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YMCA

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For the song, see YMCA (song).
File:Ymca-logo.gif
YMCAs in the United States and Canada use this logo. The three sides of the red triangle symbolize the YMCA mission to "build a healthy spirit, mind, and body for all".

The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) is an ecumenical community service organization offering programming based on Christian values. Worldwide, the YMCA is organized as a federation of local associations and national YMCA movements.[1] Within most countries, the local YMCAs are related primarily in terms of overall strategy and direction only. The federated model of governance has created a diversity of YMCA programs and services, with YMCAs in different countries and communities sometimes offering vastly different programming in response to local community needs.[2] Despite the Christian heritage of the organization, most local YMCAs welcome participation and leadership from people of non-Christian faiths.[3] Volunteers and local employees operate the individual YMCA associations.

In North America, the YMCA is usually perceived to be primarily a community sports facility, however the YMCA utilizes a broad range of programs such as sports, personal fitness, child care, overnight camping, employment readiness programs, conference centers and educational activities as methods of promoting positive values.

The first YMCA was very much concerned with Bible study, although the organization has generally moved on to a more holistic approach to youthwork. Around six years after its birth, an international YMCA conference in Paris decided that the objective of the organization should become "Christian discipleship developed through a programme of religious, educational, social and physical activities" (Binfield 1973:265). More recent objectives as found on the YMCA UK website include no reference to discipleship.

YMCAs operate in 122 countries worldwide.

History

First YMCA in North America in Montreal, Quebec

Alhough YMCA stands for "Young Men's Christian Association," YMCAs serve more than just "young, Christian men." From its start more than 150 years ago, when George Williams founded the YMCA as a substitute Bible study and prayer for life on the streets, the YMCA was unique because it crossed rigid lines which separated different faith communities and social classes in England in the 19th century. This openness helped lead YMCAs towards recognizing that their strength is in the diverse people they bring together. YMCAs serve all people of all faiths, races, ages, abilities and incomes.

The YMCA movement was founded in London on June 6, 1844 by George Williams and a group of like-minded Evangelical Christians. Williams was a draper, typical of the many young men who were being drawn to big cities by the Industrial Revolution. His colleagues were similarly employed, and they were concerned by the lack of healthy activities for young men in cities such as London. The alternatives were often taverns, brothels, and other temptations to sin. The "Y" expanded to Australia in 1850. The first YMCA in North America was opened in Montreal, Quebec by the congregation of Saint James Methodist Church on November 25, 1851, and the first in the United States opened on December 29, 1851 in Boston, Massachusetts.

In 1855 delegates from YMCAs convened in Paris, France, where they adopted a common mission for all present and future national YMCAs. The main point of the "Paris Basis" was that no minor disagreement should ever be able to split the movement from its Christian focus. To further enhance this point of view, John 17.21 was adopted as the motto of the organization: "...that they may all be one." The focus of the Paris conference was almost purely individual - to help young men to "build a healthy spirit, mind, and body for all".

Throughout the 20th century it became evident in the member countries that YMCA would be an organization of both genders. The name, however, has naturally prevailed, being a strong brand name. In some of the member countries the YMCA was the first national organization to adopt a strict policy of equal gender representation in committees and national boards. An example is Norway in 1880.

In 1973 the "Kampala principles" were adopted, reinforcing the policies of the YMCAs, but stating what had become obvious in most national YMCAs, that a global viewpoint was more necessary, and that in doing so, the YMCAs would have to take political stands, especially so in international challenges. At the world conference in Germany in 1998, the "Challenge 21" was adopted, giving even more focus to the global challenges, like gender equality, sustainable development, war and peace, fair distribution and the challenges of globalization, racism and HIV/AIDS. The YMCAs took a firm stand in the global fight against Apartheid and also in the situation in the Middle East. At the world conference in Oaxtepec, Mexico in 2002, a strong call for a peaceful solution to the crisis was adopted.

The YMCAs, especially in Western Europe and North America has also used great resources to help build national YMCAs in Eastern Europe with great success. In 2003 a youth convention was arranged in Prague with attendance from almost all countries in Europe to celebrate the healing of the wounds from the "iron curtain". Today, YMCAs are present in 122 countries. The present president is Caesar Molebatsi from South Africa, and Bartholomew Shaha of Bangladesh is Secretary General.

