Gov. Healey Tours Pittsfield Childcare Centers
PITTSFIELD, Mass.— For the last three years, Governor Maura Healey’s administration has worked to prioritize funding for child care, and on Wednesday she saw the direct impact of that.
Healey was joined by local and state officials on Wednesday for a tour of Berkshire Family YMCA and Girls Inc. of the Berkshires to celebrate investments in child care assistance programs aimed at making child care more affordable across Massachusetts.
She also toured the Berkshire Innovation Center, where she announced a $2 million state grant to support a new advanced optics lab.
"We've been able to increase the number of child care seats around the state by 22,000. We've been able to provide additional financial assistance to an additional 17,000 families," Healey said.
During the tour of the educational facilities, she announced a $31.2 million statewide investment aimed at helping families afford child care and get off waitlists through the Child Care Financial Assistance program.
"I'm really pleased with the investments that we're making, and we're going to continue to make these investments," Healey said.
The voters of Massachusetts are part of what made this funding possible because they voted for the Fair Share Amendment, state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier said.
"It's the Fair Share amendment money that's really fueling these additional investments, and so the people of Massachusetts deserve a lot of credit for this," she said.
The $31.2 million investment follows an increase in CCFA reimbursement rates for Fiscal Year 2026, approved by the Board of Early Education and Care in February. The FY26 rate increases build on the state’s previous investments in CCFA rates, which have increased by $147.5 million since FY23 and represent the latest step in a multi-year, data-driven effort to set rates based on the cost of care.
These organizations have made great strides in improving their services for children and families.
In 2022, the Berkshire YMCA completed its $12.4 million overhaul, which included a new infant room, an additional toddler room, an expanded preschool area, a science, technology, arts, and math (STEAM) space, and a gross motor skills space. More information here.
The Healey administration was able to secure $1 million in federal funds for the project.
"As part of that, we promised to serve more kids. We promised that at least 60 percent of those kids in our child care would come from low-income families. We've held true to that promise," YMCA CEO Christian Bianchi said.
The Berkshire YMCA is serving roughly 73 percent of the kids from low-income families, more than what they promised, he said, through support from the state Department of Early Education and Care.
"And that's through the support that [the state Department of Early Education and Care] and the state of Massachusetts provides to us," Bianchi said.
As the number of families grew, so did the organization's services, with its recent hire of a Behavioral and Inclusion Support Specialist, which "totally changed the way that our teachers operate on a day-to-day basis," Bianchi said.
"We're providing more positive modalities to the kids than we previously were, and that's because of the work that the behavioral specialist is doing."
The tour provided Healey the opportunity to meet the YMCA’s Behavioral and Inclusion Support Specialist, Alex Roman, who explained his role and the newer types of behaviors observed over the last few years in the new generations. The behavioral and inclusion support specialist is a new position that many programs don’t have, but it is an important role that requires extensive training on a lot of difficult situations, Roman said.
Having this role in an early intervention program is beneficial for childhood development because the behaviors they are seeing can be addressed at a young age rather than when they are older, he said.
"Funding is the biggest thing I think all programs need right now. We really need to get staff training," Roman said.
With these newer and more complex behaviors, he said funding is essential to obtain training that also specializes in trauma-informed care.
"We have a mixing pot of previously learned behaviors with developmental delays, and all of that culminates to needing more supports than we actually are used to having," Roman said.
"So, I really think getting those supports in and focusing more on trauma-informed care instead of just curriculum-based care is another aspect that would benefit all programs."
The importance of cross-organizational collaboration within education was significantly demonstrated.
Although the Berkshire Museum was closed during her visit, Healey was surprised to see the museum’s mobile units (MoMU) at the child care center, where rotating exhibits feature a different theme each month.
Coincidentally, this month's theme was Ladybug Metamorphosis, which Healey excitedly explained is the official insect of Massachusetts.
"I wanted to highlight, beyond just the access, it's about the quality of the experience that young people are having here," Secretary of Education Steve Zrike said.
He highlighted some of the facilities and services that have engaged the students, including the behavioral health component, MoMUs, and the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics lab.
"So, it's also about the quality of the experience that young people are getting as they're headed into our K-12 system," Zrike said.
Following the visit to the BIC, Healey visited Girl's Inc of the Berkshires, where she met students part of the organization's Eureka! program. Eureka! is the organization's STEM-based program aimed at engaging and empowering girls before they enter 7th or 8th grade.
The students showed Healey the program’s 3D printer that they obtained by donation, which is currently being used to create bookmarks for some students reading "Hidden Figures."
The mention of "Hidden Figures" was the second coincidence of Healey’s day, as she informed the students that the Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll administration is the first all-women executive team to lead Massachusetts.
Graduates of the Eureka! program explained to Healey how it has had a lasting impact on them.
This program teaches you to dream big and not give up, said Bhumi Patel, Eureka! graduate and Girls Inc. Boraski scholarship recipient.
The program also teaches the girls to stand up for themselves as women, said Taea Cunagin, Eureka! graduate and Girls Inc. Boraski scholarship recipient. The opportunity to sit down with Healey also provided the students to voice concerns they have about issues present in the community.
Ninth grader Sami Jo DiFilippo used the chance to meet Healey to ask what her administration is doing to improve mental health resources in the community.
"I'm really glad that you raised that. That's one thing that breaks my heart. I want to see people be able to access the health care that they need and the mental health care that they need," Healey said, promising that the administration is looking to make more investments in both.
"I think, especially for our young people, we've seen a growing need over the last 10 years. More and more young people would be benefiting from better access to mental health services," she said, whether it's inpatient or therapy.
