Amid widespread concerns about a shortage of childcare for working parents in Pennsylvania, the Hanover YWCA is aiming to expand its capacity and shrink its waiting list for spaces.
The nonprofit is in the midst of a capital campaign to raise $10 million that will support construction of a new, three-story childcare center at the corner of North Franklin and West Chestnut streets in the York County borough.
The 38,000 square-foot building will accommodate about 220 children, up from the current 150 that the nonprofit can care for today, according to Jody Shaffer, CEO of the Hanover YWCA. The current waiting list has about 70 names.
But the planned building is not just about extra space.
“With this expansion, we’ll be able to, for the first time, include some really special things,” Shaffer said at a news conference held last week to celebrate a childcare funding initiative in York County called Every Child Has Opportunities, or ECHO.
Thanks to the ECHO initiative, for example, the Hanover YWCA received a $50,000 grant that it will use to create a specialized sensory room for children who may be having behavioral issues, Shaffer said.
Teachers will work one-on-one with children in the room and then guide them back to the regular classroom, Shaffer said, noting that behavioral issues have been on the rise over the last decade.
What’s next: The Hanover YWCA hopes to break ground on the new building next spring and open it by the summer of 2026, Shaffer said.
The nonprofit purchased and demolished a row of homes and other structures on North Franklin to clear a site for the new building.
In addition to more space, the building will feature a convenient area for picking up and dropping off children.
Some of the current childcare space on the second floor of the YWCA will be converted to offices, which also are in short supply at the Hanover nonprofit, Shaffer said.
The nonprofit preserved one of the homes it purchased and plans to convert it into a domestic violence shelter for women and children.
What’s ECHO: York County business and community leaders launched the ECHO program earlier this year with more than $3 million in funding from primarily private-sector sources.
The program’s goal is to improve both access to and quality of early childhood education.
The first round of grants, totaling more than $950,000, was awarded in July.
The funding went to established providers with new ideas on access and quality and to startup, home-based providers.
The money is expected to add capacity for an estimated 500 children.
“This was a direct response to the crisis in early childhood education,” said Oliver Hoar, chair of the York County Economic Alliance and former president of Hanover-based manufacturer R.H. Sheppard Co.
The application process for a second round of grants is slated to open in October, with grants likely to be awarded in January, said Katie Caples, ECHO director with Community Connections for Children, a regional childcare assistance and consulting organization based in York.
The background: Childcare was not easy to find before the Covid-19 pandemic. It has become even more difficult since then.
Business and political leaders have argued that the crisis poses an economic threat, as lack of childcare pushes people, particularly working mothers, out of the workforce.
State officials increased funding this year for childcare providers, but advocates worry it is not enough, according to Spotlight PA.
