4 Years with YMCA Bimingham

I realised recently that I celebrated my 4 year anniversary with YMCA Birmingham. I’ve put together a few of my favourite moments so far in my journey. Thanks to all that have supported YMCA Birmingham and me so far! 

1. United Nations Economic Social Forum – Representing World/YMCA England & Wales as a Youth Ambassador at a United Nations Social Economic youth forum in New York. The forum provided a platform for youth to engage in a dialogue with Member States and to discuss the policy frameworks and promote innovative, approaches and initiatives for advancing youth development.
2. Parliament Visit/General Election Hustings - Organising a visit for young people to visit Parliament to speak about issues affecting them, helping shape a youth manifesto for the local area and arranging Hustings events which all promoted further opportunity for young people to have a voice in political matters.
3. Take-away Chefs - The project – Take Away Chefs – was a resident led programme which produced a booklet with healthy and easy-to-follow recipes, alongside a competition for two local schools to provide the artwork for the booklet. The project was highly commended from both the Money for Life Challenge and local MP Jack Dromey.
4. London Marathon - I have also ran London Marathon twice for YMCA Birmingham& England, that’s a bloody hard run but what an unbelievable feeling that you have conquered 26.2 miles and raised vital funds for vulnerable young people!
5. Unify - I was fortunate enough to be selected to represent YMCA Birmingham at the first Youth Unify conference in Lublin, Poland, I took a young person and lead my own small group of young people from all around Europe and it my role to facilitate time to consider and reflect upon YMCA’s Christian mission.
6.  Youth Matters Award - I was lucky enough to be put forward by the management team at YMCA Birmingham for the YMCA Matters Award. It was just an honour to be nominated, let alone win it. From winning the award I was promoted to the role Training and Employability officer in our brilliant Training team within our Social Enterprise
7.  Y-Care International, JAI Olive Picking Programme - I attended & took two young people from YMCA Birmingham to a 10 day project supporting Palestinian families in the villages of Wad Foukin, Beit Sahour, Teqou', Walaja and Beit Jala within the Bethlehem area, and tour within the Jerusalem area. This year, the program came under conditions of escalating settler attacks and Israeli army measures, which caused an increase in riots and popular resistance movements by Palestinian youth in various cities and villages throughout Palestine.
8.  Change Agents – The YMCA Change Agent programme is a World YMCA global leadership development programme to empower young leaders as change makers in their own communities, I’ve so far been on training programmes in France and Portugal. As part of the programme we build a project in our local community to support young people and help facilitate YMCA’s World Conference in Thailand.
9. Opening of the Chris Bryant Centre - The training team was fortunate enough to meet Princess Anne at the opening of the Chris Bryant Centre in Erdington. Princess Anne participated in a employability workshop and was great fun!
10. Princess Fiona - Many of my colleagues and friends from the gym will remmeber when I dressed as Princess Fiona to do a zumba class to raise money for residents at the Orchard, thanks Eileen and Emma for the makeup and dress!

It's not every day that you receive an email selecting you to represent YMCA at the UN

Blog written by Charlie Smith, Youth Ambassador from YMCA Norfolk, who represented YMCA England & Wales as part of World YMCA's delegation at the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum, in New York, on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 January.

It is not every day that you receive an email, stating that you have been selected to represent not only your local and national YMCA, but the World YMCA at the United Nations. Yup, the UNITED NATIONS. This is not small stuff but the big time. My immediate reaction was to pinch myself just to make sure that I was in fact awake and this was really happening.

After a long day of travelling, we were there! Checked in our little pod which would be home for the next few nights. Walking through the streets of New York to one of the many YMCA buildings they have providing affordable use of gyms, was just incredible. I am a short being but I felt so tiny walking in between buildings that had floor after floor! YMCA's Westside Building was equally as incredible. For a city with such modern construct to have this little gem of history was amazing.

Tuesday morning, the UN visit has arrived. And it was as incredible as I had imagined. The weather was questionable with snow and high winds, but that made for a wonderful backdrop to the views around the grounds of the UN. I had the great privilege to sit amongst the delegates from across the world, one of the best seats in the house. This just added to the experience.

It was great to hear in the opening section of the United Nations ECOSOC Youth Forum how the youth voice had a great role to play and that young people are the ‘innovators’, that we should allow all young people to ‘make noise’ at all times by removing those gatekeepers that they often come across.

