'A Milestone Event'
Itsy Bitsy Child Watch opens in new, larger location
When the Itsy Bitsy Child Watch Center first opened at Holyoke Community College in 2022, officials heralded the free program as a potential game-changer for parents whose college aspirations floundered as they failed to find affordable childcare.
In just a few years, the Itsy Bitsy Child Watch program has proven its value, speakers said, during a Sept. 24 celebration of the grand reopening of the program in a newly renovated, much larger, and more central space on the HCC campus.
“Welcome to this milestone event,” said President George Timmons. “Today, we’re not just celebrating the reopening of the Itsy Bitsy Child Watch facility. This is a celebration of our unwavering commitment to student success and our understanding that students bring their whole lives with them when they walk through our doors.”
Itsy Bitsy Child Watch is a free, drop-in service for student parents who need short-term childcare while they attend classes, study, or meet with tutors and advisers. It opened as a pilot program in May 2022 with $100,000 from the state. At the time, HCC was only the second community college in Massachusetts – and the only one in western Massachusetts – to offer a free child watch service.
By the end of its second semester, however, the center had maxed out on the number of students it could serve. College officials quickly realized there was an unmet need and demand. Expansion became possible after HCC received a $600,000 grant from the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation in December 2023.
“At the Davis Foundation, we have five priorities,” said Executive Director Kiley O’Meara. “We fund early childhood, early literacy, the K-16 pathway, youth development, and economic mobility. So, it’s everything you all are doing here every day. Really, every college needs this, and we’re just thrilled to be a part of it.”
The new Itsy Bitsy Child Watch Center, located on the second floor of the Frost Building, nearly doubles the capacity of children it can serve at any given time, from 10 to 19. It has two full classrooms for different age groups, a dedicated children’s bathroom, an office, an adjoining gross motor skills room, and an expanded kitchenette with a dishwasher and full-size refrigerator. It serves children from three months to 12 years old.
“Look at this beautiful space,” Timmons said. “It’s more than double the size of what we previously had. But this isn’t just about square footage. This is about possibility and removing barriers. This is about saying to student parents: we see you, we support you, and we want you to get to the finish line.”
Kimm Quinlan, HCC director of early childhood initiatives, said student parents who use the child watch service are more likely to graduate. Surveys show they have higher than average course completion and higher retention rates than the general HCC population by five to 10 percentage points.
“We know it works, and that’s the story,” she said. “That is what it’s all about.”
Through a story she often tells, Quinlan described the “two-generation approach” that guides the center’s mission. It’s about a little girl whose mom was sitting at the dinner table doing her homework. The girl was drawing a picture. Her mom said, “What’s that?” The girl said, “That’s me when I go to HCC, when I’m a student.”
“Seeing your parents going through education is a powerful driver for children,” said Quinlan, “to see that this is part of their life and should be.”
State Sen. John Velis, a veteran whose office leveraged the original state seed money for the center, said the Army would call those kinds of multiple, intergenerational benefits a “force multiplier.”
“The reality of this is that, without the opportunity for child watch or childcare, some folks will be deprived of the great equalizer – education,” he said.
Amy Kershaw, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, said research supports the “mutually reinforcing benefit” of programs like the Itsy Bitsy Child Watch on the education outcomes of both children and their parents. She said there is a need to implement the Itsy Bitsy model statewide.
“We’re looking forward to continuing this journey with you as we think about how to spread this across our other community colleges and four-year higher education institutions,” she said.
