Discovery Visit Day 3
After 2 days meeting at YMCA Victoria office locations it was great to visit one of their centres - Carlton Baths in a suburb of Melbourne - and meet some of the staff there. Carlton is one of 7 large multipurpose leisure or 'rec' Centre's owned by local authorities in the state of Victoria and operated by the YMCA (or the 'Y' as they say here) on a lease. There is a big focus on 'aquatics' or swimming in what the Y does here. Carlton Baths is the name of the original open-air (I don't think you will find that in England!) public baths which have stood on the site for over a 100 years. The facilities have been expanded since then to include a fitness centre, sports hall, crèche and various multi-purpose rooms
We learned from this YMCA's Health and Wellness Strategy Leader, Troy, that just as in the UK over the last couple of years they have seen intense competition from 24 hour and budget gyms. They had also see competition from a range of High Intensity Training (HIT) physical programmes - many of them derived from one called Reebok Crossfit. As a result they have seen their membership levels dropping. In response to this they have developed their own high intensity trademarked programme called 'Adrenaline Hit' which they intend to licence to both YMCAs and other operators
Much of the day was spent learning about various global initiatives that YMCA Vic (Australian's seem to shorten everything) is involved in. It was amazing to discover what this YMCA was doing in this area, or space, and how they were aligning what they do with global YMCA initiatives. Much of this work seemed to have its origins in the YMCA World Council in Colorado in 2014, which I was privileged to attend, and to World Urban Network (WUN) conferences. Many of the people who presented to us had been to one or both of these and had come back inspired to make this YMCA more globally relevant
YMCA Vic is a massive organisation with a large workforce - over 6000 people. Many of these are casual workers and over 50% of them are under 25. It has learned from external research that a high proportion of young people (87%) expect their employer to provide international opportunities and is working hard to make this a reality. As a result they are developing peer to peer relationship with other YMCAs particularly within the Asia Pacific YMCA region and creating 3 month internship opportunities for many of their young staff with these YMCAs. At the same time they are creating reciprocal internship opportunities in Victoria
We were given two other fantastic case studies of global initiatives:
YMCA Unearth
We learned from Linda that Y Vic has partnered with the YMCA in Cambodia to develop a volunteer tourism programme called 'YMCA Unearth' which is currently being piloted with Y staff and volunteers. Participants pay for a 2 week trip or holiday to Cambodia. Under this scheme not only do they get to see amazing tourist sights like the sun rising at the 8th wonder of the world, Ankar Wat, they get to be involved in some genuine volunteering opportunities as part of the work that YMCA Cambodia is doing. This project is a triple win: the travellers contribute through their volunteering in Cambodia, YMCA Cambodia receives a % of the cost of the, very good value, price they have paid for the holiday, the travellers return to Australia enthused by their experience and wanting to volunteer further for the YMCA
Global drowning prevention
To
Tim Fallon
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