
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, September 14, 1995                   TAG: 9509140072
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short

COMPANIES OFFERING FAMILY CARE

Twenty-one of the nation's biggest companies announced a $100 million six-year effort Wednesday to improve child and elder care for employees in communities across the country.

They call it an important way to boost productivity and recruit and retain top workers.

``If employees are distracted by care for a child or elderly relative, it will interfere with their ability to serve our customers,'' said Deborah Stahl, director of the Family Care Development Fund at AT&T Corp. ``The more we can help, the more focused they will be.''

Employees will pay for the care, but some businesses will subsidize the cost.

Companies leading the effort, billed as the largest of its kind in American business history, include IBM, Citicorp, and Aetna Life & Casualty Co. Hundreds of smaller companies are expected to join.

They are renewing a smaller three-year initiative launched in 1992. In that phase, 156 businesses as well as government and private groups invested more than $27 million in 300 programs in 25 states.

Some of those projects included day-care centers, summer camps, elderly care programs and training for supervisors of after-school activities.

by CNB