How Women’s Foundation of Alabama is Working to Address the Childcare Gap Across the State  

By Javacia Harris Bowser | For The Birmingham Times Even though 74 percent of Alabama families rely on a female breadwinner, Alabama has the 49th lowest female labor force participation rate in the nation. Research has shown that one of the key factors holding women back is lack of childcare. Women’s Foundation of Alabama’s (WFA) now has an initiative in place to help address that problem. Advancing Alabama Childcare Accelerator is an 8-week program that focuses on the business side of owning a daycare facility with the goal of helping participants open centers that can offer accessible quality services for parents and competitive wages for the centers’ workers. Zhaundra C. Jones, WFA Vice President of Philanthropy and Learning. (Provided) The accelerator is the brainchild of Zhaundra C. Jones, Vice President of Philanthropy and Learning at WFA, which seeks to accelerate economic opportunity for women by supporting legislation, research and philanthropy that promote gender and economic equity. “Comprehensively, what we’re really trying to do is focus on access, affordability, and workforce,” Jones said.  “I felt like an accelerator would allow us to design something that would pour into these business owners and if we could also give them access to much...