ARLINGTON, Texas — Libby Sanders has been helping Texas Health employees find childcare for more than four years. In her work at the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) call center, she connects the care team to a variety of services, from counseling and legal help to crisis and financial assistance, but daycare referrals make up the bulk of requests she receives.

Libby Sanders refused to take "no" for an answer.

Starting in mid-March, however, Sanders started to notice an increase in daycare requests — not just an increase in need for services but also employees reporting that the prices for care were fluctuating and often higher. This trend only grew when daycare centers closed and fewer options became available.

“I saw more people in need especially with smaller daycare centers closing,” Sanders explained. “Then I saw on the news that Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks donated $500,000 to help with daycare for healthcare workers. I wanted to find out if our employees could benefit from this as well.”

Sanders started sending emails to find out more information — to the Mavericks and the news network that reported the donation — without much success. Eventually she tracked down a contact at the Dallas Mavericks Foundation and made a request for daycare funds to help our care team.

“When they responded, they said that donation was for other hospitals, but they could donate scrub tops and bandanas,” Sanders said. “Knowing the needs our care team has I wasn’t going to take no for an answer, so I thanked them and asked again for a donation.”

Working with Human Resources and Texas Heath Resources Foundation, Sanders helped facilitate the delivery of the Mavericks scrubs donation, and she was surprised when after the fact, she received an email from the Mavericks Foundation Board of Trustees President Katie Edwards.

Her tenacity had paid off. The Foundation decided to make a $5,000 donation to support daycare at Texas Health Dallas.

“Libby has always been very resourceful,” explained Debbie Hillard, who manages Texas Health’s EAP. “She goes the extra mile to get people connected where they need to be.”

Resources Available

To further support expenses that its health care workers are incurring during the pandemic, including funds to assist with daycare services, Texas Health has launched the COVID-19 Response Fund.

Texas Health has also added a new benefit for care team members for Backup Daycare Services through Care.com and Bright Horizons. And, a list of available childcare subsidies and financial aid can be found here.

Additional resources for daycare and other assistance through the EAP are available on the Be Healthy site.