By SHARON SALYER
Herald Writer
A new $4 million Center for Families is being planned at Edmonds Community College that could double or triple the number of children the college can house in its child-care facilities and provide training for child-care workers.
While formal plans won’t be announced for several months, the new center will be housed on the EdCC campus in Lynnwood. College officials Wednesday declined to say exactly where it will be.
The building is expected to be about 16,000 square feet and could open as soon as 2002, said Susan Kostick, vice president for college relations.
The center will greatly expand the number of child-care slots for EdCC students and provide family life education programs as well as training for people interested in the child care profession or who seek additional training, Kostick said.
The college currently is able to provide child care for about 90 families a quarter.
The new center would allow the college to provide child care "for at least double, maybe closer to triple" that number of families, Kostick said.
"We’ve never been able to accommodate all the children of students who could benefit from it," she said.
"That is our primary goal," Kostick said of the additional child-care slots. "A lot of students with children can’t go to school without child care. The need is great."
Child care is central to allowing parents to "go back to school and get the education they need to move into a better life," she added.
Plans for the center began about a year and a half ago. "It grew, like a lot of ideas," she said.
The building is a project of the college’s foundation. A public fund-raising campaign will kick off in the spring, although some individual and foundation donors already have been approached, Kostick said.
"We hope to have the money committed within a year from now, and then we’ll begin the process of building," she said.
College officials met with U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., Wednesday to discuss whether federal money for the project might be available.
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