Ashley DeVecht

The Heart of the Matter

About 66 percent of all U.S. households are located within three miles of one of the 2,686 YMCAs. But location is just the beginning when it comes to impacting an entire community. To become the heart of our communities—to be on top of the pulse and passion, strengths and needs of our neighborhoods—we, as the YMCA, have to understand the difference between being located “in” the community and being an intregal “part” of it.

Bob Cabeza, CEO of the YMCA of Greater Long Beach, knew the key to reaching out to the community—one characterized by a changing cultural scene—was creating innovative programs for his YMCA that would be relevant to his members. So he and the staff at The Downtown Long Beach YMCA created The Community Leadership Institute, which teaches disenfranchised, low-income parents of color how to be leaders in their community. Many of the Institute’s participants had previously lived in countries that were ruled by fear rather than democracy, so participants are taught how to talk with law enforcement to make their citizens, and they are given other training and resources to encourage civic engagement. “We’re building civic institutions within our community,” says Cabeza. “Out of that, our community residents [are beginning] to trust our YMCA not as a monolithic building that keeps people out, but as a place that brings people in. A place with people who look like them, speak their language, and help them with their daily life issues.”

“We don’t think of ‘programs,’ we think of support systems for our community,” adds Cabeza. “‘Strong communities’ isn’t about having a swimming program or a basketball gym, even though those are fine programs. ‘Strong communities’ is about building community from within.” Cabeza says being at the heart of the community is about understanding the context of the mission. “I think sometimes our YMCAs forget that we were started to keep young men from going into prostitution houses and opium dens in London, because they left their families to go work in the industrial society,” says Cabeza. He and his staff feel they have an opportunity not only to help make the community stronger, but also to meet community members in their weakness. “A YMCA that helps lift up folks, and supports them and doesn’t let them go because they make a mistake or doesn’t let them go because there’s tragedy is really the spirit and the history of who we are as the YMCA,” says Cabeza.

Cabeza is familiar with tragedy. It struck the Long Beach community last spring when 19-year-old Leeza Kim came down with H1N1. She was a member of the YMCA and had attended the YMCA Long Beach Youth Institute, a youth development program that teaches underprivileged kids about technology and social skills and helps them to achieve academic success. Because she didn’t have insurance, she couldn’t get medical help and she passed away.

Cabeza’s team showed up at her home, where the whole front room had become a shrine of sorts to the young girl, with candles, flowers and photos of Kim filling the space. The YMCA staff prayed with the family.

“You are part of a community when you help [members] with the things that they need to thrive, but you also mourn with them when there’s tragedy,” Cabeza says. “In our community there’s lots of tragedy. What I admire about my community is its resiliency and survivability despite the odds.”

Strong Communities Start with Strong Relationships
If the YMCA is really going to pursue, reflect and be the heart of communities, building long-lasting relationships is vital. Cal Johnson, Executive Director of the YMCA of Roanoke Valley, often tells the story of two Kirk Family YMCA members of different ages and backgrounds who became friends because of their involvement in the YMCA. Ed, a 93-year-old Caucasian and Roanoke native, grew up in a middle-class home during segregation. He began working out at the Y as part of his recovery plan after a heart attack. Richard, a middle-aged African-American man, grew up in a public housing project and uses the Y as part of his daily workout routine. After meeting at the Y, the two—despite having grown up in separate eras—have become buddies. Every morning they meet in the lobby after their workouts and talk sports and politics. If one isn’t there, he gets checked on by the other. “If these guys don’t meet at the Y,” says Johnson, “these guys don’t meet. The YMCA is all about the relationships we build and help others to build.We want to connect people to each other. It’s easy to do it through our programming—we get people in here for a class and they get to meet other people from the community. They find out  they had more in common than they realized.”

According to Johnson, relationship building should come naturally if a YMCA is pursuing its mission. “These stories are happening every day at every Y in the country. YMCAs who are meeting their mission have plenty of these stories.”

Are there limits to the YMCA’s mission? Does “strong communities” only mean the immediate circle of those in the community that are YMCA members?

No, says Johnson. “You know you’re doing things right when people who aren’t members of the YMCA refer to it as ‘our’ YMCA,” he says. “That’s how you know you’re part of the community.”

If that’s true—if the YMCA has a responsibility to impact neighbors, towns, and maybe even entire cities–how do we connect with people who aren’t members? How do we meet the needs of those who have never before stepped into a YMCA?

According to Cabeza, at least one part of that equation is easy: “Human beings of all cultures love food!” Reaching out to people is as easy as a dinner, a conversation, a cup of coffee, a smile or a celebration of a cultural holiday.

“It’s important to our families and our children to really cling to their culture. That’s really important to [our YMCA] as well,” says Cabeza. Because culture is important to him and his staff, he makes certain that staff members come from the same neighborhoods and speak the same languages as his members do. “We have an obligation to be very representative of the community we work in.”

To Johnson and his staff in Virginia, the best way to reach out to the community is to meet them where they are. That’s why each member of the management staff must commit to serving or leading in some community outlet besides the Y. “Leadership is really important to our YMCA,” says Johnson. “We are always making sure we have people involved with civic and other service organizations because we value staff who are connected to the community. It’s actually part of the job description.”

For Johnson’s staff that means joining the Rotary Club, helping out at the local nonprofit resource center, leading on the regional Boy Scout council, or serving on the city health advisory board. “It doesn’t matter how we connect with people—whether we connect with them through the YMCA and its programs or outside the YMCA in the community. The important thing is that we are building relationships,” he says.

Who Owns the Y?
What if the way to make the YMCA the heart of a community is allowing community members to take ownership of the YMCA? Based on Cabeza and Johnson’s experiences, doing so makes members more likely to invest in the YMCA both financially and emotionally. “We’ve found that people respond better to programming that they own,” says Johnson.

His YMCA hosts a monthly event for its middle school-aged students calledFriday Night Live. Activities range from open gym to holiday dances.

“With our middle schoolers we provide the facilities, but we try to let them plan the activities as much as possible.”

Students are more likely to spread the word about events when they’re involved in the planning, he says. The good news is this concept translates easily to fundraising. Allowing members to get creative with fundraising relieves Y staff of some of the responsibility and allows the community to take ownership of the Y.

Cabeza finds that people in different cultures and of different ages prefer to fundraise differently. For instance, if you tell his teens to go out and ask people for money, they will be terrified.

But, he says, allow them to sponsor an event that speaks to their generation, and you might get somewhere. Teens from the YMCA of Greater Long Beach raised $5,000 at a recent “battle of the bands” event. “We brought in six high school alternative rock bands and our high school kids ran it all,” says Cabeza.

To reach out to the Latino population in the Long Beach area, Cabeza said a few Y members threw a Latino Valentine’s Day dance, which also raised thousands of dollars. “Latinos don’t necessarily want to just give you money, they want to be part of an event. It’s not just about making a pitch; it’s about participating and celebrating and doing good at the same time.”

And maybe in the end, that’s what being the heart of the community is all about: celebrating culture, participating in the community through outside leadership positions, and doing good—even for those who aren’t members at the Y. Maybe it’s about making community the heart and passion of the YMCA. ■