Category: Child Care

More Americans are receiving their COVID19 vaccine, but the pandemic has not ended yet. During this time, the importance of creating safe and nurturing spaces for the children of working parents in Austin becomes more apparent. Many providers seek to continue offering care but have limited resources to do so.

To support them, Workforce Solutions Capital Area held curbside pickup events for providers to receive cleaning and PPE supplies at no cost on April 23 and 24 at First Workers Day Labor Center in Austin. The supplies included masks donated by Bank of America.

Over the two days, 198 providers picked up pallets of supplies, including hand soap and sanitizer, gloves and paper towels, bath tissue and bleach—more than 7,000 items in total. These providers care for 8,425 children across Travis County.

Thelma Herrera is the director at Rosie’s Day Care #3, where 10 staff care for 45 children. The center is open full time with five classrooms.

“I was excited when I heard about this,” Thelma said. “It’s hard to go place to place to find things, because one store might have something and another one doesn’t. This event is very helpful for us to keep our center and our children safe. It helps out a lot and I appreciate it.

“We will sanitize the kitchen and the bathrooms, the doorknobs, just about everything, and the toys the children play with throughout the day,” Thelma said.

“I want to thank Workforce Solutions and Bank of America for helping with the supplies. I really appreciate it, and I’m sure all the other providers also appreciate everything you do for us.”

At Promiseland Learning Center, 30 staff care for 200 children in the learning center and in afternoon care. Promiseland is a 4-star rated provider in the Texas Rising Star program, the highest rating available.

“Since the first time Workforce Solutions did this in August 2020, it has been such a blessing for us, because of COVID and the restrictions,” said director Caren Vera.

“In the beginning, we really couldn’t get ahold of everything. These events have literally carried us through the whole process,” she said.

“Our numbers never recovered from COVID. On a Friday, we had 154 children in our learning center and on Monday it went down to 64. Any help was absolutely welcome at that point. We were terrified that we would go out of business. Thankfully, Workforce Solutions stepped up and helped us and it has been a blessing through the whole entire year,” said Caren.

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.

“We can continue to do the work we are called to do and that we love. Caring for children is our passion,” Caren said.

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 on our website.

The severe winter weather that struck Austin in late February left many residents without water for days. While the City of Austin worked hard to fix pipes and get the water flowing again, Workforce Solutions Capital Area partnered with Austin Public Health to distribute bottled water to child care providers on February 22 at the First Workers Day Labor Center. One hundred eight providers from all around the Austin metro area signed up.

In one day, our staff prepared 10 pallets of water for 108 providers caring for 5,591 children. Those 10 pallets equaled about 750 cases, or 18,000 bottles of water!

“I was so worried about being able to provide drinking water for the kids and staff, but this was such a relief,” said one provider. “Thank you so much for doing this and helping us!”

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 on our website.

As the pandemic continues, the importance of creating safe and nurturing spaces for the children of working parents in Austin becomes more apparent. Many providers have limited resources, but seek to continue offering care. To support them, Workforce Solutions Capital Area held curbside pickup events for providers to receive cleaning and PPE supplies at no cost on November 20-21 at First Workers Day Labor Center in Austin. The supplies included 200,000 face masks donated by Bank of America.

Over the two days, 181 providers picked up pallets of supplies, including hand soap and sanitizer, gloves and paper towels, bath tissue and bleach. These providers care for 7,074 children across Travis County.

Stacy Jo Signaigo is the Early Childhood Director for Manor ISD. She works at Manor ISD Child Development Center, which cares for 65 children.

“I was very excited to hear about today’s event. It’s very hard to find supplies for child care, so these supplies really help because everybody is out of them for the quantities we need,” Stacy Jo said.

“We are currently open, serving children and cleaning all the time. We are a nationally accredited school, so a lot of the things that were put in place by the city, we were already doing more than the minimum, we were already doing a lot of those things,” said Stacy Jo. “Thank you so much, Workforce Solutions and Bank of America, we really appreciate it.”

Another provider who received supplies was Patsy Harnage, owner and director of Bright Beginnings Child Development Center in North Austin. Her center cares for 60 children.

“I was just so grateful for this event. With supplies being scare and money being tight due to low enrollment, this was a godsend,” Patsy said.

“We are in need more of cleaning supplies, bleach, masks, gloves. We go through gloves and paper towels like water. We go through these the most because of the constant cleaning and washing hands. This is for the children and the staff, we have a whole lot going on,” Patsy said.

“I want to thank Workforce Solutions Capital Area and Bank of America for lightening the burden we are experiencing from limited supplies. We are forever grateful for your support and generosity,” Patsy added.

Our curbside pickup event, by the numbers:

• 5 truckloads of supplies
• 5,400 items
• 24,176 pounds

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 on our website.

To assist Austin’s child care providers with maintaining safe and clean centers during the COVID-19 pandemic, Workforce Solutions Capital Area’s Child Care Services team held a cleaning supplies pickup event on August 21 and 22 at the Travis County Purchasing Warehouse. One hundred fifty-three providers from all around the Austin metro area signed up.

Providers received pallet-sized orders of cleaning supplies—everything from dish soap, sanitizing wipes, gloves, paper towels and more—at no cost. Our team sorted and prepared thousands of pounds of supplies ahead of the pickup days—25,277 pounds, to be exact!

One of the participating centers was Eanes Independent School District, which has two centers with almost 85 children in care, according to Jeannie Young, Child Development Center Coordinator.

“When we closed in March, we left on spring break and never went back. Now we are reopening and one of our concerns was do we have enough supplies to truly operate,” Jeannie said.

“This is a really wonderful gift to make sure we start our year strong and we have plenty of supplies to keep us going while we build up our stock,” she said.

Brianna Hodges is the Center Director at Prodigy Child Development Center, with 83 children in care. “When I heard about this event, I was excited! My prayers have been answered. This is tremendous help,” she said.

What will get cleaned first? “Everything—toys, walls, I mean it all. It all will be cleaned; we are excited to do a deep clean and maintain health and safety,” Brianna said.

“We are very thankful. Thank you again for helping us out and helping our children maintain safety in such a hard time,” said Brianna.

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 on our website.