Round table speakers gave me a great insight into what was achieved from so many across the world in various ways from fighting radical elements from the United Arab Emirates to educating young people in agricultural colleges providing them with a computer each in Cameroon.

To be perfectly honest, my knowledge of the ECOSOC Youth Forum was limited but this whole experience has opened my eyes to the vast knowledge and experience that could be utilised from various countries and that we should in fact share information rather than boast about ‘what we are doing’. It was an opportunity to raise concerns about different areas of work but to also provide advice on how to engage with young people who may be hardest to reach. 

This was evident in the breakout session I attended on the first day. I was able to meet and chat with various individuals about using science, technology and innovation to build engagement, to develop skills in this area but also most importantly build resilience and to help those that may have faced tragedy of some sort. As part of the group speaking mainly about resilience we spoke about the importance of having concrete foundations in place to then assist young people further with their development and how science and technology could assist with this. Conversations were based on improving ICT skills with young people and wider access to internet especially when a crisis had occurred.

We then had to report back our discussion to the rest of the breakout group. Without even thinking about it I placed my hand in the air to volunteer myself as tribute (Hunger Games reference for you there). So I had just said that I would speak in front of many on the main points we had made for future work- yeah I do not know why either. But I did it! I got up and spoke about our three main points to consider:

1. Building Science, Technology and Innovation infrastructure and improving literacy through local needs assessments as each country is different and requires different areas of technology.
2. Training of trainers to encourage community based interventions to identify specific skills and interests such as volunteer innovation hubs
3. Building data from all avenues in both public and private partnerships but from also those in the community to leverage big data. Also to ensure that the need of this data and the results are communicated those it would have a large effect on.

So I did it. I spoke at the United Nations, representing World YMCA! To say my mum was proud is an understatement.

Wednesday, Day two. This was as good as the first. Learning so much more than I could ever do by reading through information. I was able to get a real feel for what delegates wanted to express from their countries and organisations.

The breakout session around what is happening in Europe, North America and other states was as equally as interesting as the breakout session the day previously. We spoke about the European Youth Forum and shared vast knowledge of various government policies and how to engage young people further in the importance of their government and policies.

Having YMCA at the United Nations for the ECOSOC Youth Forum was really valuable. Many of the comments on how to engage young people and how to build and develop their resilience was something we were already aware of across the different YMCAs in attendance, or we were already working on this. We were then able to share across the delegates our own insight to this and often some of our suggestions had not even been thought of prior to the youth forum. We were able to give a youth voice at a global youth event which was invaluable.

This whole experience has opened my eyes to a larger picture and the importance of ALL YMCAs in the development of our young people as rightly said by one of the delegates ‘young people bring solutions rather than complaints’.

USA Discovery Visit Day 6

After a weekend of exploring Boston (depending on whose activity tracker you believe this ranged from 44,000 to 60,000 steps) we picked up our Discovery Visit schedule this morning with a visit to the Parkway YMCA.

On arrival the reception area brought the annual campaign to life with a large Christmas tree and wall of stars representing pledges made by members and businesses in the local community.  Philanthropy has been a key discovery throughout our visit as we have learnt about the culture of donating to the Y ranging from Board members (both local and association boards) through to staff and members.

Photo of annual appeal stars representing donations.

Parkway Y was redeveloped in the last 2 years and the quality of the facilities are outstanding, we toured the aquatics area, fitness centre, gymnasium (and even had a tour of the boiler room!) before meeting in the community room to talk with staff about fundraising and their childhood development programmes. 

From Parkway YMCA our next stop was Thanksgiving lunch hosted by Executive Director Billy Alves and his leadership team at Menino YMCA.  We were met with warmth and enthusiasm by Billy and his leadership Team and it was a pleasure to be invited to share lunch with them.

Photo with the leadership team from Menino Y

Throughout our visit we have been fortunate to hear the stories of some of the people involved in the Y and over lunch I met Lyle Jackson, Teen and Youth Sports Development Director.  Lyle shared his story with the Y which began at Springfield College where he found he was struggling with college and sought help. Lyle was pointed in the direction of Harry Rock and Erin Friedman who quickly realised his potential and got him involved in the wider YMCA Movement including a visit to London to see the work of some of the English YMCA’s.  Following his graduation from Springfield College Lyle then chose a career with the YMCA!

