreciationDay on social media to follow the Provider Appreciation Day momentum. How will you celebrate? Tell us in a comment below!
Travis County allocated nearly $51 million of remaining Local Fiscal Recovery Funds to assist non-profit organizations and other programs on Monday, in an effort to address ongoing community needs, including food access, childcare and rental assistance.
The money is part of the $247 million Travis County received in American Rescue Plan Act Funds in 2021. The county split its funding into four components that funded emergency assistance programs during the Coronavirus pandemic, including relief funding and public health needs, and supportive housing projects to help solve the county’s homelessness issue.
Money will go to strengthening the local childcare system by partnering with organizations like the United Way and Workforce Solutions Capital Area, that will help fund stipends for childcare providers.
Austin city officials have outlined new criteria on the table to help expand affordable child care services citywide.
In a memo released Monday, city leaders released a list of proposed criteria for Austin City Council to consider. Back in early December, council approved a resolution centered on creating affordable, high-quality child care services.
As part of its efforts, city leaders collaborated with the Success By Six coalition members and the Early Childhood Council to help inform recommendations. Additional input from Workforce Solutions Capital Area staff, the city’s Economic Development Department, Financial Services Department – Real Estate and the Housing and Planning Department were also incorporated.
Child care in Central Texas can be hard to find – and affordable child care is even harder to locate. But United Way of Greater Austin is helping connect people to resources they can afford.
United Way is a nonprofit that has a community-wide coalition that networks to find high-quality child care, as well as resources to afford it. This network is something that has had a major impact on local providers and local families.
The nonprofit has its Connect ATX call line that helps parents navigate resources like the Workforce Solutions child care program, federally-funded head-start programs through Child Inc., public schools and Pre-K programs.
As cases of respiratory illnesses spread across the Austin metro, the importance of providing quality child care in a safe environment becomes all the more important. To support our providers, Workforce Solutions Capital Area and Austin Public Health hosted curbside pickup events for providers to receive cleaning supplies and at-home testing kits for COVID19 at no cost on December 9 and 10 at the Rosewood-Zaragosa Neighborhood Center.
Over the two days, we distributed 20 pallets’ worth of supplies to 134 providers. These included 1,600 cans of spray disinfectant, 620 buckets of disinfectant wipes, 760 bottles of hand soap, and 620 cases of gloves. Austin Public Health provided hand sanitizer, masks for adults and children, gloves, and at-home testing kits for COVID19. These providers care for 7,431 children across Travis County.
One of the providers was Shannon Saldana at Austin Community College Children’s Lab School. This full-day, year-round early childhood program has 12 full-time and 15 part-time staff and cares for 44 children.
“I was excited because we are running low and it’s hard to find masks and gloves sometimes,” Shannon said. “The cost of things has gone up, so finding the little things and not having a high cost or a long wait time is helpful.”
For Sharon Knight, director of Tarrytown Children’s Center, the rising costs of necessary supplies has been an ongoing challenge for her 14 staff to care for the 56 children at their center.
“I am so happy that someone is thinking about child care and the larger picture, instead of us trying to scrape together, ask parents for more, and try to dig into our funds,” Sharon said.
“This has really saved us during this three-year period, and I honestly don’t know what we would do without it because finding supplies has been almost impossible. I am very appreciative of what Workforce Solutions does,” said Sharon.
Tarrytown Children’s Center is a 4-star rated provider in the Texas Rising Star program, the highest rating available. The Texas Rising Star program is for child care providers who meet quality requirements that exceed the state’s minimum licensing standards and that are designed to enhance the intellectual, physical, and social development of children in care. In return for their commitment to quality, providers receive numerous benefits including enhanced reimbursement rates, learning materials and equipment, child development college course scholarships, and more.
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.