By Eileen O’Grady
THE CONCORD MONITOR
As childcare facilities around New Hampshire experience staffing shortages and hiring challenges, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central New Hampshire announced a new employee benefit this month: free childcare at their sites.
Executive director Chris Emond said the decision is both to mitigate the financial difficulties his employees have been facing as a result of recent inflation, and also to help with recruitment and retention. Emond said his organization has gotten job candidates over the last couple of years who interviewed but ultimately decided to stay home with their own children instead of entering the workforce, due to childcare challenges, a decision Emond said he “can’t blame them” under the circumstances.
“They were clearly qualified,” Emond said. “That is the population that we can hopefully help engage and get them back into the workforce.”
Throughout the state, childcare facilities have been experiencing an increased demand for services, while simultaneously needing to keep enrollment low due to staffing shortages. While Emond says the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central New Hampshire hasn’t been impacted by the staffing shortages as much as other places, center directors tell him they have “barely enough” staff members to keep things running.
“We don’t want ‘barely enough’ because that maxes out everyone else,” Emond said. “You don’t want to lose people because they’re burned out because they’re working overtime every day. It’s just not sustainable. We want them to have support, to be able to take a break when they need to.”
On Monday, Concord City Council voted unanimously to seek grant funding from the Community Development Finance Authority for a new Boys and Girls Club facility in Penacook. The Community Development Finance Authority allocates federal funds to municipalities for things like public facilities, affordable housing and micro-enterprises, and local governments typically sub-grant the money to an organization doing the work.
The new building will go up at the site of the former Penacook Community Center, which was officially absorbed by the Boys and Girls Club in March. Penacook Community Center’s before- and after-school programs and infant program have been operating out of the Boys and Girls’ Clubs’ Bradley Street location since January, while its toddlers and preschoolers are now at Eastman Early Learning Center on Shawmut Street.
The project is still in the planning phase according to Emond, who said the architectural design is being finalized and they will begin zoning soon.
The facility will fill a gap in Penacook left over from the Penacook Community Center, which has been offering programs for youth and older adults since 1954. While it might make more financial sense for the Boys and Girls Club to consolidate the childcare at their existing Concord facilities, Emond said he’s heard from many parents who want a Penacook location, and believes the new building will serve the public good.
“It’s about being a member of a community,” Emond said. “It’s a community-service organization and the only way we can do that is to have a presence in the community.”
The proposed plan includes a 7,500-square-foot, single-story building that will be built at 76 Community Drive in Penacook. The largest portion of the building would be a 2,150 square-foot room, serving as a community space mainly for after-school programs, and it will double as the Concord Public Library’s Penacook branch. In June, Concord City Council voted to hire two new part-time library personnel to staff the Penacook branch and increase its operating time to 10 hours a week. In the new building, the library’s shelves and desks will be mobile, wheeled out for select days each week.
The Boys and Girls Club plans to break ground on the new building in spring 2023, with the goal of having it operational by the end of that year.
On Monday, City Councilors also voted unanimously to seek $750,000 in block grant funding to build a new food pantry building beside Christ the King Church, on the current food pantry site, with better layout, storage and ventilation. Councilor Nathan Fennessey abstained, while Councilors Gail Matson, Paula McLaughlin and Karen McNamara were absent.
The City will also be seeking $77,248 in block grant funding to renovate Riverbend Community Mental Health Center’s Twitchell House and Fayette Street inpatient buildings, and $69,740 to renovate outpatient facilities on Pleasant Street and West Street.
While the City already awarded Riverbend funding for these projects, inflation stemming from the COVID 19 pandemic has increased project costs, according to Concord Redevelopment Director Matthew Walsh. Twitchell House and Fayette Street house are getting improvements like paint, lighting, new flooring, kitchen renovations to improve energy efficiency and bathroom renovations to improve handicap accessibility. At 40 and 42 Pleasant Street and 10 West Street, improvements will include repairing fire protection systems, boilers, HVAC systems, security systems, windows and lighting.
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