A $100,000 investment in a Pima County child care scholarship fund is expanding access to high-quality preschool and setting the example that everyone in the community has a stake in preparing young children for a successful future.
Tucson Electric Power recently donated $100,000 to the Pima Early Education Program Scholarships, also known as PEEPs, which provides funding for local school districts and preschool providers to offer scholarships to qualifying preschoolers in Pima County.
“We recognize that early childhood education or preschool is something that helps set young learners up for success later in their educational career and in life,” said JD Wallace, a Tucson Electric Power senior corporate communications specialist. “We value the success of the people in the communities that we serve. These young learners could be future employees, but definitely future citizens of the places where we work, live and play. We are just as invested in making sure we have successful citizens where we live.”
First corporate contribution
The investment, which was recently presented to the United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona, is the first corporate contribution to emerge from Supercharging PEEPs, an effort to bring business, philanthropy, government, education and early childhood leaders together around a shared question on how Pima County can build on the success of PEEPs to ensure more children have access to high-quality preschools, according to a United Way release.
Over the past year, community partners met several times to better understand the current early childhood landscape across Pima County, examine the gap between the number of children who need assistance and the resources currently available and explore how public and private investments could work together to expand access.
“The donation helps demonstrate that early childhood education isn’t just the responsibility of parents or educators or even the government,” said First Things First Regional Area Director Francisco Padilla, whose area includes Pima County. “I think it’s something that our entire community really has a stake in.”
According to the United Way release, the Center for Economic Integrity and Southern Arizona Leadership Council launched the Supercharging PEEPs effort with community convenings in May and October 2025 and continued through additional conversations and a regional leadership roundtable.
“We are deeply grateful to TEP for their longstanding partnership and for leading the way with this significant first corporate investment in Supercharging PEEPs,” said Vanecia Kerr, president and CEO of United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona. “This milestone builds on Pima County’s pioneering work to expand equitable access to high-quality preschool and reflects a year of collaboration across our community.”
Partners have included United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona, Pima County, The Preschool Promise, Education Forward Arizona, First Things First and other organizations, along with leaders from the early childhood, business and philanthropic communities.
“United Way is proud to bring partners together through our broad community network, drawing on our early childhood expertise and direct work with families and educators,” Kerr said. “TEP’s commitment is an investment in our children and our community’s economic future, and we hope it inspires more businesses and philanthropies to join this shared effort.”
Almost 1,500 children served
In fiscal years 2025-2026, almost 1,500 children were directly served through PEEPs. When PEEPs is combined with other public preschool investments, including First Things First Quality First Scholarships, Arizona Department of Economic Security child care assistance and Head Start, almost 5,000 children were served—approximately 38% of the estimated 13,000 children in Pima County who met the income eligibility criteria, according to United Way.
Research has proven the benefits of high-quality preschool programs for young children. These include entering kindergarten more prepared with less chance of being placed in special education and a lower risk of grade retention. Longer-term benefits include higher graduation rates, higher median income, less dependence on government services and more.
For TEP, the donation is one way to give back to the community it serves. As the first corporate sponsor of the preschool scholarship program, officials hope to set an example of how private companies, non-profit organizations and government entities can work together.
“This is our effort to supercharge PEEPs,” Wallace said. “We want to support programs that help the residents of Pima County and southern Arizona, but we’re also trying to lead by example. We’re hoping that it attracts the attention of the other potential corporate donors in Tucson and southern Arizona.”
