On January 27, 2003, the family of Roxie Davis Price established a scholarship fund for preschool children at Partners for Children, a nonprofit Knoxville organization that operates a child development center in the educational wing of Inskip United Methodist Church. Children eligible for assistance from the fund are those whose parents are working (or in school) but because of low incomes are unable to pay full child-care fees.

Partners for Children was established in 1989 by four inner-city churches in the Knoxville Cooperative Parish of the United Methodist Church in collaboration with the Southern Regional Joint Board of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (now called UNITE HERE). Its purpose was to "improve the lives of Knoxville’s children and their families by sponsoring activities and programs to identify and address that purpose." The programs were to be open to children of any race, color, national origin, sex, social status, or religion.

The first child-care center of Partners for Children was set up in 1989 in the lower floor of the union building on North Broadway, and a second center was established in 1999 at Inskip United Methodist Church on Cedar Lane. On December 31, 2003, the two centers were consolidated at the Inskip site where facilities are available to care for approximately 50 children in the age range from 12 months to five years.

Partners for Children is licensed by the state of Tennessee, and the fees and expenses for approximately one-half of the children attending the center are paid by the state of Tennessee. For some families, however, their coverage expires before they are able to assume the payments themselves. For other families, their incomes, although low, are too large for them to meet the state’s stringent regulations for aid. At the same time, the center has gradually increased its fees in order to meet state standards and maintain quality care. Currently, fees vary between $119 and $138 per week, depending on the children’s ages. For low-income families, especially those with more than one child, making such payments becomes almost impossible. Still their need for quality child care remains.

The only solution appears to be through programs such as the Roxie Davis Price Scholarship Fund. With money from these funds, families can be helped in proportion to their needs and their own efforts. As the families work to become independent, the prospect of their children’s future will be improved by their participation in the quality child development program offered by Partners for Children. We invite you to join the family of Roxie Davis Price in making their participation possible.

Roxie Davis Price was born in Union County on January 27, 1904, and died in Knoxville on December 9, 2002, just prior to her 99th birthday. Her mother died when she was born, and she grew up in the homes of her older sisters in Knoxville. In 1922, she graduated from Knoxville High School, the first and only one in the family to do so. She later graduated from Knoxville Business College and had a long career at the Knoxville Credit Bureau. She married William Price late in life and was widowed a few years later. With no children of her own, she focused on all her nieces and nephews and their many children and grandchildren, keeping in touch with them throughout her life. In doing so, she became aware of numerous problems that some families have in supporting and caring for their children. As a devoted Christian, she also felt that it was important for children to be taught Christian principles, both at home and in group settings.

It is with her love of children in mind that her family established the Roxie Davis Price Scholarship Fund to help those families who work but who still find it very difficult to pay high child-care costs. It is the family’s hope that others will join in sustaining the fund with continuing gifts in coming years.

Cindy Dalton
Executive Director

Shirley Westbrook
Business Manager

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