United Way of Northern Arizona COVID-19 Fund Assists Essential Workers with Child Care

Throughout this crisis, we have celebrated essential workers – those brave souls who have faced the threat of coronavirus on an almost daily basis so that everyone else could safely stay at home practicing social distancing to stem the pandemic.

But what happens to essential workers with small children? Who is there to take care of their sons or daughters while they were busy taking care of the rest of us.

Due to COVID-19, more than 80 percent of licensed child care centers in Flagstaff were forced to close. Those that remained open had to operate far below capacity, collecting less revenue while simultaneously facing greater operational expenses.

That is why the United Way of Northern Arizona recently provided grants through its COVID-19 Fund to both the Flagstaff Family YMCA and the Association for Supportive Child Care (ASCC).

We are grateful to the institutions, foundations and literally hundreds of individual donations that have raised almost $400,000 for the COVID-19 Fund. Your generous gifts have meant that healthcare workers got masks, that homeless people who were ill weren’t abandoned, that families were fed, and that children were kept safe.

As communities shift their focus from emergency response to economic recovery, UWNA will continue this necessary work. It’s doubtful that getting back to “normal” will be as simple as flicking a switch; it’s far more likely that it will be a gradual process, filled with fits and starts.

Throughout the months ahead, UWNA will continue to quickly transform your donations into grants for the nonprofits that need them the most. As we face a challenging present and uncertain future together, we will adapt, we will be creative, we will pivot and we will help the helpers.

All thanks to you.

If you can, please consider a donation to the COVID-19 Fund today.