New child care center opens in Winslow

Neighborhood Child Care Center in Winslow. (contributed photo)

by Laurie Lizotte

When two hundred thirty one child care centers in Maine closed during the pandemic, we were determined to find alternative care for families in our community. There are currently 210 programs that have reopened for care for children ages birth through age 12. Make that number 211 as a brand-new childcare center has opened in central Maine. The Neighborhood Child Care Center is now open at 20 Garland Road in Winslow. They are currently accepting enrollment for ages 4-12. The expanded hours will include before/after school, early release days and full-day care from 6:30 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., Monday through Friday. They will also be open for summer care. Please email at theneighborhood.tiffany@gmail.com for more enrollment information.

Over the past 18 months, many communities have been hit hard by the lack of quality child care centers that remained open during the pandemic. When the virus was at its peak, child care centers across the country and the State of Maine were forced, in many instances, to shut their doors, thus creating a void in the child care industry. This void proved to be an insurmountable, drastic upheaval in households where families were forced to either leave their jobs permanently, work from home (not the best situation), and/or collect unemployment. If your employment was in the health care field, you worked tirelessly to ensure that those folks who were ill with the virus received the utmost professional care possible all the while rearranging your schedules to provide a positive child care environment for your young children.

As noted in “Child Care Plan for Maine: September 2021 Updates”:

“Maine recognizes the importance of quality, accessible, affordable child care to support working families. The benefit of quality child care is multifold – it supports working parents to provide for their families while children benefit educationally, socially, and emotionally from a caring, nurturing environment.”

This excerpt was taken from the most recent update from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services and serves as a reminder to us all that without quality, engaging, healthy, creative, and sustainable child care, the community would find it difficult to return to work.

They are delighted to be able to provide a child care solution for the hard-working families in our communities.