The Happy Valley-Goose Bay Early Childhood Development Association (ECDA) received an IGA grant this past year to acquire new equipment and furnishings for their brand new daycare center!
The ECDA is a not-for-profit entity that provides child care services in Happy Valley-Goose Bay for nearly forty years, which is known more commonly in the community as Pumpkin House. With little availability of affordable child care services, attracting young families to the community has been difficult. In addition to the age and limitation of its existing building, this prompted the development of the new Pumpkin House Child Care Centre.
Pumpkin House is the first newly constructed child care center in Central Labrador. With the development of this facility, the ECDA has increased the number of available child care spaces within the community. The Pumpkin House has 92 child care spaces available, 62 of which are daycare spaces (split into 4 homerooms) and 30 are for an after school program.
In addition to the child care spaces at the Pumpkin House, the ECDA also has another 30 space after school program at Peacock Elementary School. With the support of its 18 staff members, the ECDA has a been able to create a total of 122 child care spaces in the community.
The most recent IGA grant to the ECDA enabled it to purchase equipment and furnishings for The Pumpkin House. This aided in ECDA’s efforts to provide quality programming and enhance accessibility to the children within the community.
This grant marks the third time that the IGA has provided funding for The Pumpkin House since 2017. The first grant went towards the facility’s outdoor play area and the second went towards the construction of the actual building.
While The Pumpkin House has expanded capacity, the program has been at full enrollment from day one along with an extensive wait-list. With support from the IGA, the ECDA has been able to help address the need for child care services in the community.
The IGA is very pleased with the outcome of this project and is proud to be associated with the ECDA!
