In 2025, Wellthy acquired the company Patch Caregiving, a leading and innovative onsite and nearsite backup childcare provider. At worksite locations around the country — from Columbus to Atlanta to Salt Lake City to Jacksonville and beyond — these Patch Sites provide employees with reliable backup childcare for children ages 2 to 12 years old.
Today, members of the Patch team at Wellthy support families in the moments when care plans fall through or simply don’t exist, helping working parents navigate everything from last-minute schedule gaps to ongoing childcare challenges. If an employer offers Patch to their workforce, working families can book a backup care day and bring their child to an onsite or nearsite Patch Site where trained caregivers lead age-appropriate programming throughout the day—keeping kids engaged, cared for, and safely supervised from drop-off through pick-up no matter the shift.
This month, we’re spotlighting Candice S., a Senior Regional Director on the Patch team who oversees the operations at several Patch sites across the country. With a background spanning more than two decades in education and operations, she brings a deep understanding of how to build systems that truly support both caregivers and families.
In the conversion below, she shares more about her path into caregiving, what she’s learned since joining Patch, and the real-life ways families rely on our support every day.
What is your role here at Wellthy, and can you also share a bit about your background and what you specialize in?
I’m a Senior Regional Director at Patch Caregiving, which Wellthy acquired in 2025, where I oversee six sites across multiple time zones—from Florida to California—and support a team of about 15 caregivers. I recently hit my one-year anniversary!
My background is in private education. I started my career as a teacher and eventually moved into school administration, then regional leadership, and ultimately became Vice President of New School Operations for what is now the largest private school network in the U.S. Over the course of about 20 years, I focused on building and scaling multi-site operations. We would open a school, it would quickly fill up and develop a waitlist, and then parents would ask us to open another nearby, so we would. That cycle just kept repeating, growing organically through reputation.
As we expanded to nearly 300 schools with acquisitions, my work became deeply focused on hiring leadership, overseeing operations, and constantly evolving systems and workflows to keep up with that growth. At that scale, nothing stays static and everything has to keep adapting. I found myself really missing that earlier-stage, more entrepreneurial environment and that’s what initially drew me to Patch. When I learned about the company, it felt new and innovative in a way I hadn’t seen before in childcare. When I met Sarah and Olivia (Patch Caregiving’s co-founders), I was immediately so impressed with them and really wanted to be a part of their vision and what they were building,
What drew you to work in caregiving?
I come from a family of educators, so in a lot of ways, this path was always around me. That said, I didn’t originally think I’d go into it. I was planning to be a journalist.
However, while I was in college, I kind of fell into education, and pretty quickly realized how much I loved it. I loved teaching, I loved working with kids and it just clicked for me. And from there, I never really left.
I did take a break after about five years to try something completely different, but my old boss ended up recruiting me back, which says a lot. And now, my son is teaching too, which is just so wild to me. It’s really come full circle.
For those who may be unfamiliar, can you share a bit about what a Patch Site is and the kinds of situations where families rely on backup care?
I had to sit down and think through all the different situations, because there are so many!
What really surprised me when I joined Patch is that a lot of the families who use us don’t have their kids in traditional childcare. Many of them are being cared for at home by a parent, a grandparent, an older sibling, or a nanny or babysitter. So we’re not always replacing a daycare, we’re often stepping in to support what families already have in place.
At its core, a Patch Site is a simple, single-room childcare space inside the workplace that offers small-group, last-minute backup care exclusively for employees. It’s designed to be flexible and easy to use, which is why it fits into so many different routines.
For school-age kids, we see a lot of usage during weekends, school breaks, and especially in the summer. And many employers allow families to use Patch multiple times a week, so we have a lot of repeat families. It really helps ease both the financial burden of paying for consistent care, and the personal burden on family members, like giving a grandparent a break.
We also see families using Patch in really practical, everyday ways to “patch” their schedules together. For example, we have one family where dad is home with the kids during the day, then drops them off with us around 4:00, and mom picks them up on her way home from work around 6:30. It’s just a few hours, but it makes their whole routine work.
