AT&T, IBM, Texaco, Aetna, Xerox, Citibank and other leaders of business are finally recognizing the problems families face while trying to juggle child care, and often elder care, with their duties at work. Reduced productivity due to the hours and days off needed for dealing with dependent care issues cost American businesses billions annually.

Consequently, 22 of the largest and best-managed firms in the U.S. formed the American Business Collaboration for Quality Dependent Care, to invest money into lifting the quality and availability of child care and elder care programs.

In communities where there are large concentrations of their employees, the collaboration is offering grants to professional care-givers for additional training or for start-up costs to open new centers. And they support and create projects like those that shuttle the elderly to doctors appointments.

By the year 2000, the collaboration will spend more than $100 million nationwide on dependent care programs, which will not just benefit the firms involved, but will raise the quality of life for thousands of neighboring families as well.