A new intergenerational child care center is opening in Winston-Salem next year. Officials celebrated the project with the community this week.
The Center for Thriving Children will be located on the campus of Brookridge, a senior living community on the north side of town. The center will serve 285 children as young as six weeks old.
Betty West is on the leadership team for Imprints Cares, an early childhood education nonprofit, and will be overseeing the new facility.
At this week’s celebration, she shared her plans with a room full of residents and city officials for how the child care center will interact with the Brookridge community.
“We're going to come waddling over like little ducks and go to the swimming pool and use the libraries," West said. "And you folks are going to come over and visit with us and read with our children, take them out on the playground."
She hopes the project will inspire meaningful connections between the older residents and the children, but also address the needs of employees on the Brookridge campus.
“Imagine a nursing mother that could actually go on her lunch hour and feed her baby in the nursery, or go out on the playground with them," West said. "This is just a dream come true for working parents.”
Employees of Imprints Cares and ThriveMore, the nonprofit behind Brookridge retirement community, will get first priority for the slots before they open to the public.
Officials also plan to provide a sliding scale subsidy to make the care affordable for all staff members.
The center is expected to open in early spring of 2026.
Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.