Greater Philadelphia YMCA’s streamlined approach in child care operations

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August 26, 2025

October 31, 2024

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Greater Philadelphia YMCA’s streamlined approach in child care operations

We're diving into the child care operations at Greater Philadelphia YMCA to see how a unified CRM platform is helping them run a smoother, more efficient and connected environment for both staff and families.

Spanning 15 branches across seven counties, the Greater Philadelphia Y supports more than 240,000 individuals annually, offering child care, after-school enrichment, and camp programs that serve over 6,000 children each year. Their early learning centers alone serve over 1,000 kids daily across 13 locations. At the heart of their mission is making these essential services accessible to every family, regardless of income or background.

In this webinar, we sat down with Jen Segelken, Senior VP of Youth Development, and Toni Marie Bell, Business Process Analyst, to learn how Traction Rec helped streamline their child care operations—leading to less stress for staff, happier parents, and most importantly, safer environments for children.

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In this webinar recap we cover:

How even with seemingly the most complex tasks, processes that once seemed impossible are made possible with simple and intentional updates.
How the training, onboarding, and phased implementation of new processes were thoughtfully aligned with registration schedules to ensure a smooth and seamless transition for both staff and families.
A demonstration of the experience from three unique perspectives: a parent, a child care administrator, and a program director, utilizing the tools and connecting staff and families.

We've pulled together a recap of our key takeaways from this webinar. You can watch the entire discussion further below.

A sneak peak into the complexities of child care at the Greater Philedelphia Y

Celebrating key wins and a smooth transition onto Traction Rec

The Philly Y didn’t flip a switch overnight. Instead, together with Traction Rec, they mapped a thoughtful, phased rollout that matched their seasonal rhythms and gave staff time to adapt without disrupting families and program registrations.

July: Child care programs launched
October: Membership programming went live
Mid - October: First full registration event + full go-live

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“Our migration was [at least] our first win. It was smooth. It was painless.”

-Toni Marie Bell, Business Process Analyst

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Staff training followed Traction Recs "watch, read, do" model, with the Greater Philly Y appointing internal “Traction Champions” at each location to lead training during the transition. These Champions, along with the Traction Rec team, helped train staff to become confident with the new systems in no time.

Elevating the member experience in child care: A parent’s perspective with Traction Rec

The Community Portal is a game-changer for families. From selecting programs to managing payments, documents, and child profiles, parents can now take control of their child care experience online.

"It was just so user-friendly that they did it [before the official launch]. We were like, well, if somebody could do it, that's how we know it works."

-Toni Marie Bell, Business Process Analyst

This level of transparency and engagement not only builds trust with families, but also reduces support calls and improves satisfaction, taking a huge weight off front line staff and making it easy for parents to enroll their kids in minutes.

Simplifying staff workflows in child care management: An administrator’s perspective with Traction Rec

With real-time rosters, automated waitlists, digital health records, and flexible reporting, staff have everything they need at their fingertips - no more chasing paperwork, calling families for missing information or manually updating waitlists with a never ending game of phone tag. Features like emergency contact info, allergy alerts, medication tracking, and daily health check-ins, not only make staff members lives easier, but parents can trust that their child is in great hands at the YMCA now more than ever.

Managing the complexities of child care operations: Optimization and delivery for child care directors

By streamlining intricate tasks like third-party and split billing management, financial reporting, regulatory compliance, record maintenance, and staff certification tracking, Traction Rec simplifies these processes for child care operators. With a holistic view at hand, and insights through data analytics and real-time dashboards, directors can can make informed decisions about program offerings, resources, with opportunities to customize and scale as child care programs grow and evolve.

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