The start of an incredible journey

This is my first time posting a blog, one of many experiences that has been new to me this year thanks to some incredible opportunities I have had within the YMCA. I have been at my YMCA, Fairthorne Manor for 5 years now, I am incredibily passionate at what I do and the YMCA is part of who I am and the work has great value and I have progressed and developed as a individual.
I was lucky enough to have the priveldge of going to World Council in the Rocky Mountains in July and since the event I feel my mind has been broadened to the amazing work that other YMCA's are doing around the world. I met so many different interesting people who were caring and welcoming and always had the time to engage and listen to peoples stories, I instantly felt part of a group, full of ideas on this journey of empowering young people. Some of the speeches and workshops I particpated in gave me more of an insight into the work of the global YMCA  and even though my local YMCA is my passion and it reaches out into the community and changes people's lives I now want to see what happens in other countries and how their local YMCA's make a difference.
In two days time I am travelling to Kosovo to take part in the Bridges for the Future project and I am very excited to be taking part in something that I wouldnt have even thought I would be doing this time last year. People at work are calling me a jet setter this year as its the second time I am going on a YMCA International trip but its not very often opportunities come around so I feel like this is my year to grab the chance and put myself out there to raise awareness and to educate other young people on international issues.

An eye opener from Poland

Early May this year myself, my CEO & about 8 other volunteers at Bolton YMCA & its partner organisations got the chance to visit Southern Poland on a Cultural visit. The members of the group with ages from 20 to 72 came from a wide range of backgrounds but all had some connection with Bolton YMCA.

During our stay at a small hostel in Lanckorona, about 40 km from Krakow we were able to experience a range of different sights & food, along with work towards team & personal development. The places we had the chance to visit included the world famous Wieliczka Salt Mines, the Cathedral where Saint John Paul II used to give mass, Krakow Market & Castle, Lanckorona Castle & Auschwitz. We couldn't help but be left in awe of the Salt Mines, the market in Krakow has to be one of the best places in the world to get anything & everything Amber, & those of faith found the walk taking the route of pilgrims to the Cathedral particularly special. In addition to these visits we also got involved in helping the centre where we were staying with some much needed weeding & painting their perimeter fence, along with visiting the local school to help some of their students with their English. Most nights we would eat out at a local restaurant, however one night we had a barbecue & a lovely Fire we set up ourselves.

Overall probably the most influential experience of the trip was the visit to Auschwitz. It brought some of our group to tears & moved all. Although the holocaust is something that is taught in Schools, prior to the visit it was easy to think that it was in some far off place & that what happened is so distance from the present. You couldn't be more wrong – It was only an hour & a half minibus ride from our Lovely Village of Lanckorona that one of our group called 'Paradise.' The grass, trees & sunshine over the the two Auschwitz camps we visited easily betrayed the horror of what took place here 70 years ago.

Another impression gained from school history lessons was that people went to Auschwitz & lived there for 5 years, & that those that survived were the lucky ones. Learning about the conditions & procedures there we found out that if you went to Auschwitz-Birkenau and happened to be Young, Old, Disabled, with Children or simply just Female, you would be sent straight to the gas chambers. If you were 'fortunate' to look healthy, strong and/or male you would be worked to death, if you didn't die from disease or brutality first. The average life span of people spared for forced labour was between 3 & 6 months, however in the records we were shocked to discover that in reality many only lasted a matter of weeks. Those that survived until liberation you can only imagine were left totally broken by the event & the hard choices they had to make to survive. Our experience of the visit reminded us of how fortunate we are to be alive now under a democracy & how important it is to make sure that history should never be allowed to repeat itself.

For me personally the experience that had the most impact on me was the visit to Krakow's YMCA. Like our YMCA at Bolton, you could see that the building was large, old & could do with some renovation, however what was clear to see once inside was that it was a hub for the community filled with enthusiastic staff. Whilst there we saw the large swimming pool they have in their basement along with their Gym, & Cafe/Shop. We learnt that unlike many YMCA's in England that Krakow YMCA receives little or no funding from the Polish Government & as such relies on Donations & charging users a small fee for using the facilities. The Cafe/Shop also provides the YMCA with another revenue stream.

