Dixon’s YMCA officially opens new Lovett Child Development Center

Jan. 17—DIXON — After nearly two years of work, the Dixon Family YMCA has opened its new Lovett Child Development Center.

The new 15,000-square-foot child care facility at 1675 Fulfs Lane, Dixon, provides child care services for infants and children up to 5 years old and increases the YMCA’s capacity from 48 to 226 children, YMCA CEO Andy McFarlane said in an interview with Shaw Local News Network.

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 4

After receiving licensing from the state, the Dixon YMCA Child Care Center held a ribboncutting Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, at the new facility. Children started to use the facility Thursday morning. (Alex T. Paschal)

The center has 13 rooms. Of those, two are for children six weeks to 14 months, two are transitional rooms for 15 months to 24 months, another two are preschool classrooms and there are several rooms for 3- to 5-year-olds. It also has kitchen services, a nurses station, two outdoor playgrounds and an area for outside services from YMCA partner agencies.

The Dixon Family YMCA has offered child care services at its main location on North Galena Avenue since 2000. They began talking about the possibility of expanding those services around 2021.

“We have 48 spots, and for the last 10 years, we’ve always operated at capacity. We’ve always been having waiting lists,” McFarlane said.

Currently, McFarlane said there are about 260 on the waiting list.

The YMCA will begin by transitioning its currently enrolled families over to the new location before beginning the enrollment process with its waiting list next week, McFarlane said.

Compiling census and survey data from the YMCA and other area child care centers, they estimated about 3,200 to 3,600 underserved families when it comes to child care needs in the tri-county region, he said.

“We just figured out that it was easier to start from scratch and build what we felt we could have the capacity to support,” McFarlane said.

Late in 2022 the YMCA began talking with Dixon city officials about the possibility of building a center within the Gateway project near the Interstate 88 corridor. The Dixon YMCA worked closely with developers Xsite Real Estate and Walsh Partners to “develop this from scratch, literally,” he said.

[ Dixon YMCA breaks ground on new child care center ]

They broke ground Nov. 20, 2023, and finished construction in summer 2024. From there, it was a waiting game to get the go ahead from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

“We couldn’t officially call this a child care center until we got the notification that our license was transferring from the main location over to here,” McFarlane said.

“Obviously you have some hoops to jump through working with our partners at DCFS,” McFarlane said. “We’re doing it because it’s for the safety of the kids and providing a quality, high-impactful child care center.”

McFarlane said they focus a lot of their activities on kindergarten preparedness.

They also incorporate arts and crafts, gross motor skills development as well as brain growth, free play and physical activities.

Heather Grobe, the YMCA’s Youth and Child Development director, is also in the process of developing a partnership with the Regional Office of Education No. 47 for the preschool program.

“Heather is just a rock star when it comes to her knowledge in the child care field, her desire to really serve the community and step up and to meet these needs,” McFarlane said. “That mix of our desire to grow her leadership, the support of our board, the support of the city, support of working with our partners, you know, it was like the perfect mix.”

As for funding, the YMCA is in the “capital campaign phase” looking for local businesses that are interested in sponsoring rooms.

EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel