The Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce, the Day Care and Child Development Council of Tompkins County, the Department of Social Services, area businesses and banks, philanthropic interests, Ithaca College, and Cornell University have joined to form the Early Education Partnership. The Partnership is working to build a community fund that will provide a single point of entry to make financial assistance universally accessible to all families in Tompkins County. By creating a system which combines public, private, and charitable funds, the Partnership seeks to improve access to quality child care for all children, strengthen the economic vitality of the child care sector, and enhance a critical infrastructure for economic development in the county as a whole.