We had the pleasure of meeting Erin Friedman, Associate Director of Springfield College on Thursday and in the spirt of Thanksgiving I would like to share with you a Mission Moment Erin delivered at the Massachusettes YMCA Alliance meeting we attended.

As Thanksgiving nears, I come to you with a simple message about gratitude.

In a community where people feel isolated, disconnected and are longing to belong, we have a place called the Y. Steadfast and stable - a place to ‘be’ and ‘become’.

In a community where children may fail to reach their full potential due to lack of resources, we have a place called the Y.  Determined and driven - a place that nurtures the goodness in every child - socially, emotionally, cognitively and physically.

In a community where the health and wellness of children and adults alike has been significantly compromised, we have a place called the Y.  Collaborating and conscientious - a place that renews and rejuvenates healthy lifestyles.

In a community where our social and political views divide us, we have a place called the Y.  Unifying and unique - a place that builds bridges and professes to be the place for all.

In a community where new Americans arrive daily, we have a place called the Y.  Warm and welcoming - a place that helps some of out brightest yet most vulnerable settle in.  Let us be grateful.

In a WORLD challenged by conflicting ideals, torn apart by wars, lacking access to education, healthcare and recreation, we have places called the Y.  Powerful and purposeful - that serve as beacons of hope, love and peace throughout 119 countries around the world.

Let us be grateful for our global YMCA Movement.  The vision and legacy of George Williams.  Thank you for your service to this great movement.  Thank you for your continued servant leadership.  Your willingness and courage to stand for what is right.  Thank you for reinforcing that the Y is the place for all.   Thank you for modelling the way.  The Y way.

Thank you to all of our YMCA Colleagues who have welcomed us to your Y’s and shared with us your knowledge, experience, challenges and celebrations throughout our visit.  It has been a pleasure to meet and get to know each and everyone one of you.

We now have a short break in todays programme to pack in advance of our departure for the UK tomorrow evening, before dinner this evening with the Director of Healthy Living, Bobby Kleinau.

Welcome to Springfield

After a very inspiring and thought provoking 3 days with the YMCA of Greater New York it was time to move on to the second leg of our discovery visit. Day 4 began with an early start at Springfield College in Massachusetts. Our host for this part of the visit was Erin Friedman, the Director of YMCA relations at the college.

Despite Springfield being a normal US College, educating 1400 undergraduates a year, evidence of its YMCA roots were clear with the Body, Mind and Spirit Triangle displayed prominently on buildings and still part of the college's logo.

Springfield College began life in 1885 as the YMCA School for Christian Workers before evolving to become the YMCA Training School for much of its history. We learnt about the college's place in YMCA history providing training for YMCA professionals from across North America and the world.

Today any student at the college can add a minor in YMCA professional studies to any major study and it provides an opportunity for all students, not just those interested in a YMCA career to develop their academic skill set through courses, volunteer work and networking.

Posted on behalf of Jason Beattie - YMCA Norfolk

We spent a very interesting 45 minutes in the college museum with archivist Jeffery Monseau, who shared the story of basketball's invention at the college in 1891 and showed us different YMCA artefacts. This museum also hosts the YMCA Hall of Fame. A fascinating morning, which put in context the on going mission of the YMCA world wide.

Our afternoon was spent in Marlborough, at the Alliance meeting of the YMCAs from across Massachusetts. The Alliance Director, Peter Doliber, explained that this was a formalised partnership of 30 YMCAs operating over 410 locations and that the Alliance was able to access state funding for different projects which was then distributed to the individual YMCAs to do the delivery.

Peter presented an annual update to the 160 people present. YMCAs had served 1/5 of Massachusett's residents, had distributed $60m in financial aid, given $32m in scholarships to college, had focused on improving child literacy and facilitated 250 young people to engage in a youth Government prog

Three awards were made to public policy champions. The Youth Development award went to Commissioner Thomas Weber of the Early Education Department. The Social Responsibility award was given to Speaker of the House, Robert Deleo for bringing in state laws around gun safety, drug prevention and early education. The Health Living award went to state representative, Aaron Vega.

Giving awards to politicians and people of influence is somethings we have experienced in both New York and Massachusetts and it is very simple and way to build relationship and engage support from those with the power to help the work of the YMCA.

