By Alice Chambers |
The Greater Austin YMCA has opened two ‘Tomorrow Academy’ locations – which use Microsoft Teams, One Note and PowerApps – to meet the growing demand for childcare in Austin, Texas, USA.
The Tomorrow Academy is a childcare concept designed to provide a nurturing learning environment to help children between the ages of six weeks and five years old learn before they start school. The aim of the project is to reduce the more than 5,000 children on waiting lists for childcare in Greater Austin.
The first academy locations are in Austin’s Four Point and Dove Springs neighbourhoods. In both locations, staff are using Teams to store and update curriculum materials, see enrolment updates and communicate with each other in real time.
The sites are the latest development in the Greater Austin YMCA’s digital transformation journey, which began in February 2021.
Microsoft “completely revamped the YMCA’s technology footprint”, according to a Microsoft press release, by connecting a series of Y centres spread across the Austin area through Microsoft tools.
“People really took to it right away,” said Kathy Kuras, president and CEO of YMCA Greater Austin. “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.”
The group will continue to develop new academies between now and 2030 to serve more than 1,000 children. According to Sarah Inbau, chief marketing officer at the Greater Austin YMCA, the Teams destinations for sharing documents, proposal and ideas are “key” in not only moving faster but also in maintaining documentation on feedback and decisions.