FINANCIAL STABILITY

Kelly Dejoode was panicking. She had just received a letter saying she would no longer receive Child Care Assistance from the state. She was going to drop off the so-called “Child Care Cliff.” Without assistance, Kelly would go from paying $17 a week for her three-year-old son Jaxson to attend Oak Academy full time to paying $180 a week. Her wages—a little more than $13 an hour—as a teaching assistant in a Head Start classroom couldn’t cover the increase as well as her family’s other basic needs, including rent, gas, and food.

She didn’t realize that by starting to work full time, she would be pushed over this cliff. “Things were starting to go really well,” she says, “and then boom, that happened.”

every central Iowan had a chance to thrive?

We fight to remove barriers that keep central Iowans in poverty by:

Funding local programs that provide financial education, small business loans, and matched savings accounts for education and assets
Convening work groups to tackle issues like transportation, housing, and child care
Providing free tax preparation to increase access to tax credits and tax refunds
Advocating for policies that allow more central Iowans to reach financial stability
Raising awareness about families who are working and living in poverty