Wyndy Partners With UAB To Provide Childcare For Essential Medical Personnel
March 20, 2020
Wyndy, the Birmingham-based tech company that connects parents with vetted, background-checked college babysitters, has partnered with UAB to help provide childcare for UAB’s medical personnel who are essential to combating COVID-19.
“In this unprecedented time, we are grateful for the ways Wyndy is uniquely positioned to serve UAB faculty and staff who are on the front lines of addressing COVID-19,” said UAB Health System CEO Will Ferniany.
Through the partnership, UAB faculty and staff required on site are able to quickly book jobs with the thousands of college sitters in Birmingham. UAB has offered to reimburse faculty and staff required on site for a portion of the cost of childcare secured through Wyndy.
With the urgent discussions on social distancing and other measures to slow down the spread, the decision to work with UAB was one Wyndy’s CEO Tommy Mayfield took very seriously. "One of our core values at Wyndy is service. At present, we believe the best way we can serve each community is by ensuring that medical professionals and others who serve essential roles in the efforts to address COVID-19 are able to continue to work while also ensuring their children are safely cared for. If we can be helpful to this segment of the community without creating unreasonable risks to our users, sitters, or the community at large, we want to do so. But our top priority is ensuring the well-being of the community as a whole.”
To assist Wyndy in navigating this challenging time, the company brought on Dr. Ellen Eaton, an infectious disease physician at UAB, as an advisor. Dr. Eaton, a mother and active Wyndy user, is assisting Wyndy’s leadership team in developing and implementing best practices to best serve its users and the communities where Wyndy has a presence. To view the sitter and user guidelines, visit wyndy.com/in-the-news.
“It is comforting to know that there is an existing platform to safely and effectively provide childcare to medical professionals while they’re busy supporting the most vulnerable members of our community during this pandemic,” says Gabriel Spieler, an active Wyndy sitter and current UAB resident studying to become a pediatrician.
UAB President Ray Watts is also pleased with the partnership.
“UAB has long been a supporter of the Innovation Depot and the Velocity Accelerator Program,” Watts said. “We’re proud to see a startup like Wyndy that has grown up in the Depot and participated in Velocity reach the stage where it’s able to make a meaningful contribution to the well-being of UAB and other health systems in Birmingham.”
Wyndy is a free Birmingham-based app with a network of more than 5,000 vetted, background-checked college sitters. The app launched in March 2017 and currently operates in 19 markets across 8 southeastern states. Through the app, families have received more than 250,000 hours of childcare.