What I found impressive was the Tenacity of the Polish YMCA Movement, which despite only being formed in 1919, persisted throughout the Second World War even whilst Poland was being occupied by the Nazis, & where it wasn't possible to operate in Poland, Polish YMCAs were set up where Jewish Refugees & Polish Soldiers relocated to during the war. During the war many people within the Polish YMCA movement who resisted the Nazi occupation in Poland & helped Jews escape persecution paid for their actions with their lives. Although YMCA was made illegal in Poland in 1949 whilst the country was under communist control, following the Collapse of the USSR, the YMCA movement like a Phoenix, rose from the ashes & re-established itself in Poland in 1990. Unfortunately, the YMCA movement in Poland still has not had most of its buildings & assets that were seized by the Communists in 1949 returned to this day by the current government.

All these experiences got me thinking about our YMCA movement. We have a lot be proud of as a movement, including its age, the things we have invented, been involved in, the good work we do, the sacrifices we have made as a movement & as individuals, since our formation in 1844. In terms of the English movement, the fact that it was an Englishman called George Williams who formed us in London is a big claim to fame.

But bragging to the rest of the international movements &  people across the world that we invented the YMCA 170 years ago, as awesome as it is, only gets us so far. What I am trying to say is in recent history we don't have anything that comes anywhere close to saying "THAT WAS US." Now I'm not asking for a new sport to be invented just so we can put English YMCAs back on the map, or a New World War so we can help out - Nobody would dream of that, and as a result of the dire situation in Ukraine we are close enough as it is.

Being the founding movement however, with a massive head start over all the other movements, we should be leading the way. Yet every time I go abroad & see another YMCA, I feel like we are lagging behind, when we should be the guiding light. I can't be the only person in our movement feeling this way, & in truth I know I am not.

This isn't about being in competition with YMCAs from other countries, it is about moving forward. Why? Because we are a movement!!! This is what movements do. As a movement we should never be content with where we are, yet I feel we have come to stand, or at the very least have slowed to a crawl.

Yes, we took part in the last Two World Challenge Events, & yes, we shouted for all the World to hear for the last one that we stand for "Young People & we want their voices to be heard," but are we really doing it? I am not so sure. Right now we are "recovering" from the biggest financial crisis in recent times, in the middle of a cost of living crisis, & have massive numbers of Young People without work. This is our call to action. This our time to stand up for Young People.

But maybe we are too busy looking after ourselves, our YMCA Movement, our YMCA buildings, our careers. Why? Because we have become too reliant on the Government & the funding from it, & too scared of what the people in power will do, if we truly stand up for all young people, not just those we serve. I can understand why decision makers at the top of the movement are making the decisions they are making. I can understand, but they are not always the right ones, in my eyes, or the Young People. These decisions are being made to maintain our movement in its current form the best they can.

As a trustee, albeit a young trustee, I know a number of the biggest threats that would have an impact on the survival of our YMCAs, and the YMCA movement is right to tackle all these threats in any way it can, but not at the expense of who we are. What we stand for.

We stand for Young People!!! Now that is a binary statement, we either do or we don't, there is no middle ground. When you say something like that you don't have a choice to pick & choose what fights you want to fight, & where you want to compromise. Yet maybe we are, maybe we are making choices primarily on the effect it will have on our YMCAs, at the expense of issues which affect the Young People, we said we stand for, possibly more than our organisation?

As I said already, We stand for Young People - That's all Young People, all the time, everytime.

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As a movement we are far too reliant on Government funding. We need to wake up to the reality that Young People are not a priority of this Government & it could be argued that they are not the priority of past or future governments, so rather than chasing crumbs that are only ever going to get fewer in number, at the expense of our soul, we should find another way. Maybe people have forgotten that our YMCA buildings, centres, & housing are just vehicles for the change, that YMCA does not need them to be a force for change. They help the change, they are not the change. Don't get me wrong, I can understand people's sentimentality to their own YMCAs, as I am to mine, but remember the building is just the building.

Not too long ago I saw an article about a large national charity of a similar age & Christian background to our organisation, who whilst doing its charity work was working alongside the DWP & Police. The people who the charity were working with were vulnerable people & the process of the charity working with the DWP & Police, was putting these people at risk of arrest or sanctions. This shocked me & made me question a charity which most people recognise as being a pillar of the community. It also made me wonder what their motive was behind this? Needless to say the revelation set a switch in my mind that I never ever want to be involved with them, because, in my eyes they had sold their soul.

Why does this matter? Because maybe people have forgotten that we as a YMCA are not here to judge Young People, we are here to help them. That we are an Non-governmental organisation founded on Christian values, which means we are not here to help governments criminalise or punish Young People. That movements, like the Polish YMCA which had survived Nazism & re-emerged post Communism, survived because people believe in the YMCA & the good work it does. That the Global YMCA movement survives & flourishes today because people believe in us.

