New N.B. daycare encourages connection between children and seniors

With a long wait list for daycare spots in the greater Saint John area and the Kennebecasis Valley, two organizations have teamed up to make a dent in that list in a new way.

The YMCA-run Quispamsis Child Care Centre on Millennium Drive is a little different from some other daycares.

It's a place of intergenerational learning mixing children and seniors together.

Heather Hanson with Parkland in the Valley, a Shannex retirement home in the KV area, said when the YMCA first got in touch with the idea, conversations began between the two organizations.

"We did have some surplus land in the valley, and we heard about the long wait list and what the impacts of lack of child care could mean for a community," said Hanson.

"It was very evident to us that this would just really enrich the community at large."

According to a news release, Parkland in the Valley is home to more than200 seniors, with 130 living in retirement apartments and the other 72 in an enhanced-care licensednursing home.

Angela O'Quinn, child-care director of the the YMCA of Southwestern New Brunswick, said the partnership was a great opportunity to open a new centre with 68 spaces.

The daycare hasbeen open for less than a month, but O'Quinn said the children and seniors are already "having a wonderful time" getting acquainted on daily walks, planting flowers in the garden or just sitting and chatting.

"Plans for our future intergenerational programming are well underway," she said. "One of our first initiatives will be the children trick-or-treating at the residents' doors."

O'Quinn said more formal programming to mix the two generations is still to come.

She said a lot of the young children at the centre have moved in to the area from other places and don't have grandparents at home.

"This builds those relationships and allows children to interact and understand what it's like, you know, having a relationship with an older adult, [who] has more life experiences," said O'Quinn.

"And same thing for the older adults. It's a beautiful relationship that can be built."