DENVER — Close to 4,500 families have requested childcare help from the Emergency Child Care Collaborative since the program launched almost a month ago.
It's meant to connect essential workers with children to childcare providers in their area.
Bill Jaeger with Colorado Children's Campaign, a non-profit that works with the state on this, said Colorado was one of the first states to recognize that childcare is also an essential service.
"Right now, our emergency response would really be hurting even more if we didn’t have the heroic work of childcare providers behind the scenes supporting families who are doing that essential work we’re all relying on," said Jaeger.
It includes help for healthcare professionals, nurses and physicians, and also our first responders and grocery store workers.
Jaeger said it takes about a day or two and everyone is screened and verified.
The state is making sure that the people applying are essential workers by verifying their eligibility based on their application. They also screen childcare providers to make sure they are licensed.
One big challenge Jaeger said they’ve had is that there are a few communities where there is greater demand than there is supply.
For the most part, however, he said it’s worked out. “What’s really moving, is that more than twenty thousand slots have been identified in the licensed childcare community.”
The best part for him is the lesson we’re learning moving forward, "this is sort of naming childcare as an essential service, that makes everything else possible."
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