We are THRILLED to finally have the GREEN LIGHT from the City of Boulder Planning Board and City Council on our EXPANSION! Construction is already underway on our new Outdoor Learning Environments and indoor demolition began this week on the part of the building that will soon become two new classrooms for permanent child care.

Expanding our child care facility and offering 24 additional slots for affordable, permanent child care has been a dream a long time in the making at the YWCA. These additional slots will be needed more than ever after the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the YWCA will be there to continue providing this essential service to our community. Thank you to all our supporters, now and in the future, for helping us make this dream a wonderful reality!
Phased Reopening Continues
This week our Toddler Room reopened in a limited capacity as part of our phased reopening in alignment with Boulder County Public Health.

During such a hectic and uncertain time, it is so heartwarming to once again see the smiling (behind their masks) and familiar faces of the children and families we serve. We are so grateful to our incredible Early Childhood teaching staff who are back in the classrooms providing the same quality early childhood care the YWCA has always provided. They are also working incredibly hard to rigorously clean and disinfect the classrooms every day according to our new protocols. They are our HEROES!
 
We are working with Boulder County Public Health on a daily basis to ensure we are aligning with the highest level of recommendations, including:
 
  • A daily health screening will be completed for each child and staff entering the YWCA. 
  • We are adjusting our hours from 8am - 5pm, Monday through Friday (no Saturday hours), during this first phase to allow for stable staff scheduling and extra time for daily disinfecting.
  • Classrooms will be thoroughly disinfected and cleaned at the end of each day for the foreseeable future. 
  • Classrooms will follow social distancing and facial covering/mask requirements. All staff are required to wear facial coverings, and it is recommended for children five years of age and older.
  • Classroom ratios and group sizes will be adjusted accordingly to maintain social distancing.
 
We appreciate everyone's support and patience as we implement these new guidelines. The health and safety of our children, families and teachers is always our first priority.

If you're in need of child care, please contact Kate Hise at: khise@ywcaboulder.org.  
Thank You Outgoing Board Members!
Our 2019 - 2020 Board Year finished up this month and we had to say Goodbye to several incredible Board Members who finished their terms on our Board. To these amazing women we say THANK YOU so much for all your incredible hard work serving on our Board! Your passion and dedication have truly helped make the YWCA the organization it is today.

Sue Fagan - Thank you for your time and hard work as a former Board Chair and for being an amazing community ambassador for the YWCA.

Nan Joesten - Thank you for your time and hard work as a former Board Chair, and for your dedication in spearheading the new Governance Committee this year.

Lisa Lesniak - Thank you for your time, hard work and instrumental service on our Events and Advocacy Committees.

Janet Eden-Harris - Thank you for your time, hard work and dedication to the YWCA as a former Board Chair and as a Board Advisor this past year.

We are so grateful to have had such incredible women as part of our Board!
Take Action with Advocacy
Sen. Bennet (D-CO) and Sen. Young (R-IN) have recently introduced the Reviving the Economy Sustainably Towards a Recovery in Twenty-twenty (RESTART) Act. As currently drafted, the RESTART Act would modify the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to create a new loan program that would dramatically reduce the amount of loan forgiveness available to nonprofits, putting YWCAs across the country at a severe economic disadvantage.


If you have two minutes, join us and write your Members of Congress before it’s too late! We need your help and personal stories to support child care, housing, domestic violence service providers, and the nonprofit sector in the next COVID-19 stimulus relief package.

We are grateful for the initial steps Congress took to pass the CARES Act and provide emergency funding for the nonprofit sector, and include additional funding for the Paycheck Protection Program. However, more must be done to meet the significantly increasing child care, housing, and domestic violence community needs— both now and in the future.

Time is of the essence to ensure our priorities are heard. Join us today !
RER Literary Book Club - May 26
It's not too late to join the Reading to End Racism Literary Book Club! We are reading the book, The Newcomers by Helen Thorpe.

Synopsis - "The Newcomers follows the lives of 22 refugee and immigrant teens through the course of one school year as they land at South High School in Denver, CO, in a beginner-level English Language Acquisition class."

Our next Book Club meetings will be:

  • Tuesday, June 9 at 7 PM - Please read up to Summer, Heal Africa, page 326
  • Tuesday, June 23 at 7 PM - Please read the remainder of the book

If you're interested in joining this Book Club, please email Shiquita Yarbrough at: syarbrough@ywcaboulder.org.
All are welcome!
We're Hiring!
Check our Employment Opportunities page for more information:

  • Early Childhood Education Teachers
  • Part-time Development Administrator
What We're Reading
Upcoming Community Event
Conflict Resolution During COVID-19 Online Training
Boulder County District Attorney's Office

Please join the District Attorney’s Office for an introduction to basic conflict resolution skills and restorative justice practices that you can incorporate in the many challenging scenarios we face as a result of stay-at-home requirements and other stressors related to COVID-19. You'll learn practical tips and skills that you can use with roommates, family members, and children of any age, such as how to have a restorative conversation that includes everyone involved and steps for how to break the cycle of conflict.

Presenters are Erin Cordell and Kelly Taylor Russell of the Boulder DA’s Center for Prevention and Restorative Justice.

WHEN: Friday, May 29, 2020 at 12:00PM

WHERE: Virtual Training through Microsoft Teams

There will be time for written questions & answers during the training, but please also feel free to send questions in advance to boulder.da@bouldercounty.org
YWCA Boulder County | ywcaboulder.org