Together, the nation's 2,617 YMCAs are the largest not-for-profit community service organization in America, working to meet the health and human service needs of 20.2 million men, women and children each year in 10,000 communities in the United States. At the heart of community life across America, YMCAs are a place to belong and to live the core values that unite Y members: caring, honesty, respect and responsbility. From urban areas to small towns, YMCAs serve America's children, families and communities by building healthy spirit, mind and body, for all. Some 42 million families and 72 million households are located within three miles of a YMCA. More Americans belong to a YMCA than live in the five largest U.S. cities.

Programs and Activities

Since their founding, YMCAs have provided health and fitness programs as an integral part of their mission. Today, YMCAs are the nation's largest provider of health and wellness programs. In an unprecedented national mobilization effort, YMCAs are working to combat rising levels of obesity and promote healthy living for millions of Americans. Just as integral to that mission is providing human services such as job training, new immigrant education, teen leadership opportunities, parenting classes, social opportunities for seniors and housing.

In addition to traditional sports programs, almost half of all Ys offer non-sports-related youth fitness and exercise opportunities, including physical education instruction in schools and to homeschooled children nationwide and exercise and aquatics programs for the physically challenged. Because Ys are driven by the communities they serve, YMCAs offers unique programming at each location. Child care, teen leadership and sports clubs for older adults may be offered in one community, while swim lessons, Adventure Guides (formerly "Indian Guides") and afterschool programming in local schools may be provided in another.

YMCAs are the largest providers of child care in the United States, operating nearly 10,000 child care sites across the country, providing high-quality, and affordable care to more than 500,000 children. Ys also serve nearly 10 million children under the age of 18 through activities such as camping, sports and afterschool programs. YMCAs are the largest employers of teenagers in the country.

All YMCA programs are tools YMCAs use to accomplish their mission, achieve their vision of building strong kids, strong families and strong communities, and reinforce the YMCA core values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility.

The activities of the YMCA can be divided into three categories:

Building Strong Kids

YMCAs offer values-based programs designed to build self-esteem, strengthen positive values, and establish healthy behaviors. This foundation helps youth grow into contributing adults.

  • Adventure Guides: strengthen relationships between parents and children
  • Aquatics: swim lessons, scuba, water fitness, national competitive swimming and many others
  • Arts and humanities: writing, performing, visual and more
  • Teen Leadership: clubs, adventure programs, Black Achievers, Earth Service Corps, Leader Clubs, Hi-Y, Youth and Government, Model United Nations, middle school programs and more

Building Strong Families

The Weekley Family YMCA in the Braeswood Place neighborhood of Houston, Texas

YMCAs offer a safe, welcoming environment in which parents and kids can communicate, cooperate and care for each other. Family nights and days give families a chance to have fun together in a safe, caring, welcoming environment. Ever-popular pool and gym components help family members relax and fight stress, but Ys have also come up with hundreds of other ways for kids and parents to spend good time together.

  • Child Care: infant, toddler, preschool, school-age and other combinations

YMCAs are dedicated to providing high-quality, affordable child care. As the nation's largest provider of child care programs, YMCAs provide family-centered, values-based programs to nurture children's healthy development. Well-trained staff provide safe, affordable, high-quality care so you can have peace of mind while you work. Like all Y programs, child care is open to all, with financial aid available. Staff members are partners with parents and other caregivers, working together to help kids grow up healthy, happy and strong.

  • Community Development: job training; drug abuse prevention; economic development programs; ESL classes; social services, and more
  • Family: family nights, support groups and programs, and more
  • Health and Fitness: group exercise, strength training, walking, yoga, personal fitness and more
  • Older Adults: health and fitness, social clubs, volunteering, and more
  • SCUBA: the history of national dive training in the U.S. began with the development of the YMCA SCUBA Program
  • Adventure Guides: strengthen relationships between parents and children

In the US, the YMCA Adventure Guides (originally called YMCA Indian Guides, Princess, Braves and Maidens) have provided structured opportunities for fellowship, camping, and community-building activities (including craft-making and community service) for several generations of parents and kids in kindergarten through third grade.

The roots of these still vibrant programs stem from similar activities dating back to 1926. Notable founders of YMCA Adventure Guides include Harold Keltner, a St. Louis YMCA director, and indirectly, Joe Friday, an Ojibwa hunting guide. The two men met in the early 1920s, when Joe Friday was a speaker at a local YMCA banquet for Fathers and Sons that Harold Keltner had arranged. Today, Joe Friday and Harold Keltner are commemorated with patch awards honoring their legacy which are given out to distinguished YMCA volunteers in the program.

