Child Care Access Alliance

The Child Care Access Alliance is a partnership between the Colorado Chamber Foundation, Gary Community Ventures and Executives Partnering to Invest in Children (EPIC) aimed at improving the affordability and availability of child care across the state.

Colorado ranks among the most expensive in the nation for care, with the average annual cost of child care being $20,978 for an infant and $17,479 for a toddler. At the same time, Colorado faces a critical shortage of licensed child care seats, with more than half of the state considered a child care desert. Altogether, the lack of affordable and accessible child care results in an estimated $2.7 billion loss to Colorado’s economy each year.

The alliance announced the selection of seven local chambers of commerce to receive $160,000 in grant funding to understand and address local child care challenges in regions across the state.  Participating chambers and their partners will conduct employer surveys, assess local business impacts of insufficient affordable child care and identify strategies to address challenges. Grantees will meet during the summer of 2026 and spring of 2027 to facilitate shared learning across partnerships.