Big donation to new downtown Boise YMCA takes aim at Idaho child care woes. Here’s how

The plan for a new downtown Boise YMCA is still riding strong, despite growing doubts about the planned redevelopment of nearly three city blocks that would include the new Y.

Faced with high interest rates, a labor shortage and expensive materials, the developers seek to pare down the project, including cutting out 185 apartments. But the new, 109,000-square foot Y is still on track, say those involved.

The future of the YMCA was underscored when the YMCA, the city of Boise and the Idaho Workforce Development Council announced a $2 million donation from Idaho’s Kissler family to support the construction of the Y’s child care center.

“The YMCA, no matter what you read, is a ‘go’ project and it is going to be built,” said Jim Kissler, the former CEO of Boise’s Norco Inc., whose father built the medical supply company.

The donation is set to fund the Kissler Family Early Education Center next to the future CapEd Downtown Boise Y, doubling the organization’s downtown child care capacity to 123 children, according to a news release. The center will serve children ages 6 weeks to 5 years old.

“The goal of this project overall is to remove all the obstacles and provide the support needed so that all members of our community can become healthier, learn to grow and strive,” said David Duro, the CEO of the Treasure Valley YMCA, during a Thursday news conference at the Capitol.

Child care shortage in Idaho

The center will help solve the widespread and lingering child care shortage in Idaho, Wendi Secrist, executive director of the Idaho Workforce Development Council, told the Idaho Statesman in an interview. The council is contributing $1 million to the Y.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Idaho had some of the highest rates of child care deserts in the United States, Secrist said. There were nearly 21,000 children in need of care in Idaho but whose families could not reasonably access child care in 2019, according to a study from the Bipartisan Policy Center.

The shortage worsened when the pandemic permanently shut down centers across the state, Secrist said. More than 200 centers closed, and 30% of the closures were early childhood centers, according to the news release.

“We’re barely at break even now with the amount of seats that we’ve lost in the state due to the pandemic versus what we’ve been able to create with the new programs,” Secrist said. “It has been an immense challenge in Idaho, and I’d love to say that we’re absolutely headed towards not counting this as one of the challenges in the state, but we’re not there yet. We need to continue to add to our capacity.”

The lack of child care isn’t just an issue for parents, Secrist said. Without someone to watch their children, parents are often forced to stay at home — removing a chunk of the population from the workforce and affecting the state’s economy and businesses.

“Child care is critical infrastructure in a community,” Secrist said. “If we want our economy to continue to grow and thrive, we have to make sure that our people, Idahoans, have the ability to access jobs. And in order to be able to access jobs, we’ve got to have child care available.”

Secrist said public-private partnerships like the one developing the Y’s Kissler Family Early Education Center is one solution. Another is for employers to invest in child care, as Micron is doing in Southeast Boise. The YMCA will operate that soon-to-open center.

Employers could try including child care in employees’ benefits packages or giving workers the opportunity to contribute to a flexible spending program like a health savings account that could go toward child care.

Boise Mayor Lauren McLean said having child care available can help employees focus on their jobs rather than worrying about their kids.

“We need to be creative in how we come up with child care solutions in our city and in our state,” McLean said at the news conference. “It is about supporting families so that they can focus on building lives.”

The Y’s new center “is a huge step in the right direction and will impact the lives of so many people,” McLean said.

The city’s urban renewal agency, the Capital City Development Corp. has worked with Edlen & Co., DeChase Miksis, Elton Cos. and the YMCA on the three-block development.

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