How a technology overhaul helped the Greater Austin YMCA fill a child care gap

The first day of any new child care situation can be nerve-wracking for both parent and child, so it was with a bit of hesitation that Andie Connors-Pool walked down the long hallway of the Dove Springs YMCA Tomorrow Academy in Austin, Texas, to pick up her 4-year-old son from his classroom.

“We were walking back down the hall, and I was like, ‘Alright, buddy, so what did you think of your new school?’” Connors-Pool recalls.

Lennon Pool turned to look at his mom, opened his eyes wide and said the words every parent wants to hear in this situation: “I love it here,” he replied.

For Andie Connors-Pool, it was a cause for celebration on both a personal and professional level. She is the director of people at the Greater Austin YMCA, where she is responsible for human resources for all the organization’s child care facilities.

She was among the many at the Y involved in the development of the Tomorrow Academy, a groundbreaking child care concept that is designed to provide a nurturing learning environment to help each child thrive from infant (6 weeks) to pre-kindergarten (5 years old).

The YMCA Tomorrow Academy was a project that required real-time contributions and detailed collaboration from every department in the organization. And just a few years ago, it would have been impossible for the almost 75-year-old nonprofit.

“We used to drive to almost every team huddle meeting,” says Marisa Redd, senior director, People Development & Engagement at the Y. “We didn’t do any digital work until the pandemic.”

The Greater Austin YMCA began its digital transformation in February 2021 with the hiring of Kathy Kuras as its president and chief executive officer. Kuras previously led operations at the YMCA of Greater Boston, where she supported that branch’s vice president of information services in working with Microsoft to help modernize that branch of the nonprofit. Upon her arrival in Austin and assessment of its operations, Kuras said it was a “no brainer” to undergo a similar technology overhaul.

Kuras worked with her Microsoft contact to completely revamp the YMCA’s technology footprint, helping to connect a series of Y centers spread across the Austin area through Microsoft tools like Teams, OneNote and PowerApps, opening the door to a world of communication and teamwork options.

“People really took to it right away,” Kuras says. “It was very intuitive. It really helped people communicate and create collaboration spaces, especially with all the apps that work within Teams. It makes work much more efficient. You can get answers quickly and be respectful of people’s time. I might have an idea in the evening, but I can send it through email or Teams and schedule it for the next morning. These tools are central to the hub of the work that gets done.”

With its digital transformation underway, the Greater Austin YMCA continued its mission to help solve a major issue in the area – affordable and available child care. According to Kuras, more than 5,000 children are on waiting lists for child care in the area. The YMCA had been working for a decade to solve the problem, and the YMCA Tomorrow Academy program is the result. The organization pledged to develop six to eight new Academies between now and 2030 to help serve more than 1,000 children.

“Generally, the Y looks to see where the greatest community need is and works to fill in the gaps,” Kuras says. “That is why, over time, the programs we offer may change. As we did our strategic planning process coming into 2022, it was just clear that child care was one of the greatest needs in the area. If people don’t have a place for their kids, it impacts their ability to work. We are in a rapidly growing area and that means there’s even more need. So, it’s about responding to the need and recognizing our role.”

But there are many challenges in creating a new paradigm of child care, including logistical and financial hurdles that would take time, patience and collaboration to overcome.

“It’s a first-of-a-kind for us in greater Austin, with the potential to be all for Texas and the potential to scale nationally down the road. This required a mind shift for the organization, because we were building something that went beyond our region,” says Sarah Inbau, chief marketing officer.

“The project required new ways of thinking and collaborating. I do think the Teams destinations, for sharing documents, proposals and ideas were key in not only moving faster but also in maintaining documentation on feedback and decisions.”

From facilities to marketing to operations to classroom staff, every corner of the Greater Austin YMCA played a role as the initial two YMCA Tomorrow Academy locations began to take shape, fostering a sense of connection from top to bottom as they worked together to make the vision reality.

“The highlight of the Microsoft system was the simplicity,” says Shaq Brown, chief operations officer. “The cool part about this was the ability to just get people in and get them active, and they feel like, ‘Wow, I’m a part of something bigger.’

“Our CEO uses this, our CMO uses this, and I’m a teacher and I’m using it now. I’m in the ecosystem with everyone else. So that togetherness was a big culture shift, that everybody felt like, ‘We’re in this together. This is how we work.’”

Kuras adds that without the Y’s digital transformation, launching the Tomorrow Academy “would have taken at least another year.”

Instead, the first YMCA Tomorrow Academy opened in Austin’s Four Points neighborhood in March, helped in part by a $3 million donation from the Schmetterling Foundation. With child development experts agreeing that the pre-kindergarten years are crucial for literacy and preparing for future learning, the YMCA Tomorrow Academy is designed to address those needs through its curriculum.

The facility offers eight classrooms with a focus on early literacy; science, technology, engineering and math (STEM); creative arts and nature play. The academy uses the YMCA’s Constellation of Care model, which includes enrichment programs like family wellness, health and nutrition, safety, hygiene and parent-teacher engagement.

The second YMCA Tomorrow Academy opened in Austin’s Dove Springs community in March as well. The Dove Springs location is at capacity, serving more than 60 students. The Four Points location is now offering summer day camp for students ages 4-14. In both locations, teachers can utilize Teams in the classroom to store and update curriculum, see enrollment updates and communicate with each other in real time.

“Gone are the days when we’ve got walkie talkies and half of them are working and half of them aren’t working,” Connors-Pool says. “If someone needs to use the restroom or get a Band-Aid, they can just send a quick Teams message to the whole center and be like, ‘Hey, I could really use a five-minute break,’ and they’re able to all respond in that group together.”

Even though the YMCA Tomorrow Academy launches are barely in the rearview, feedback from the community has been positive. Other neighborhoods in Austin and fellow YMCAs have taken notice of the program’s success.

“YMCAs across the country now know about this, and they’re starting to knock on our door and say, ‘Hey, how do we get this in our community?’” Brown says. “We’re still in the launch phase, iterating and adjusting as needed, but multiple YMCAs have already reached out and said they want to have deeper conversations about this.

“Our strategic plan moving into 2030 is to launch at least four or five more YMCA Tomorrow Academies and bring them to the communities that need them. Our priority is making sure we put them in those areas that need high-quality child care. Our challenge is funding: How do we secure additional locations and how do we use partnerships to make it happen?”

For now, the Greater Austin YMCA is thrilled with the success of the first two academies and its transformation to a fully connected and agile organization. But perhaps the Y’s most satisfied customers are its smallest.

“For my two kiddos, it feels secure, it feels safe and it just feels so loving,” Connors-Pool says. “There have been times where my kids don’t want to leave at the end of the day and they’re just hugging on their teachers. You don’t get that everywhere. It’s awesome.”

Photos courtesy of the Greater Austin YMCA.