This fund provides financial assistance to subsidized child care providers for low-income families in San Mateo County especially in the areas of North Fair Oaks and Redwood City. Access to high-quality child care, essential to our region’s economic vitality, has suffered a major setback with the COVID crisis threatening the health and well-being of our essential workers and their young families. Your help NOW will make a tremendous difference in the lives of many parents, children and employers for years to come.

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The Need is Great

As a result of COVID-19, half of the child care providers in San Mateo County may close permanently resulting in a shortage of almost 44,000 child care slots. Many of our essential service workers rely on subsidized child care to get back to work. Without better access to high-quality and affordable child care, the region’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 crises will falter, and families and employers will suffer for years to come.

Losing the Safety Net

The child care infrastructure is difficult to replace, especially center-based care. The impact on women, who are essential to our workforce, and children will be multigenerational. Indeed, women make up the majority of many essential industries. Without affordable, high-quality child care options, the gains women have made in the workforce will be erased.

We All Have a Role in Saving Child Care

The Woodside Community Foundation is pleased to announce its partnership with San Mateo County and other regional agencies in addressing this crisis.

The County’s new Child Care Relief Fund serves twin goals: help providers remain open—particularly those in areas of the county serving families with low incomes—and to ensure working families have access to quality child care. With this new Fund, licensed child care centers will be eligible for grants of up to $25,000 and family child care homes will be eligible for grants of up to $10,000. Priority funding is targeted for providers who serve vulnerable families.  The County has committed $2 million from federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) and estimates another $2 million is needed to fully address the child care shortfall.

Your $$ Will Go to Help Woodside’s Workforce

With your help, we will contribute funds to this Countywide effort to provide grants to child care homes and centers that provide subsidized care for low-income families in North Fair Oaks and Redwood City, areas in which many of Woodside’s essential service workers reside.

Child Care Keeps Our Economy Moving

There are currently 36 unfunded providers in Redwood City, and 16 in the North Fair Oaks vicinity at risk of closing permanently. Our goal is to raise $10,000 by the end of October, enough to provide partial support for one center or several child care homes in these areas.

We invite you to give generously to WCF’s San Mateo County Child Care Relief Fund and know that every dollar spent on child care results in two dollars in economic output. Learn more here.