A new child care center at Cook’s Corner aims to fill a gap in services for working families of Bath Iron Works.

The Early Learning Center, located at 6 Farley Road in Brunswick, opened for the first day of school this week. Around 10 classrooms will have 120 child care slots open to children of BIW shipyard workers, with enrollment being available to them first before opening to the broader community, according to a Bath Area YMCA and BIW press release.

About two-thirds of the enrollments come from BIW working families, according to Andrew Francis, communications and marketing director at the Bath Area YMCA.

“The biggest piece for our workforce is you can go to work every day and drop your kid off some place where they feel safe and nurtured,” said Lauren Ober, vice president of strategic projects at Bath Area YMCA.

The new child care center is around 60% full, and there are already around 10–15 new applications coming into the Early Learning Center on a weekly basis, Ober said.

“We are not just building ships, we are sustaining families and building future shipbuilders,” said BIW President Charles F. Krugh.

Krugh noted that an additional benefit of the Early Learning Center is its partnership with the Maine Community College system to launch a child care apprenticeship program, addressing the needs of child care as a gateway to expanding the workforce.

Capt. Joshua Field, United States Navy commanding officer for the Supervisor of Shipbuilding-Bath, said investing in the expansion of child care services in the local area makes sense for the Navy. As a parent, Field said he knows that stability at home helps his partners at BIW focus fully on their work, contributing to improved productivity in the shipyard.

Shift firefighter for BIW, Adam Kazimer, 40, and Amber Ross-Kazimer, 35, of Brunswick, had previously been on a preschool waitlist for two and a half years in the Midcoast area for their 5-year-old daughter. Amber has been a stay-at-home mom for their two young children, and the new child care center will free up time for Amber to find a job working as a first responder in the emergency medical services field.

For the Kazimers, there was no availability for their 2-year-old daughter, and they couldn’t get on a waitlist in the area before the Early Learning Center opened.

Lisbon resident Brianna Coffin said the Early Learning Center will benefit the BIW families because they have to clock in to work early in the morning, and it’s hard to find a child care center that opens at around 6:15 a.m. and closes at 4:30 p.m.

“This is such a great celebration for the Y, for Bath Iron Works and of our community,” said Amy Vendt, president and CEO of Bath Area YMCA. “This center is more than a building; it’s a product of a first-of-its-kind partnership between General Dynamics Bath Iron Works and the Bath Area Family YMCA.”

The Brunswick-based child care center has everything ready for the teachers, and having that structure in place is helpful for them to focus on the kids, said Bia Boxill, assistant teacher for the preschool at the Early Learning Center.