Pasadena Community Foundation Awards $1.3 Million to Address Devastating Impact of Eaton Fire on Childcare Providers

A crisis in the childcare sector has emerged in the aftermath of the Eaton Fire, and an alliance of professional childcare-sector collaborators are sounding the alarm about the human toll of this disaster.

Pasadena Community Foundation has awarded $1.3 million from its Eaton Fire Relief & Recovery Fund to help the alliance begin addressing some of the most serious issues impacting childcare centers and providers, as well as the families and children who rely on their services.

Loss of Childcare Facilities and Spaces
Childcare providers and their client families are among those most profoundly impacted by the Eaton Fire. A devastating number of childcare spaces in Altadena and Pasadena were damaged and destroyed, exacerbating a preexisting childcare crisis.

Today, across the country, quality childcare is difficult to find in the best of circumstances. The pandemic increased financial strains, leading to more closures, while years of undervalued work by childcare providers has led to widespread staffing shortages.

According to U.S. Department of the Treasury, families across the United States struggle to afford childcare and to find early learning options that meet their needs. In its June 2024 report, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce highlighted the shortage of accessible and affordable childcare and the reality that many working parents lack the support system they need to thrive in the workforce. The scarcity and high cost of childcare are a persistent barrier for parents to fully participate in the workforce, therefore impacting the entire economy of the country.

In the context of this concerning situation, the Eaton Fire left more than half of the licensed Childcare Centers and Family Child Care Homes (FCCH) facilities in Altadena damaged or destroyed, while 60% of the spaces previously available for children are no longer available.

Additional childcare settings — including subsidized family, friend, and neighbor care — continue to be impacted by the disaster. Because of the widespread extent of the damage within Altadena, many childcare providers and families are still seeking childcare placements and housing even months after the fires.

Funding Leverages the Expertise of Professional Childcare Organizations
The effort to secure funding was led by three organizations: Child Care Directors Alliance (CCDA), Pacific Oaks College and Children’s School, and the City of Pasadena Task Force on Early Child Development and Early Learning.

The CCDA has served as the leader of the childcare community for 35 years, meeting monthly with the childcare center leaders, local resource and referral agencies, and childcare partners. CCDA urgently convened all childcare directors on January 9 to learn about the magnitude of the unfolding disaster; the organization then continued to guide this group weekly. CCDA also quickly leveraged support from Pacific Oaks, the City’s Task Force, and from myriad additional organizations with expertise in the childcare sector.

This potent consortium worked tirelessly to gather data and input from those impacted on the ground. Together, they soon determined that it was imperative to secure funding to provide immediate relief and support to destroyed or damaged licensed Childcare Centers and FCCH locations.

Toni Boucher, who has served as the CCDA Chair for its entire 35 years, somberly notes, “We understood immediately that this disaster would expose two truths: the razor-thin margins of childcare operation and that childcare offers more than just shelter – it provides critical stability and continuity. Rebuilding will require time, emotional support, and resources – things that are often scarce in the aftermath of a catastrophe. Families and providers face a long road ahead.”

PCF has committed to funding $1.3 million for the consortium’s Phase 1 work, which prioritizes immediate and direct support to families and childcare providers so that they can stabilize operations as soon as possible. The funding, to be disbursed by Pacific Oaks as grants and overseen by an Advisory Board, will provide resources for tuition assistance, teacher/staff hiring, capacity expansion and operations to accommodate children who have been displaced, and the repurchase of classroom materials, equipment, and furniture.

“We are not just rebuilding structures but strengthening the bonds that make us a community. The support from Pasadena Community Foundation will uplift our childcare sector and help us create something new, something resilient, something worthy of our children’s future.”

The consortium will soon begin to determine the scope of its Phase 2 work, which will focus on a model for systemic change in the childcare infrastructure that will shore up the decades-long underfunded support for local childcare programs.