Maybe people have also forgotten that our staff, our volunteers, our Chief Executives & board members, You & me, that they/we are just caretakers. This means we have to be responsible with the YMCA, it is not ours to break, so we must make sure we do the right thing by the Young People, so people continue to believe in the YMCA & for it to live on.

A wise man told me when I was much younger "It's your Youth Club." He was right, but not nearly enough. Our Youth Clubs, Housing, Help groups, etc, they don't just belong to the Young People, neither does the individual YMCA buildings, or the national YMCA body.

The whole YMCA movement belongs to the Young People.

And if that is so maybe it should be the Young People making the decisions, as they are the real stakeholders. Maybe instead of our boards being made up of mostly older people there should be a fairer balance. Maybe instead of our CEOs, voting on top down changes from our national governing body, Young People from our YMCAs should be voting. Maybe instead of us just saying we stand for young people, we actually stand for young people in every action we do & facilitate a way of enabling young people to unionise & stand up for themselves.

I hear all the time from people within the movement that we are 'Standing on the Shoulders of Giants.' Well sometimes I feel that those Giants have got shackles around them. We need to break these off. We, as part of a Global Movement, should not be afraid of standing against anyone in standing up for the rights & voices of Young People, for as long as we are united as YMCA nothing will ever come close to dwarfing us.

Now that I have got that off my chest, what should we do about it?

Todays viewers come from.......

United Kingdom	109
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Russia	7
Romania	6
China	5
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From Frah with Love

First, I have never seen such a beautiful mountainous country more cut off from the real world and yet still so proud and satisfied. A country where only the 2 main roads are asphalt roads. A country where (minus the capital) people live in small villages without water and gas. A country  where people are more hospitable, open and kind to strangers than anywhere else in the world. 

Before I set out on this trip I didn’t necessarily think I could find any connection to a piece of land and a people I didn’t know much about. I knew about the war and the ongoing conflict and had read about the struggle. But if there is one thing I’ve learnt from being on this study visit to Karabakh, it’s how important it is to see things with your own eyes because stories alone aren’t enough. The stories and the lives that were affected by the continuous struggle came to life.

Traces of bullets are still seen on buildings almost everywhere in this Karabakh, a  country recovering from a major ethnic conflict. While modern tall buildings are being erected alongside shabby houses in  Stepanakert and while the city’s business centre with its posh hotels, beautiful shops and restaurants is as busy as anywhere in major European cities, there are still people who bear noticeable sorrow as they struggle yet with the loss of their families and loved ones in the war. Many of them say they are still waiting for justice to be administered on war criminals.

  

During the meetings with the federal officials, they highly spoke of the work Artsakh YMCA is doing, and offered enthusiastic expressions of support commitment and also expressed their deep appreciation for the cooperation between the local governments, communities and the YMCA, and evidence of great courage from young leaders were also an inspiration to all of us. The stories shared with us and the hospitality of the people added both physical and communal  element of warmth and inclusion.

  

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. as religious leaders we do our best to bring peace to negotiate peace and we do not hate; we believe in God. If we want God's victory, we must love. Even if there are demonic forces at work, not only in this conflict, but in other parts of the world, we must still love." 

This trip was a life changing experience, Not only did we gain knowledge that went far beyond the textbook, we were surrounded by such talented young YMCA leaders which was such an inspiration . 

The importance in coming here was not just to see the beauty of the land but also to get to know the people to learn about the situation and the aftermath of the war in Karabakh. It may have been a short experience but it was definitely a defining one that I’m so thankful for one that allowed me to a form a connection with the land, a hidden treasure, blessed bountifully by nature and its beautiful people.

It was truly amazing for me to see a country that had undergone such hardship grow to become that which it has accomplished today, and growing towards what it will accomplish in the future.

There some experiences that stay with you for the rest of your life and make you a richer person as a result  (and i am not talking about monetarily) and by far this study visit has done just that for me, it will be an experience i will share with not just my colleagues, family friends but to everyone who crosses my path in life and who else gives one such experience but YMCA

To the young leaders of Artsakh YMCA you make the YMCA proud, you INSPIRE me, I will never forget your welcoming smiles . God  bless you and I truly wish you peace and may you live peacefully with your neighbours and within yourselves.