ASHLAND — It all started with a question: What barriers exist for women in Ashland?
A few years later, under a shining sun in a blank-canvas field along Ford Drive, the answer to that question came in the form of a ceremonial groundbreaking for the county’s — and possibly the country’s — newest childcare option.
Leaders from the Women’s Fund Childcare Initiative of the Ashland County Community Foundation and community members gathered Thursday to initiate the construction of Foundations Community Childcare, a 12,400 square-foot facility that, when operational by 2024, will house up to 150 infants and school children.
And it all happened with two days left to celebrate Women’s History Month.
Kristin Aspin, chief program officer of the Ashland County Community Foundation, was beside herself Thursday as every person who shared words at the ceremony mentioned her by name as an integral part of championing the effort to raise the $4.5 million needed for the project.
“It’s really surreal,” Aspin said, taking a moment to bask in the realization that she was part of something that hasn’t been done. Namely, building a non-profit childcare facility in an industrial park that will serve to bolster its immediate workforce.
Early on in the project, ACCF’s Women’s Fund discovered (through a survey) that 72% of respondents would be likely to use a childcare facility near work. The majority of those people also said they struggle to find affordable care.
The childcare facility will be built on three acres adjacent to Packaging Corporation of America, in the middle of the Ashland Industrial Park along Ford Drive.
“We all know, females specifically, that childcare is huge and you don’t really realize how big of a deal it is until you’re in that situation. But to think about what we did — with the support of so many in the community — really will affect women and children and families for generations,” Aspin said.
During an especially poignant moment, a surgical-masked Lucille Ford — who is ACCF’s 101 year-old Founding President — rolled up to the event in her car and waved behind the passenger-side window.
“She’s waited more than a century for this to happen,” said Ashland Mayor Matt Miller of Ford during his remarks, prompting laughter from the crowd.
On a more serious note, he said the childcare facility is the first time the city has allowed anything but a for-profit organization to build a facility at the industrial park.
“In the era that we live, this might be one of the most valuable components that we can add out here on this important land in a great city to make for future business expansion here in our great community,” Miller said.
Jan Archer invoked Margaret Mead when she paraphrased the anthropologist’s admonishment to never underestimate the power of a small group of people to change the world. Archer, who with her husband committed $1 million to the project, made an addendum to the quote.
“I would add especially ‘women’ people,” she said, prompting laughter and applause.
After a number of speakers shared a few words, many of them lined up with shovels to “break ground” on the new facility.
Joann Ford Watson, the master of ceremony for the event, said construction would start and end this year, with the facility becoming operational by the beginning of 2024.
