Bassett receives $6 million grant to help open employee childcare center

COOPERSTOWN — The Clark Foundation has awarded a $6 million grant to underwrite the creation of a new daycare facility on the Bassett Medical Center campus in Cooperstown. “The foundation’s board of trustees and I are very pleased to be providing the funding needed to build a state-of-the-art daycare center,” Jane Forbes Clark, foundation president, said in a news release. “Providing excellent daycare for the children of Bassett Healthcare Network employees that is literally next door with flexible hours to match their schedules will help to attract and retain the best caregivers that our communities need and depend upon.” Bassett will transform the historic Harrison House at 1 Beaver St. into a center that will provide care for infants, toddlers, and pre-school children during clinical work hours. A 3,000-square-foot addition will house classrooms, common and service areas, offices, and an enclosed playground. The center will also have space dedicated to sick care, ensuring that employees’ children have appropriate care when necessary and employees won’t have to miss work. Bassett Healthcare Network expects the center will accommodate 70 children and employ 18 people when it opens in 2025. “This extraordinary support from The Clark Foundation will be a game changer for our employees and their children,” Bassett Healthcare Network President/CEO Staci Thompson said in the release. “To have access to an on-site daycare center will enable our employees to achieve a proper work-life balance and take great comfort that their children are safe and being well taken care of.” Bassett Healthcare Network includes five corporately affiliated hospitals, more than two dozen community-based health centers, 22 school-based clinics, and two skilled-nursing facilities.