Child Care Access Fund

Working mothers make up 20% of the Texas workforce and they spend a significant percentage of their income on child care. This issue is the most challenging for women in lower-wage jobs whose economic security is at the greatest risk. Since 2014, the Child Care Access Fund has awarded over $4.8 million to programs and policy advocacy efforts in Texas.

• The median weekly income for Texas women, age 16 and older, working full-time is $772 compared to $954 for men.
• A week of child care costs an average of $125 to $145 or roughly 16 percent to 19 percent of women’s median income.

The Child Care Access Fund works with systems focus on ways that child care impacts the economic security of both working and student mothers with infants and toddlers as well as the needs of working and student mothers with school-aged children. This includes child care, family child care homes, afterschool programming and policy advocacy. In addition to supporting high-quality, affordable care, the Fund includes support for women-owned small businesses and women who work in the child care arena.

• One program of the Fund, The Bridge Program, helped XX  families with children in North Texas over six years. And for every $1.00 we invested in the program, it produced a benefit of $14.30 to families and the community.

• Afterschool projects include support for staffing services that provide living wages and benefits for women in the field along with opportunities for career ladders as they advance their education.

• New projects are responding to impacts of COVID by focusing on increasing quality at family child care homes and providing virtual education materials.

Your gift to the Child Care Access Fund supports innovative solutions that strengthens women’s economic security by ensuring access to quality child care and afterschool programming in low-income neighborhoods across Texas.