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ELLSWORTH—For the children served, Child & Family Opportunities’
new childcare facility nestled in the woods off Beechland Road
“is like their home away from home,” said Phyllis Young, the
agency’s executive assistant.
The
facility is the only licensed center in
Hancock County providing infant
care, filling at least part of Hancock
County’s shortage of infant care.
Indeed, the
center’s infant slots were filled and a waiting list started
before the center opened June 23.
Child &
Family Opportunities, which operates the federal Head Start
program, also runs nine center-based childcare programs. It
gives support to more than 40 childcare programs run in private
homes.
The new
12,000 square-foot Ellsworth center, located on Avery Lane (off
Beechland Road), serves up to 80 children from six weeks to five
years of age.
This is
double the former facility’s capacity.
The
building is composed of two wings—one for children, one for the
administration.
The
administrative offices had been in the historic buildings off
Court Street. Until the early 1990s, the childcare center was
housed on Court Street as well but the agency ran out of space
and moved to High Street.
Knowing the
administrative offices would be in the same building with the
children was “exciting” for the staff, Young said. “That’s the
work of the day,” she said.
Staff
members are hoping they will be asked to lend a hand during the
occasional lunch or recess as they were before the former
childcare center moved to High Street.
“I’m just
excited to move into a new facility and expand our services in
Ellsworth,” said human resource director Britt Urh-Morse.
A great
deal of work and planning went into the new facility.
“It’s been
a long journey,” said Young. “It’s a huge process.”
The agency
and its board of directors spent five years looking for land and
funding, according to Young.
The funding
came first. Once the agency found the wooded parcel it had to
consider the land’s uneven slope in designing the building.
Architect
Stewart Brecher had experience designing childcare facilities
and brought ideas, said board member Elizabeth Ehrlenbach.
“The land
drops down,” Young said, and the agency wanted one building,
which had to be handicapped accessible.
The center
was built on two levels with a ramp between the administrative
and childcare wings, Young said.
Young said
the agency put a lot of energy into the childcare side of the
building.
The
classrooms face the woods instead of the road.
“It’s a
nice environment for kids to be outside playing in,” Young said.
The
children’s wing has a Main Street theme with the floor painted
to look like a street and doorways painted to look like shop
entrances. A mural on one wall will depict storefronts, once
finished.
The
building cost $1.5 million, funded by $995,000 in federal grants
and nearly $1 million in loans from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
The mission
of Child & Family Opportunities is to serve children and their
families with Head Start and childcare services in Hancock and
Washington counties.
Child &
Family Opportunities began as Action Opportunities in 1970 when
three Hancock County residents— Nicholas Holt, David Cadigan and
Dr. John Van Pelt—heard that the Hancock County Community Action
program was to lose its funding, with its services put out to
bid.
The three
formed a non-profit agency and applied to become the community
action program for Hancock
County.
The idea of
funding such an agency was scrapped because the population base
in Hancock County then was not large enough to support a community action program.
However,
Action Opportunities became the Head Start provider for Hancock
County. In 1998, the name was changed to Child & Family Opportunities.
In addition
to the new facility in Ellsworth, the agency is expanding in
Washington County.
It has
renovated its Machias location, which serves children ages six
weeks to five years.
Besides
childcare, the agency provides childcare resource and referrals,
family childcare support, training and technical assistance for
childcare providers. The agency also manages the state’s
subsidized childcare program in Hancock
County. |