YMCA Adventure Guides participants historically took pride in cultivating respect and honor for Native American culture. Responding to a number of variables, including making the program more culturally sensitive and attracting a broader audience, in 2003 the program evolved into what is now known nationally as "YMCA Adventure Guides," "Trailblazers" is the YMCA's parent/child program for older kids. Local YMCA's are currently still free to continue support of the Native American theme and several do so. In areas where the local YMCA has elected to convert to the "Adventure Guides", many Y-Guides groups have separated from the YMCA and operate independently.

In some programs, children earn patches for achieving various goals, such as completing a designated nature hike or participating in Y-sponsored events. A typical, suburban Adventure Guide meeting was parodied in the Bob Hope/Lucille Ball comedy of 1960, The Facts of Life. More recently, the continued popularity of the YMCA Adventure Guides is seen in the 1995 Chevy Chase/Farrah Fawcett comedy, Man of the House, wherein a campout takes place complete with the dads and kids addressing one another by their program names in patch-covered vests, wearing headdresses, singing songs, and roasting marshmallows around a campfire.

Building Strong Communities

Many colleges and universities owe their creation to the YMCA. Springfield College was founded in 1885 as an international training school for YMCA Professionals, while Sir George Williams University—one of the two schools that eventually became Concordia University—started from night courses offered at the Montreal YMCA.

Northeastern University, Boston began out of a YMCA in Boston, and Franklin University began as the YMCA School of Commerce.

The YMCA pioneered the concept of night school, providing educational opportunities for people with full-time employment. Many YMCAs offer ESL programs, alternative high school, day care, and summer camp programs.

American high school students have a chance to participate in YMCA Youth and Government, wherein clubs of kids representing each YMCA community convene annually in their respective state legislatures to "take over the State Capitol for a day." YMCA Youth and Government helps teens learn about and participate in civics in a real-world setting.

The Archive of the YMCA is housed at the University of Birmingham Special Collections.

2006 marks the 100th anniversary of group swimming at the YMCA.

Interesting Facts About the YMCA

Did you know?

Basketball, volleyball, swimming pools, and racquetball were all developed by YMCA instructors.

It is very common for YMCAs to have weight rooms, along with facilities for playing various sports.

Freed slave, Anthony Bowen, founded a black YMCA in Washington, D.C. in 1853 - one of the earliest African-American organizations in the United States.

The first YMCA to serve the military was founded in 1857 in Portsmouth, VA.

Today, the Armed Services YMCA or "ASYMCA" operates at 17 dedicated branch locations and seven affiliated community YMCAs, as well as 10 Department of Defense/Department of Homeland Security affiliates worldwide. ASYMCA offers essential programs such as childcare, hospital assistance, spouse support services, food services, computer training classes, health and wellness services, and holiday meals, among many others. In 2004, the ASYMCA served more than 433,340 military family participants.

When the Civil War began, more than 5,000 volunteers, including Walt Whitman signed up with the United States Christain Commission - the predecessor of the Armed Services YMCA - to aid soldiers on the battlefield, in hospitals, army camps and prisoner-of-war compounds.

Boston staffer Robert J Roberts coined the term "body builder" in 1881.

James Naismith invented basketball at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, MA.

Another instructor thought that basketball was overly strenuous for businessmen and so he combined elements of basketball, tennis and handball to invent a game now know as volleyball.

Physical Fitness

The following is in dispute. [1] Up until the YMCA became co-ed in the early 1960s, men and boys, including the swimming instructors, swam in a state of complete nakedness. The original reason cited for not allowing swimsuits in the pool was that the cotton or even older wool swimsuits would clog up the filtration system. At that time, male-segregated nudity was very common in the locker rooms while showering or while swimming in male-only high-school swimming classes. It was understood that there was nothing wrong or sexual about males seeing other males while naked. Females were never allowed to be present in such a setting.[Dallas Morning News. Dallas, Tex.: Jul 3, 1995. pg. 21.A] [2]

See also

External links

References

  1. ^ "YMCA National Profiles". World Alliance of YMCAs. Retrieved 2006-04-02.
  2. ^ From Evangelism to General Service: The Transformation of the YMCA. Mayer N. Zald, Patricia Denton (September 1963). Administrative Science Quarterly, 8 (2), 214-234.
  3. ^ "Love, Compassion and Justice are our guiding principles". Christian News. Retrieved 2006-04-03.
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