Your Stories

My Family Advocate. Maria at Head Start has helped a lot when it comes to affording diapers and wipes, and ensuring my child care is top notch. I wouldn’t want to take my kids any other place that didn’t work with head start. I have a few different representatives that help me with different things like diapers or other resources. Ms. Audrey is the only sitter I have/ trust. We don’t have ...

My name is Brian Blasnick. I’m the owner of NIAX Colorado Springs, which is a revenue-sharing networking group here in town. The biggest reason I own my own company is because it allows me flexibility with my childcare situation. For about 20 years, I was a chef —an executive chef — in Colorado Springs. I worked at a ton of different places: Trinity, The Broadmoor, Blue Star. The last ...

I first heard of Head Start when my now 31 year old son was 4 years old. I had extreme concerns for him as he was unable to speak clearly and was often frustrated. This, coupled with not having any other children in his life to play with and learn from, was also a major concern. After enrolling him in Head Start, it was discovered that he had a severe speech impediment. They began speech ...

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 ...

My son Timothy was in foster care for the first year of his life. When he was able to come home to me the CCCAP freeze was already in place. I am a single Mom so having a job is the only way for me to provide for Timothy. I was able to receive a 90 day authorization for Child Welfare CCCAP and place him in daycare and obtain steady work. However once that 90 days was up I could no longer ...

I grew up in a low income home, with a single parent in a neighborhood filled with violence. I remember going to Headstart like it was yesterday. I remember eating oatmeal with maple syrup. I felt safe. There was plenty of noursihing food. To this day when I am feeling emotional, I will make me a nice warm bowl of oatmeal. It takes me back to that safe place. The headstart teachers were ...

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 ...

We received our daughter in foster care when she was 6 weeks old and didn't have great options for childcare since we didn't know how long she would be with us and my spouse and I had to maintain our work schedules. I reached out to many different childcare providers (and were on waitlists for many), but after 10 months a friend told us about Early Head Start. They were so helpful and were ...

The lack of childcare has affected my ability to work BIG TIME. It was not until June 2024 that I found an overnight job that allowed me to receive a bit more income to help my partner (my son's dad) and I pay bills that we were drowning in. We made too much money to qualify for food stamps. The lack of child care has caused me to work nine different jobs from the time my son was six months ...

Doing childcare for almost 40 years and being licensed since 1991 I have experienced a LOT of setbacks and so have my families, Cost is a big factor, parents struggle financially and look for ways to cut back, most recently a family quit because mom quit her job and is staying home to save money in childcare cost. They have 2 children and cannot afford the cost. I was a BIG set back for me ...

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 ...

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 ...

Both of my girls been in early head start since they was baby’s, and I thank it made a difference in my life cuz they got to hang out with kids there own age and I get time to my self.It’s hard to work now because I can’t find a job that we’ll go with my daughter schedule I don’t really have anyone else to pick my daughter up from school I’m doing it on my ownSince my daughter been in early ...

When both of my grandchildren were placed into my care unexpectedly, I found myself trying to balance the needs of young children with the responsibilities of my job. I had never heard of the CPCD program before my oldest granddaughter was enrolled, but it quickly became one of the greatest supports in our lives. Because of CPCD, I was able to continue working with very little disruption to ...

As being a single mother, I never thought I would be given this opportunity to be able work for my family. There was a moment in my life when I was distraught because I felt like I was not good enough or being a good provider for my children. No matter how hard I tried and they deserved so much more but having child care really lifted me not only did it make me so happy. It gave me hope and ...

I had my first son 2 years ago when looking for childcare I got onto waitlists when I was still pregnant as I heard they were months to years long. When it came time to deliver and I took my leave I still was waiting to hear back to get a spot and the ones that were open wanted $400/week which is absolutely something we couldn’t afford. We’ve even reached out to sitters and stay at home moms ...