BAR HARBOR, Maine — After breaking ground in October of 2022, the Island of Imagination Early Learning Center at The Jackson laboratory in Bar Harbor is opening its doors.
Gov. Janet Mills and staff from The Jackson Laboratory attended the ribbon cutting event for the new childcare center on Thursday, Jan. 11.
Access to quality childcare is sometimes hard to find for many Maine families.
The $5 million project received $250,000 in funding from Mills’ Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan, which was set in place to help businesses and workers reset after strains the COVID-19 pandemic placed on the workforce.
President and CEO Lon Cardon said The Jackson Laboratory also provided a majority of the funding for the project, filling a gap for the community and surrounding areas.
Mills said she can remember a time when she shared the same struggles as many Maine families.
"When I had my own family to support, I learned firsthand what it’s like to work full time, carry on a career, have a husband who is working full time, and care for five stepdaughters—five daughters," Mills said. "So, the story is the same all across the state of Maine."
Mills said since COVID, the state has provided $120 million in funding to help improve the quality and access to childcare in the state. According to Mills, the funding has allowed childcare programs to expand, creating some 4,700 new childcare slots for families across Maine.
Mills said, in addition to increasing the childcare capacity statewide, the state has also worked to provide training and education to childcare workers.
Federal and state funding has also been allocated to provide stipends to some 7,000 childcare workers, Mills said. Mills said the stipends are based on a tiered model that provides adequate pay to qualified professionals based on the education and experience that they attain, which she believes will help childcare providers retain quality staff members.
"All three of those things are important, to not only provide children the best care possible, but to support our economy," Mills said. "It’s the workforce behind the workforce."
Katy Longley, The Jackson Laboratory's chief operating officer, said she started working for the lab in 2016, and it didn't take her long to realize that even some of her staff members were struggling to secure available childcare slots for their children.
Longley said the inability to secure childcare was a barrier that prevented some people from signing on as employees or from continuing their work at the lab.
"Many people who wanted to join the lab couldn’t find housing or childcare. So, this is one other way to invest in our people to promote recruitment and retention," Longley explained.
Longley said she's happy to be part of the solution. At the start of the year, there were only 162 childcare slots total across eight licensed facilities in Bar Harbor, with most of them filled, according to the lab.
Now, with the opening of the new facility, there are 50 more slots available. Longley said her staff can now gain some peace of mind.
"If your childcare is in Bangor and you’re commuting from Bangor—which we have a lot of employees—your child is pretty far away if something were to happen," Longley said. "If there’s an emergency and if they’re right here, they get the sniffles or a fever, they can come right over."
Cardon said The Jackson Laboratory provides the space, but the Down East Family YMCA will provide their expertise, caring for even the smallest babies.
"Most businesses have their own specialty. Ours is science. That's what we do," Cardon said. "It is not childcare. We would have to invest even more to build up those capabilities—when in fact—that opportunity is available to us in the local community. It provides them even further jobs and lets them grow their organization as well. So, it really is a win-win for everyone."
The childcare center will start providing childcare services for its first families on Monday, Jan. 15. The center operates from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. and offers childcare for infants six weeks old to pre-K.