Overnight Child Care to Be Offered at YWCA : Family services: The flexible schedule, 24-hour program will begin in January. The Torrance facility will accommodate up to 22 children.

The South Bay’s first 24-hour child-care center, a joint project of the Torrance YWCA and Mobil Oil Corp., will open in January at the Y’s current child-care facility on West Carson Street.

The center, to be open 365 days a year, will take in children 3 to 14 years old and accommodate up to 22 children for overnight care.

“You should hear the comments we’re getting,” said Dorothy Settlage, head of the YWCA’s child-care committee. Residents, she said, are telling her: “ ‘Oh, it’s about time this is happening. We’re so glad the South Bay is finally going to have night care.’ ”

Though Mobil is providing money for construction of the building, the center will be open to children throughout the community, not just from Mobil’s Torrance refinery.

The fee schedule has not yet been formulated, but given the Y’s nonprofit status, Settlage said, the fees will be competitive with those of other child-care providers.

For the past 18 years, the Y has operated a before- and after-school program for children, operating from 6:45 to 9 a.m. and noon to 6 p.m.

However, given the growing need for child care, Settlage said, the Y was looking to expand its services when it was approached by Mobil executives looking to help their workers find child care.

“We’re aware of the many different kinds of needs parents may have for flexible care,” Settlage said. “In fact, we’re calling it our flexible schedule program.”

Nighttime care was a key concern at Mobil, where about 400 of the refinery’s 1,010 employees work night hours, according to company spokesman Barry Engleberg.

“We have a situation in our plant where we’re open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” Engleberg said.

Though no day-care slots will be reserved specifically for the children of Mobil workers, the corporation will refer those employees in search of child care to the Y, Settlage and Engleberg said.

The work force is increasingly composed of single parents and families in which both parents work, Engleberg said. Thus, “We like to think this reflects some creativity on our part,” he added.

Elise Johanson, a public relations specialist for Mobil, quoted U.S. Department of Labor statistics showing that 66% of working women are mothers and 58% of all working women have children under 6.

What is more, Johanson said, 17% of all working women work “non-standard hours” that do not conform to the traditional 9-to-5 schedule.