For our community: A special gift to Community Children’s Center

Colette and Ron Gaches follow a philosophy of philanthropy closely aligned with the mission of DCCF: “to help make Lawrence a better place to live, work, and raise a family.” With a $50,000 gift to the Community Children’s Center (CCC) capital campaign, Ron and Colette are starting upstream to address a daunting crisis in our community — the lack of affordable, available child care. 

“The crisis in child care is staggering. We would need an additional 3,000 child care slots to fill the current needs,” said Kim Polson, executive director of CCC. “The need will only grow greater in the future as Lawrence continues to expand and the region continues to bring in high-quality employers and projects, such as Panasonic.”
  
Ron and Colette appreciate the comprehensive approach CCC is taking to address the crisis of unmet child care. “It’s more than a band-aid approach,” said Ron. In addition to having slots for up to 140 kids, the facility also will serve as a training facility for new child care providers and support providers in establishing their own facilities. The facility will enable the creation of a growing provider network to meet growing needs. Its financial model is built to have a place for kids regardless of their parents’ ability to pay, and offer other service providers another access point for serving families in need.

When the Gaches were ready to make their stock gift to CCC, they came to DCCF. “An important part of creating a giving community is to make the giving easy, and DCCF plays a critical role in that effort,” Ron said. “Most of our local not-for-profits don’t have the resources to handle all of the work associated with gifts of stock or other assets. DCCF allows our service organizations to focus on what they do best while DCCF handles the financial administrative work. That allows donors like us to focus on the needs and not the process. DCCF makes it easy.”

If you would like to donate to CCC, please visit their fund page.

Renderings courtesy of  Bartlett & West