Ground has been broken on a new $3 million Learning Center to serve women and families at the redeveloped Greenbridge public housing community.

The YWCA Learning Center will feature classrooms, state-of-the-art communications and computer learning technology, a career development center, a King County library branch and other programs and services.

"With this beautiful new facility, the YWCA and its partners will be able to better serve local women and families, building opportunity and self-sufficiency in one of the most economically challenged communities in the region," said Sue Sherbrooke, CEO of the YWCA of Seattle-King County-Snohomish County.

More than 60 percent of the residents in the immediate neighborhood are immigrants, and the area includes the poorest census tract in King County.

The Learning Center will be built at Southwest 97th Street and Eighth Avenue Southwest, on the campus of Park Lake Homes, a public housing community that the King County Housing Authority is redeveloping as Greenbridge.

The housing authority is donating the land and offsite development for the new Learning Center.

The YWCA is partnering with the King County Library System, which is contributing to construction and will operate the branch library.

The new facility will house the YWCA's Career Development Center and GirlsFirst leadership programs, which are currently operating in temporary locations.

The 8,000 square-foot, single-story Learning Center will be constructed to Built Green design standards with as many environmentally friendly, sustainable building elements as possible.

Built Green is a non-profit, residential building program of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties, developed in partnership with King County.

In addition to being environmentally friendly, the new Learning Center will have an open floor plan that encourages flexibility and collaborative programming. It will also offer ample parking and easy access to nearby community facilities: the Boys and Girls Club, Neighborhood House, White Center Heights Elementary School and Head Start.

This is the fifth project made possible by the YWCA's $43 million capital campaign. The budget for the Learning Center is $3 million plus the value of the donated land.