CORPUS CHRISTI - After serving the community for more than 40 years, Corpus Christi's YWCA will end its child care services. The decision was made during the organization's last board meeting.

Dozens of kids have spent the first five years of their life here while their parents were at work. But come March 29th, the doors to the YWCA Child Care Center will close for good. Parents and families were informed of the board's decision last Friday in a letter. It told parents the main reason for closing was due to the numerous child care openings in the community.

"When we see that other people in the community other organizations are doing those we don't see the need to duplicate services, rather look at what other needs are and address those," says Nancy Wesson-Dodd, YWCA Executive Director.

The board decided the YWCA needed to focus more on its mission: eliminating racism and empowering women. The day care center currently serves 50 children and 45 families.

"We want to make this a smooth transition and we know this is really tough, it's tough for us and certainly it's tough for the staff and the families," says Wesson- Dodd.

The facility is helping parents, students, and teachers, during this transitional period to find an alternate day care.

"We gave them a packet from the child care licensing division tell them tips on how to find a good center and then we included a list of all the child care facilities in Corpus Christi," says Wesson- Dodd.

Wesson-Dodd says many of the families have reported to her they've found alternate day care. She stresses that just the child care services will stop at the end of the month, the organizations other programs will continue in its main building.