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Greater Burlington YMCA Is Closing Its St. Albans Child Care Facility, Leaving Families Scrambling

A child faces away from the camera clutching a mask-clad teddy bear.
Nenad Stojkovic
/
Creative Commons
The Greater Burlington YMCA will be closing its child care facility in St. Albans at the end of March. Thirty-eight children and their families are now left with three weeks to find affordable child care.

At the end of this month, the Greater Burlington YMCA will be closing its child care facility in St. Albans. The child care program had been operating out of a temporary location since its regular location was damaged by a burst pipe.

But that regular location was in the building leased by the federal government as the service center for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. The government picked up the rental tab for the child care center as well. And when the federal government announced it wasn't going to renew the lease, the child care center was unable to find a location where it could afford to operate. 

Thirty-eight children and their families are now left with three weeks to find affordable child care, which many parents are finding near impossible. Catherine Marrin is one of those parents. She's a licensed social worker in St. Albans and, in addition to working to figure out a plan for her family, she is also leaning on Vermont policymakers to do more to support universal child care in Vermont. She joined Vermont Edition to talk about her efforts.

Broadcast live on Monday, March 15, 2021 at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

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Jane Lindholm is the host, executive producer and creator of But Why: A Podcast For Curious Kids. In addition to her work on our international kids show, she produces special projects for Vermont Public. Until March 2021, she was host and editor of the award-winning Vermont Public program Vermont Edition.
Lydia worked for Vermont Public Radio and Vermont PBS from 2019 until 2022.
Emily was a Vermont Edition producer at Vermont Public Radio until September 2021.
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