The Northern Middlesex branch of the YMCA at 99 Union St. is reaching out to a few more infants in the community through its care program.
Initiated in 1999, the Infant Program was created to allow infants the opportunity to explore their creative capacities at an early age.
Infants participating in the program may be at different stages in their development, so the activities in the program vary to meet the individual needs of each of the participants. The infants are stimulated by any number of activities such as listening to music or being told stories.
The program has been successful in carrying the infants further along in their developmental process.
Karen Erardi’s granddaughter Genesis has been participating in the Infant Program since she was four months old. Her grandmother said that she is learning a lot from the activities.
“The program is wonderful [….] and the staff is wonderful with these kids,” Erardi said.
Erardi said that she has been impressed from day one with the program, and that she could tell Genesis was learning something new every day. Erardi also said that Genesis began walking much earlier than most infants, and attributes her granddaughter’s precociousness to her learning at the YMCA.
For the past four years the program has had an enrollment of four infants. An increase in summer births this past year, however, has encouraged the program to expand. This September, the YMCA increased the number of participants to seven.
In order to allow Elaine Tuttle, Director of Child Care Programs at the YMCA, to continue her work with the child care programs, her new son Jacob joined the program as its fifth participant.
The Infant Program still has more available slots. The program primarily serves low income families, most of whom receive financial assistance either through the YMCA’s federal grant or through Care for Kids, a state program to help families pay for child care. The two available slots are only being offred to full-paying families, because the program can not afford to take any more families who need financial assistance at this time.
According to James, the program has been making several changes to accommodate a larger class.
In order to comply with the National Association for the Education of Young Children, which requires that infant programs provide at least one caregiver for every four infants, the YMCA hired another full-time staff person to work with the new infants.
According to Karen James, the head teacher with the Infant program, the YMCA received a federal grant from the Child and Family Agency for Early Head Start Programs to subsidize the program.
In addition to the regular day care, the program also attempts to involve and serve the parents in the program. Once a month, on parent night, speakers address relevant issue for parents such as nutrition and oral hygiene. Speakers sometimes address issues relating to general family matters such as home ownership options and savings plans.
“We try to set goals for the children and also for the families,” James said.
The YMCA staff is excited about the expansion and hopes to fill the other two slots soon and to be able to offer more financial assistance to families in the future.
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