New daycare celebrates grand opening in Saint John

A new child-care centre is now open in Saint John, N.B.

Saint John’s newest childcare facility has officially cut the ribbon.

Despite being in operation for over a month, Daycare by Design held a grand opening celebration Monday to mark its chapter as the port city’s latest childcare centre.

“We saw a lot of people coming in, not only Canadians, but the immigrants as well who are deeply in need of daycare,” says daycare operator Agnes Vispo on why she wanted to open a space in Saint John.

Daycare by Design has the capacity to watch over 60 children ranging in ages as young as 15 months old to five years old. The centre has a mission to provide children with a warm, safe, and stimulating early learning experience.

Vispo says it took a year to get everything aligned to open the space, which is locate inside the Full Gospel Assembly Church towards Saint John’s east side.

A big theme from the grand opening was the daycares vibrant multiculturism. Vispo says they have children and staff from a wide range of backgrounds including Ukraine, the Philippines, and even Nigeria.

“It has been very challenging,” Vispo says noting some children speak little or no English. “If we have more children who are speaking Ukrainian, we need to get Ukrainian staff, others are Filipino who can speak their language, that’s why we get those staff.”

Following a brief tour of the daycare, Saint John Mayor Donna Reardon admitted her biggest takeaway was how diverse the facility was.

“I also like the fact that it’s a church that’s doing it,” says Reardon. “Churches are mostly used on Sundays or Saturday evenings they’re used for a couple of hours; that’s it. You have all this infrastructure, have to heat it, you have parking, so why not try to transition some of it and do something interesting and something that benefits the community.”

Even with another daycare not in the port city, the demand for childcare hasn’t lessened.

Officials at Daycare by Design say they have a waitlist of 120 children whose parents are hoping to get them a spot at the facility.

Staff say the wait list in all of Saint John is closer to 9,000 children, which is why Minister for the New Brunswick Housing Corporation Davd Hickey presented a cheque for $500,000 on behalf of the provinces Regional Development Corporation.

“We know just how important it is to make sure we can continue to build the infrastructure that allows spaces like this to happen,” says Hickey. “But also partnering with the right community organizations that allow more daycare spaces in more communities across our city so that not only we can ensure the stability of kids in the really formative years, but also it’s an important part of how we grow as a community.”

Vispo says she has already applied to expand the daycare to try and help alleviate the long waitlist.

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