Your Stories

Child care has impacted me in my workplace. It's so expensive to have my children in child care that I had to go back to working an overnight job. I can't afford to pay for my children to be taken care of, even though my children are at a age where the majority of the time they are in school. It gets hard though when they don't have school or when they are on break and have other days off, ...

Due to childcare expenses, my family has had to rely on one parent staying home. Even when options for head start became available, the hours or days did not align with regular schedule hours of work. Therefore, I have been unable to pursue my own career goals until all of my children were in school. Even then, because after school is expensive, I have only been able to attend school myself. ...

As a single mom with a young child, having consistent and reliable childcare has been a struggle. Working full-time isn’t an option, as I must be available to care for my son. The lack of affordable and accessible childcare has often burdened me with extra stress and anxiety about how I'm going to work when I have nowhere to take my child. There have been many days when, due to the lack of ...

The lack of reliable childcare acts as a systemic barrier that forces many parents to stall their careers or exit the workforce entirely to manage caregiving duties. For those pursuing an education, the high cost of care often makes upskilling financially impossible, trapping families in a cycle of underemployment and limited social mobility. However, having the CPCD (Community Partnership ...

CPCD has been an invaluable resource for our family. As we recently relocated to Colorado Springs, the support provided through CPCD made it possible for us to balance the demands of work while adjusting to a new community. The subsidized childcare has offered an unexpected yet deeply appreciated sense of economic, emotional, and overall relief, support we now cannot imagine living without. ...

Telma and her husband Ernesto are parents to three young children, with a fourth baby on the way. Ernesto had always worked tirelessly as a roofer to provide for his family, often taking on long days and difficult jobs. But one rainy afternoon, while repairing a roof, he slipped and fell. The accident left him physically unable to work for the foreseeable future.As Ernesto began the long ...

Finding childcare for my kids has been one of the hardest parts of being a parent. For years, the only option we could afford was an FFN (Family, Friend, and Neighbor) provider. Even then, I was paying around $900 a month, which felt high for someone who wasn’t licensed, but a licensed provider was almost 3x that amount for an infant.Our first provider was wonderful at the beginning. She ...

During my initial home visit, Mom shared that she was currently unemployed and living in Colorado Springs with her children, while Dad worked fulltime in Breckenridge. The family had made the difficult decision to live separately because the high altitude in Breckenridge caused significant health issues for Mom. To protect her well‑being, she relocated with the children to Colorado ...

When I'm working days, you're working nights, and all we're doing is handing off a kid and we're tired all the time, we're not working with our kids to make sure they know how to spell their name, to make sure they know ABCs. Kids are less and less prepared for kindergarten than ever before. When you have a bad economy, stress goes up. Domestic violence goes up. People can’t handle life when ...

My name is Gabriela, and I'm Ian's mother. I learned about CPCD during a difficult time in my life. When they told me about the program, I felt a sense of relief. They quickly accepted my child, and he started attending when he was just one year old. I'll always remember that first day; it was very difficult for both of us, but since then, it has been a door to freedom for me in a way, ...

Being a part of the cpcd family has been very helpful and beneficial to me and my daughter. Without them I wouldn't have been able to finish school let alone do my clinicals and stuff that I need to do. With them having space for my daughter to be a part of their classroom allowing me the time to do what I need to do. Not having child care or daycare isn't helpful to a lot of people because ...

As a mom of two, childcare has shaped almost every part of my life. I’ll never forget the year when my husband was suddenly assigned weekend shifts, and I was working full-time on weekdays. Without reliable childcare, even simple things—like scheduling doctor appointments, attending parent-teacher meetings, or just catching a breath—became overwhelming. I remember once turning down a job ...

As a single mom in the 90's - before the days of FAMLI leave and even the ability to call in sick when my kids were sick (just had to lie and say *I* was sick) I cobbled together a network of family, friends and neighbors to help watch my kids. Once my daughter was 8, I set a timer for 30 minutes between the time I had to leave for work and when she left for school. She was instructed to ...

I decided to leave a career I loved to help care for my grandchildren. I did this primarily for the incredible opportunity to spend this precious time with my grandbabies, but also because my daughter's childcare experience was so disastrous and the cost so astronomical. My daughter is a psychologist and can afford private daycare, but after a different child's diaper was put on her baby and ...

Having child care has made a difference in my life through watching my daughter thrive and being able to communicate with her. Before she started preschool, her speech was limited and sometimes it was a little difficult to understand her. Now, I am able to have effective conversations with my daughter. Watching her thrive with more confidence as she communicates has been some of the most ...

I would like to let you all know that the CPCD Head Start program is a wonderful program to be part of. They have truly helped ease many of my worries. I genuinely love this program. I appreciate the open communication I have with the teachers. If there is ever a concern, it is always addressed promptly and appropriately. I also value that this is a free program, especially knowing how ...