Project Details
Phase 1 of the Stronger Together Capital Campaign prioritizes our youngest community members. The $10 million, 20,500-square-foot Early Learning Center (ELC). It opened in fall 2025!
The licensed childcare center includes three infant rooms, four toddler rooms, five pre-K rooms, one school-age room, a cafeteria/activities room, a gross motor skills room, a mentor/break/workspace room, a room for nursing mothers and meeting space, and a secure lobby.
The ELC serves children with sensory needs by providing space, specialized equipment, and developmentally appropriate teaching, socialization, and individualized discovery approaches. For children of all ages and abilities, the existing focus on innovative and values-driven teaching has caried over to the ELC, where the new space better supports these efforts and community partnership growth.
The new ELC can serve as many as 320 children.
Local Need
Evidence indicates the region is in dire need of more childcare options.
From a financial perspective, the end of emergency pandemic funding has impacted thousands throughout Ohio, with parents having to choose between paying for childcare or working. According to the Hancock County Childcare Collaborative, which includes representatives from the Y, the Findlay-Hancock County Community Foundation, Findlay-Hancock County United Way, Blanchard Valley Health System, Hancock County Job and Family Services, and McComb Childcare, a one-child household pays an average of nearly $10,000 annually to their childcare provider. The coalition’s 2023 study also found that for every one childcare spot, there are approximately 10 children on a waiting list. It is estimated that 2,000 children ages 0-4 need full-time care.
The ELC is a strategic solution to this growing problem. It accommodates more children and offers more subsidized care, ensuring that childcare is more accessible from affordability and enrollment standpoints.
Easing the burden on our caregivers and providing our community’s youngest with the most nurturing environment possible is a moral imperative.
Case for Support
The ELC replaced the YMCA’s 51-year-old Mary Brenner Child Development Center (CDC) at 231 E. Lincoln St., which aged out of its capacity to fully meet the needs of families. The CDC was not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act; lacked flexible program spaces for youth development, educator learning, and parental accommodations; and required navigating a busy intersection for access to the main facility’s amenities, such as its pools and gymnasiums, that students enjoy and rely upon to build a foundation for lifelong healthy living.
At the new center, caregivers enjoy additional parking with easier pick-up and drop-off logistics. Caregivers, as well as teachers and staff, also benefit from a one-story, ADA-accessible structure, making stairs navigation a thing of the past. A secure layout ensures a safer operational and learning environment. Also, abundant natural light, inspiring colors conducive to educational and behavioral growth, and creative structural designs provide a more welcoming and engaging environment.
The ELC represents the first phase of our transformative two-phase Stronger Together Capital Campaign centered on community partnerships, growth, and enhanced well-being.