MEDIA RELEASE

20 November 2013

Crossways Community Creche opens its new home

Next Monday, Crossways Community Crèche’s newly refurbished, permanent Mount Victoria property will be open. "Our families and teachers are so excited to be in our new home" says Licensee and Chairperson Yadana Saw.

As one of the few remaining small, non-profit childcare centres in Wellington, Saw says that Crossways Community Crèche will be a huge asset for the city’s preschoolers and their families. “Opening our doors on Monday confirms that there is still place for community-based childcare in this city.”

The entire project was coordinated by a small team of volunteers who worked tirelessly for nearly two years to secure the crèche’s place back in the Mount Victoria community.

“It is really the effort of successive parent committees who were able to get Crossways to this point. We also had support from a variety of Wellington organisations and individuals, to whom we are so grateful.

“It has taken us awhile to get back to our old neighbourhood, there were some points we weren’t so sure that we would ever make it” concedes Saw.

For the past 5 years the crèche’s future has been uncertain after its former home, in Crossways House on Brougham Street, was sold by the Presbyterian Church in 2007.

Since then the crèche has been operating out of temporary premises in Coromandel Street in Newtown. The crèche purchased the Majoribanks property in March 2012, however it still needed to raise funds in order to convert the three-bedroom house into a licensed childcare centre.

“Initially was difficult to secure the funds we needed, but thanks to a combination of grants, donations and interest-free loans, we were able to reach the $190,000 renovation total.” Explains Saw.

Crossways Crèche is known for its unique approach to childcare. It is a not-for-profit, teacher-led, parent-run crèche that has been providing high quality early childhood education for more than 30 years.

-ENDS-

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