And then there are the more unexpected moments. Sometimes a caregiver is sick, or a parent has a last-minute doctor’s appointment. We see a big spike during bad weather. Schools close quickly, but workplaces like hospitals don’t. We’ve had situations where a preschool had to shut down for a few days because of a leak, and families relied on us during that gap.
At our corporate sites, we also support parents who are coming into the office for something specific, like a big board meeting. They’ll drop their kids off on-site so they can be fully present, and then pick them up when they’re done. Then, sometimes, honestly, kids just want to come. I remember a little girl who told her dad she didn’t want to stay home. She wanted to go to work with him and come to Patch because it felt fun and different.
There are just so many different ways families use the sites, but at the core of it, we’re there to step in when something doesn’t go according to plan nor when families just need a little extra support to make things work.
Many people working in caregiving have a personal connection to the work. Do you have a personal caregiving story that shaped the way you approach supporting families today?
I don’t have one specific caregiving story, it’s more an approach I’ve developed over time. I’ve worked with families for so long that I honestly can’t remember what it’s like not to.
What I’ve learned about myself is that I’m really drawn to the kids who need the most support, especially around behavioral or social-emotional challenges. Those are often the children who are misunderstood, and that’s always stuck with me. I really love working with them.
In my previous roles, I could step in directly and could go into a classroom, work with a child one-on-one, and support them in the moment. In this role, it’s a little different. I’m not always there physically, so I’m guiding caregivers instead.
A lot of my focus now is helping caregivers really see each child as an individual, understanding what they need, and meeting them where they are. And when I talk with parents, I’m very intentional about separating the behavior from the child. It’s never about labeling the child, it’s about understanding what’s going on and how we can support them.
At the end of the day, I really try to lead with my heart in all of it.
Can you share a moment — big or small — that captures the impact of a Patch Site for a family?
Just today, we had a little boy at one of our Atlanta sites come in. I think he’s maybe three, and it was his first time away from home. His mom was really anxious about it. One of the things that makes our program special is that our caregivers send regular updates and photos throughout the day, so parents can see how their child is doing in real time.
A little while later, his mom responded to say thank you and told us she was so relieved when she saw he was having so much fun. Those small moments really stick with you because what we’re giving parents isn’t just care, it’s peace of mind.
Another story that stands out is a family where the dad works at UPS as a hazmat responder, and his wife works 12-hour shifts in the NICU. She really can’t call out, so it was always falling on him to stay home, and it was starting to impact his job. Now, being able to bring his kids to a Patch Site has completely changed that. He told us, “Every time I can bring them, it’s worth it. I get to work, I get paid, but it’s also the peace of mind.”
We hear that kind of thing all the time. Families tell us they wouldn’t be able to work without Patch, or that they’ve stayed in their jobs because this support exists. For so many of the families we serve, especially the hourly and frontline workers, missing work just isn’t an option.
And I think that’s what makes Patch different. There are other forms of backup care—centers, camps—but having something on-site, built specifically for employees, changes everything. It supports families in a very real, immediate way and you can feel the impact every single day.
Do you have any final tips or advice for working parents or family caregivers who are trying to balance so many responsibilities?
The biggest thing I keep coming back to is give yourself grace.
You’re not going to get it right every time, and that’s okay. Balance isn’t something you figure out once and then have, it’s something you’re constantly adjusting. Every day looks a little different, and that’s just the reality of it.
I also always encourage parents not to try to do it all alone. I see so many people hesitate to ask for help, whether that’s from their employer, their family, or their community. Sometimes it’s pride, sometimes it’s just feeling like they should be able to handle everything themselves. But when you actually ask for what you need, you’d be surprised how many people want to show up for you.
There’s so much pressure on parents now to do everything perfectly to make all the right decisions, to raise their kids the “right” way. And I always come back to: trust your instincts. You know your child, and you’re doing better than you think.
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