YWCA shares plans of childcare closure

YWCA Cass Clay has determined it will close its childcare center in north Fargo called A Child’s World. This childcare was opened in 1997 and has provided high quality care for decades, with 100 percent of children testing kindergarten-ready through its strong early education program. Located at 3100 12th Ave. N., A Child’s World will close at the end of the day April 17, 2020. Parents and staff have been informed of these plans.

Several factors weighed into this difficult decision by the YWCA Board of Directors. First among them was the financial consequences of prolonged negative cash flow, and its potential jeopardy to YWCA’s core mission of sheltering, housing and empowering survivors of domestic violence and homelessness. YWCA provides a complete continuum of housing services from homeless prevention, to shelter, to transitional housing and permanent supportive housing for women and their children.

“The board saw this as our most responsible course of action. We are truly and deeply saddened that parents, teachers and employees of the center will experience disruptive change, yet there are other options in the community for childcare and employment in the childcare field. There is only one YWCA where survivors of domestic violence find shelter and a concerted response for their crisis,” said Board President Jayne Gust. “Our shelter and housing programs cannot be exposed to further financial vulnerability when the need for shelter is likely to escalate, and funding through community donations and grants is at risk.”

ACW is licensed to serve 127 children but is serving around 20 children since the COVID-19 crisis. ACW has received 11 withdrawals from care and we estimate that if we were to remain open as operating, the center would lose an estimated $32,000 in April alone.

“In recent years the program had been operating at a break-even cash flow, yet still the question lingered whether this service was right to continue under the YWCA umbrella,” says CEO Erin Prochnow. “The scenario of financial loss, availability for children at other centers, and a stronger safety net for the unemployed all factored into this decision. My own children received loving care and extraordinary education at this center, and our announcement comes with heartache. It’s our hope that families and employees will connect with other providers that can meet their needs.”

Prochnow said that state grants for North Dakota childcares during the COVID crisis are generous and will likely help some through this time, yet decision-makers at YWCA were not comfortable sustaining operating losses.

At times, the childcare center had faced significant budget shortfalls, yet had become more efficient in its operations in recent years. Experts in the childcare field had advised A Child’s World as it adopted many new efficiency strategies, while its 23 employees continued performing care and teaching to the highest accreditation standards.

YWCA is providing resources to families as they transition to other care. Full-time ACW employees were offered severance as they transition.

Over the past five years, YWCA has expanded capacity in a different area of critical community need: supportive housing for women rebuilding after the trauma of domestic violence or homelessness. Through YWCA housing, women can tap a continuum of services beginning the day they enter shelter and extending to the time they’ve rebuilt mentally, physically and financially in the aftermath of abuse or homelessness. YWCA shelter, shelter childcare, and housing programs remain available to those experiencing violence and homelessness. 

The building that houses A Child’s World was constructed in 1997 and is also home to YWCA administration, human resources and accounting. At this time the plan is for this team to seek a new office near the YWCA shelter, and place the building for sale.