Ford EV Plant Adds YMCA Early Learning Center

As Ford Authority reported last week, the under-construction Ford EV plant known as BlueOval City in Tennessee is facing a list of demands from a group of local residents called the BlueOval Good Neighbors Coalition. That coalition is asking the automaker to provide workers at the future Ford EV plant with livable wages, create funds to assist residents with rising costs of living, monitor the site’s environmental impact, and provide the BlueOval Good Neighbors Community Board with the power to enforce these provisions. Now, the automaker has added a new YMCA Early Learning Center to its site, which should help satisfy some concerns among local residents.

Ford has teamed up with the YMCA of Memphis & the Mid-South to create this new YMCA Early Learning Center at the future Ford EV plant, which is designed to help remove any barriers that stand in the way of local residents and potential employment opportunities when it opens in 2026. The center will also serve as a childcare hub for up to 175 young folks ages six weeks to five years old, providing before and afterschool programs and meals, as well as offering accommodating hours suited to employees’ work schedules. The facility will be located less than a mile from BlueOval City and span 15,500 square feet when it opens in a couple of years.

“Access to high-quality affordable childcare is one of the most important components in workforce development,” said Ermal Faulkner, Ford site director for BlueOval City and electric vehicle sites. “We spent months listening and learning from local families as we designed a childcare center that will help improve the quality of life for employees, Tennessee College of Applied Technology students and other community members.”

Meanwhile, BlueOval City is already having a tremendous impact on the surrounding area, brining in a host of new businesses and homes, along with the creation of 1,500 jobs at the plant itself. While the nearby BlueOval SK Battery Plant in Kentucky is slated to begin building batteries for EVs next year, production of the next-generation Ford F-150 EV was recently pushed back to 2027, though some in the surrounding community feel like that could wind up being a good thing, as it’ll give them more time to prepare for an influx of growth.