How United Way is Helping Student-Parents Stay in School

Brenda* was well on her way. Enrolled in the Child Care Scholarship program at United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County, she was pursuing a career in healthcare while raising her children, and her childcare was covered.

Then everything changed overnight.

“She had to run to another state because she was in an abusive relationship," recalls Naphtali Bryant, who coordinates the program. “She basically packed her stuff up overnight, took her kids and moved with family to another state. But we stayed in contact."

Naphtali paused Brenda’s enrollment so she could return when she was ready. When she did, a missed application deadline nearly undid her progress.

“She came to a point where she was downtrodden," he says. “She wanted to give up on everything."

A $5,000 renewal scholarship sat waiting, and all she had to do was submit a letter. So, Napthali made time to talk it through.

Afterward, she wrote to tell him that the United Way Child Care Scholarship had been her very first, and that "she didn't think she was good enough for anything else outside of that."

Today her story is different. 

“She now feels more empowered," Naphtali says. “She did get accepted into the program that she wanted to get accepted to, and now it's being paid for."

Naphtali's Open Door

This is the daily work of the Child Care Scholarship, which provides childcare subsidies at high-quality centers so student-parents can finish school. In nearly four years in the role, Naphtali has walked alongside more than 200 student-parents through moments just like Brenda's.

He meets with every scholar monthly to support them through whatever life brings.

“Sometimes I'm their advisor, sometimes I'm their mental health specialist, sometimes I'm their conflict resolution person," he says. “They're not just getting their education. Life is happening to them."

Support from Women United

The program is the signature cause of Women United in San Antonio, the largest chapter of the affinity group in the United Way network, whose Power of the Purse event has grown from $250,000 to nearly $400,000 raised annually. Every dollar goes to childcare.

The scholarship isn't the only resource Naphtali’s clients can access. When a student-parent applies, he looks into whether they can be co-enrolled in the Dual Generation Initiative, a companion United Way program that wraps in basic needs support.

One set of funds covers childcare subsidies, while the other can step in when a utility bill threatens to derail a semester. The funding has even been used to cover the cost of nursing licensure exams for promising students who couldn’t afford them.

“The idea is to be able to help them holistically once we get them in the room," Naphtali says. Because both programs live under one roof, scholars get warm handoffs rather than referrals elsewhere, and, through co-enrollment, more than 70 percent of applicants now receive some form of childcare assistance.

That kind of interconnection is only possible inside a network built the way United Way is.

Naphtali came to the role with a network of his own. As a student, he took his classes online but showed up in person at all five Alamo colleges, attending student events on a different campus each day of the week.

Those years built him a web of advisors, financial aid officers, and records staff across the district, and he brought all of it with him when he joined United Way. Once he began working his contact list, applications more than doubled.

Could another nonprofit do this work?

“Could they? Possibly," he allows. But “without the name United Way, without the reputation of United Way, without the stewardship of United Way," raising that money year after year is a different matter. 

“They can do it, but I don't know if they could do it to the scale we do."

*Name changed for privacy.