In a city in desperate need of child care, $20.9M center set to break ground in Tacoma
Work will begin Saturday to transform a vacant lot in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood into a new 32,000-square-foot child care and human services center, filling a need in an area where 17% of child care needs are met, according to the state Department of Children, Youth and Families.
It’s a moment executive director Gail Neal has been waiting for a long time. She founded the Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center in a church basement three decades ago. Thanks to government funding, foundation support and community fundraising efforts, a $20.9 million project to build a new center with 19 classrooms and space for 300 children is finally becoming a reality. It’s expected to open in January 2026.
For decades the Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center at 2316 South State St. in Tacoma has offered a variety of free and lost-cost services. The center is on a Pierce Transit bus line and a school bus line and hosts before- and after-school programs, provides emergency respite for foster children, offers preschool and child care, early education programs, diaper banks, grocery drives, housing assistance, homeless prevention, support groups for fathers, mothers, parents and children in addition to sobriety support.
More than 75% of the families who use the Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center’s services are people of color, and Neal said staff is reflective of the diverse communities they serve, which helps build trust with children and families.
Thirty years ago the Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center got its start serving five children in the basement of a church. Now it’s grown into a community center that offers 183 slots for early learners, has more than 100 employees and houses more than 50 other programs and services supporting people in Pierce County and the South Puget Sound area.
Neal estimates the center has helped more than 8,000 families each year, including more than 2,000 with homeless prevention. About 800 families take advantage of the center’s free diaper bank every month, said Roxy Magno, the center’s director of outreach services. People come to the center from all over Pierce County, in addition to King County and Thurston County, said the center’s special projects manager Peter Cameron.
The center has a two-and-a-half year wait list for its Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) and infant care programs, Cameron said. With the completion of the new Cora Whitley Family Center, expected to open next year, 100 additional slots for early learners will be added, significantly increasing the center’s capacity for infant care, he said.
“All this is really important because in Pierce County only 20% of the child care need is met,” Cameron said. “We are going to be housing approximately 10% of available child care in Tacoma right here.”
In Pierce County, the median cost of child care for infants was between $1,138 and $1,600 a month in 2023, according to Child Care Aware of Washington. The median cost of child care for a toddler was between $1,083 and $1,400 a month, and the median cost for preschool child care was between $975 and $1,213 a month.
As the cost of living rises in Tacoma and Pierce County, many families are losing access to early-learning services and child care programs, which not only negatively impacts children’s development but has impacts on the local economy, Cameron said.
A 2019 Washington research study found that child care issues affect parents’ decisions about work, education and job training, which in turn impacts employer recruitment, retention and productivity. Employee turnover related to child care issues resulted in an estimated $2 billion cost to employers and about $6.5 billion in opportunity costs in 2019. More than 75% of the Washington parents surveyed had sought or used child care, but nearly half found it difficult or very difficult to access child care due to no openings near home or work, care not fitting their work schedule, care not being of good quality or being unable to find nearby care that accepted state child care subsidies.
Children who attend early learning programs are more likely to be ready for kindergarten and graduate high school, according to the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families. They are also less likely to be convicted of violent crimes and earn more income over their lifetime.
Finding solutions at the macro and micro level
Magno said the Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center is intentionally located near the offices for the Washington State Department of Social and Human Services, the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families, Child Protective Services and WorkSource employment center.
The Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center helps many children in foster care, and others who have been through traumatic and disruptive experiences in their life, Magno said. Staff also help parents and families navigate government assistance programs and get connected to other social services in Pierce County.
“It’s the same agencies that are doing homeless services, the same agencies that are doing homeless prevention, the same agencies that are doing recovery. It’s not really a day care showing up in those spaces. So it was really cool to just change the room,” Magno said. “Early learning really is the best prevention tool to all of those things that become adult problems.”
Turner Cagle has seen firsthand the impact on the students he’s mentored. Cagle is an Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program teacher at the center, leads the before- and after-school K-12 programs and facilitates a men’s support group for all ages.
Cagle said it’s been important for him to stand behind and support the women of color who run the center. Neal said there are more than 10 men who work at the child care center. She believes that’s the most male role models working at any child care center in the state. Kenan Joyce and Javier Colunga have been doing good work helping students with their schoolwork and deserve a shout-out, Cagle said.
“We look like them. We [know] what they’ve gone through and so helping them navigate through that, all the emotions and all the struggles, our kids need people like them,” Cagle said. “We’ve all went through our failures and we’ve had our success. Kids in our community can’t always see that at the end.”
In the last couple of years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Neal said government officials in Pierce County, Tacoma and Washington have tried to address the lack of local child care and invested more in child care workers. She said that needs to continue to meet the need.
“We need quality child care,” Neal said. “Having a huge center will make a big difference to the community because they deserve it. The kids that live in Hilltop deserve to have a nice, quality child care center to go to, and the parents deserve that, too.”
If you go
The Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center is breaking ground on the new Cora Whitley Family Center from noon to 1 p.m. Saturday at 2102 S. 23rd St. in Tacoma. There will be speakers and opportunities for the public to learn more about the center and the support it provides.
Neal said the nonprofit gets most of its funding from the state, Pierce County and private donations. The organization accepts donations online and is hoping to raise $1 million in its capital campaign for a new center.
Those with children ages 3 and 4 can apply for openings in early learning programs online.
This story was originally published January 24, 2025 at 9:00 AM.
