Lynda Bien-Aimes calls the funding stream that helps her with child care expenses "an angel in disguise."
"Child care is so expensive it makes it hard, especially when you're living on one income," she said.
Bien-Aimes' angel is the Army Child Care in Your Neighborhood program, which helps military families pay for child care and trains day care staff to meet military standards.
The program is adding slots for 200 more children in day cares this month to the 250 already available in communities around Fort Bragg.
Bien-Aimes' husband is in the Army. The couple's 2-year-old son Alex is in one of the slots, attending an in-home day care off Reilly Road.
The financial help is enabling his mother to go back to school at Fayetteville Technical Community College, where she's studying to be a nurse.
"If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be able to go to school," she said.
"Them" in this instance refers to the agencies involved in the program: It is funded by the Army, overseen by the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies and administered by the Partnership for Children of Cumberland County Inc.
"Multiple deployments are the 'new normal' for our military families," said Donna Mansfield, chairwoman of the Partnership for Children board. "They shouldn't have to also worry about finding affordable, high-quality child care."
Spurred by high demand for child care among Army families, the program has been operating for five years. The Partnership for Children - which also handles other early education grants, including Smart Start and More at Four - channels the money to place children in a network of qualified child care programs that reflect the quality and price found in child care centers on post.
When a family moves and a child leaves the program, another child fills the slot.