USA Discovery Visit Day 3

Posted on behalf of Julie Martin

The first few days have been totally amazing for all sorts of reasons.

We are hundreds of miles apart yet we all have that ‘want’ to transform lives, to care, to improve communities and to help  people reach their full potential.  

Thankyou everyone in NYC for your very warm welcome, for sharing, and making our stay so inspirational.

Across the world we seem to go arm in arm working to better lives.

I am proud to be part of this amazing family

USA Discovery Visit - Day 2

After hearing much about YMCA of Great New York's strategic direction and approaches on day 1 today we heard some of the detail that added flesh to the strategic skeleton that is driving their work forward across the five boroughs that comprise NYC.

As you might imagine an entrepreneurial approach is needed to sustain a near $200m operation and there are services and products that have a far greater drive for income than we typically see in our own Federation at home. Yet this generation of cash is needed to ensure that services for social good can be delivered in branches situated in the poorer neighbourhoods of the city and indeed to ensure that YMCA retains a physical presence in these areas. In fact, I would say that there are many common challenges faced by YMCA here and at home. Government policy has the potential to have a very real impact on not only the work we deliver but the very existence of some of our programmes and concise communication of our broad offer remains difficult.

What has remained consistent over the first few days is the warmth and enthusiasm of the welcome across the branches that we have visited, shown again today as we saw what Vanderbilt YMCA branch had to offer. The enthusiasm and positivity is infectious!


After a tour of the UN we were fortunate enough to be invited to the Hispanic Achievers Award's held at the prestigious Carnegie Hall. Here, we were given a very visual reminder of why YMCA exists and the life changing impact it has on the young people we serve. All of sudden the strategy, the income generating work, the investment in business infrastructure was shown to be a necessary diversion to achieve what we are really about. In front of a packed room, we heard about three young achievers who had overcome adversity and, through support from YMCA of Greater New York, achieved incredible things. Joshen Ayukawa recounted a troubled early childhood that could easily have forced him down the wrong path and yet his strength of character and a guiding hand from YMCA has resulted in hugely impressive individual with a positive future ahead and who is also contributing to help his peers and community. Congratulations also to Giselle Gonzalez and Shayna Gonzalez, both participating in a programme to boost the high school graduation rates of Hispanics in New York

I love strategy and dashboards and data and process but ultimately it is only there to allow people like Joshen, Giselle and Shayna to flourish.

Finally, I can't leave this blog without saying a huge thank you to all the staff of YMCA of Greater New York who we have met so far and especially Natalie Norton and Rayda Marquez who have been host extraordinaires and who have provided much food for thought.

Discovery Visit USA Day 1

Posted on behalf of Jo Chettleburgh - Director of Income Generation, YMCA England & Wales.

It’s my first time in America and I've been feeling both excited and apprehensive, today was a long day, heavy security, long flight and loads of traffic, but the lovely welcome we have received from YMCA New York City has made it all worthwhile, we had such an amazing evening with Rayda Director International Programs and Natalie Chief Operating Officer.

It’s also been lovely getting to know everyone in our group, lots of different skills, knowledge and experience coming together to represent YMCA England & Wales. It was strange trying to stay up as late as possible so that we wouldn’t wake up at 4am in the morning and be tired all day (Jason’s travel advice) J I woke up at 3.45am but soon fell asleep again.

13.11.2017

We started our day at YMCA New York City Westside with CEO Sharon Greenberger sharing her visionary and inspirational approach to strategic change. With the imminent launch of their 2018-2025 strategic plan it was great to see how the different strands of their work come together to deliver the key strategic priorities to Empower Youth, Improve Health and Strengthen Communities.

Our visit to YMCA Harlem Branch was extremely interesting; it was great to see the legacy of Sir George Williams come to life through the diversity of engagement with a complex and varied community.

To see first-hand the positive impact of the innovative and market leading New Americans Welcome Centres initiative was amazing.

Natalie Norton COO facilitated an excellent afternoon of knowledge sharing, discussion and debate with her Senior Management Team, giving great insight into the size and complexities of how YMCA NYC is changing and developing its self to deliver the strategic challenges that face all of us in this fast changing economic and social environment.

 

Our day finished with a lovely reception with staff and Trustees.Thank you all so very much for a great start to our Discovery Visit, really looking forward to the next few days.

Jo Chettleburgh

Director Income Generation