New Plymouth YMCA Early Childhood Education Centre Needs New Home

The YMCA’s early childhood education centre in central New Plymouth has become a victim of its own success, says chief executive officer Linda Cox.

Land Needed: YMCA chief executive officer Linda Cox says it needs affordable land to build an early childhood education centre in central New Plymouth. Photo: Gill Evans

“We have outgrown this site. We are licensed to take 28 children but have demand for up to 50 places.”

“We have a wait list and get three or four enquiries each week but with children only leaving when they go to school or move out of the area we inevitably have to turn families away,” Mrs Cox said.

The YMCA has its sights set on the former Waiwaka Bowling Club, the same land coveted by the Men’s Shed organisation.

A New Plymouth District Council report recommends retaining the land as open space but a decision has been delayed while a proposal to establish a funeral chapel nearby is investigated.

Mrs Cox said the YMCA’s problems maybe compounded when the centre comes up for relicensing under new regulations and it may lose some places. “Our biggest limitation is the outdoor space, we haven’t got enough.”

With nowhere to expand in its current location, the YMCA wants a purpose-built centre to allow it to expand under the new rules. It says it will find funds to build the centre but can’t afford to buy an inner-city section or lease land at commercial rates.

“We are a community organisation and all of our profits go into funding community projects that is our core purpose. We need support from the community with land. Something at a rate we can afford,” Mrs Cox said.

The YMCA runs the only community-based early childhood education centre in New Plymouth and all profits go back into programmes such as teen mum education, youth leadership, holiday camps and kindy gyms.

Its teen mum unit supports 30 young mothers each year. The expectation is for the women to do further training or go into work so they need childcare.

“We like to maintain contact with the teen mums as they often need ongoing support and a good way to achieve this is through the provision of childcare,” Mrs Cox said.

At present the YMCA can only provide childcare for three teen mums.

YMCA youth worker AJ McDonald, who came through the teen mum programme eight years ago, said the childcare it provided allowed her to complete a social work diploma at Witt.

“Our young mums have so much potential, they have the passion and skills to work but the one thing stopping them is they have no one to look after their babies,” Ms McDonald said.

Gill Evans is a Witt Journalism Student