SUNBURY, Pa. — Some children spent the morning playing at the Greater Susquehanna Valley YMCA's child care center in Sunbury. There are quite a few children enrolled at this day care facility, but officials say there could be many more if there were more people to take care of them.
"Our Sunbury branch, we could easily take 40 to 50 more children if we had an appropriate amount of staff that we had pre-COVID," said Katrina Mouery, co-executive director at the Sunbury YMCA.
Mouery says staffing issues have reached critical levels at the Greater Susquehanna Valley YMCA following the pandemic, and the child care programs have suffered the most.
"It is literally the same everywhere. Everybody is talking about if they had more staff what they'd be able to do. It's a huge change for us," Mouery said.
Mouery says current YMCA employees who have their child care clearances are pitching in to help.
"Just so that we can maintain ratios when things get bad," Mouery said.
The YMCA sent an email to its members asking them to consider working in the child care centers or help recruit people.
"We have offered incentives to our staff and to anybody coming on. All the clearances that you need, we'll help with that," Mouery said.
For more information about childcare positions at the YMCA, contact:
Sunbury YMCA – Ann Bausinger at abausinger@gsvymca.org or 570-286-5636
Milton YMCA – Jody Reuss at jreuss@gsvymca.org or 570-742-7321
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