NS Norfolk opens 24/7 child care center

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) - Military parents have one more child care option Friday as Naval Station Norfolk opened its new Child and Youth 24/7 Center.  According to the Navy, the center will provide daily child care around the clock and will offer service members the flexibility of using 60 hours of care per week according to their work schedules.

The center, for ages 6-weeks to 12-years, can accommodate 20 children per shift with three shifts.

Parents welcomed the new facility. 

"We're not traditional workforce," said Command Master Chief Gregg Snaza. "We don't work 8-to-5 jobs. We work around the clock, always, and our sailors who have those nighttime shifts and those odd shifts have never really had anywhere to turn to for child care."

Cole Parsons is seven months old.  Mother NC1 Kathleen Jennings works at Naval Station Norfolk as a Navy Counselor.

"If he wasn't well-cared for, and I've had issues in the past, then I wouldn't be able to go to work," said Jennings. "I wouldn't be able to do my job. I'd have to take time off and I wouldn't be able to focus on my sailors."

The Naval Station Norfolk facility is the second 24/7 Center in Hampton Roads. The first is located on Hampton Blvd, next to the Naval Support Activity (NSA) Norfolk Child Development Center. It opened in October 2003.

Due to the success of the NSA Child and Youth 24/7 Center, the Navy launched similar programs resulting in the new Naval Station Norfolk facility and one at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, which will open within the next few months.

The Navy says the $1.2 million facility at Naval Station Norfolk combines the strengths of both in-home care and traditional center-based care. The 4,000 square foot facility is homelike and, at the same time, provides opportunities for child socialization in large groups similar to center-based care.

"Does that impact ships getting underway, aircraft taking off, submarines submerging?" asked Capt. K.J. Johnson, Commanding Officer, Naval Station Norfolk at Friday morning's opening ceremony. "And the argument is, in a sense, very much so."