A Hempstead day care center will stay open until midnight to help parents who work at night.

Minime Kiddy Daycare welcomed the community to their new 7,000 square-foot space Wednesday. The new space allows for them to expand upon their eight-year mission to meet the needs of parents in the community.

Staff say they recently started getting asked by more parents whether they offered child care in the evening while many worked other jobs.

Michelle Blaylock says it was hard finding affordable child care for her four children, especially in the evening when she was working. Then she found Minime Kiddy Daycare.

"My children love it here. It's like a home away from home,” she said. "It felt so warm. So special. They make you feel special when you come here. They make the children feel special. The children don't even want to go home."

Minime Kiddy Daycare co-founder Clariona Griffith says the decision was made to extend their hours to meet the needs of parents in the community. They’re now open daily from 7 a.m. to midnight.

"We find different ways because child care is expensive and not everybody has that grandparent that's at home taking care of that child,” she said. “We're trying to make it, in all ways possible, able to help kids."

The center also offers teens the chance to learn about college prep, workforce development and get counseling through their nonprofit Children and Youth Hub Station. Minime Kiddy Daycare Director Lorenzo Sistrunk says programs like this can change a child’s life.

"It gives them a certain amount of discipline of how they're going to go forward when they get to middle school, when they get to high school, if they decide to go into college or if they decide to go into a trade,” he said. “All of a sudden, that maturity is there."

The new space allows for the center to take care of 97 children during the day and 97 children in the evening. For Griffith, all the work is a labor of love for the community.

"We're not just for Hempstead but for Uniondale, for Roosevelt, people that work in the city,” said Griffith. “We're here to take care of your children, so it's like being that co parent. You need somebody that you can trust. So, why not us?"

The center also provides bilingual day care services and free universal pre-K. For more information about the center, call them at 516-636-5777.