I am very pleased with the progress made to date on the HCY strategy. It is being developed using a Logic Model approach which will clearly point to its outcomes. There is much work to be done and it will evolve over then next 2 months. The CEOs on the Workgroup along with Ida and myself look forward to responding to questions. The upcoming National CEO Forum is a terrific opportunity to engage in debate on our potential future. Great leadership, Scott.
John

In our community there is an increasing awareness among the leadership of voluntary and charitable organizations change is needed. Despite our collective work, poverty, children and risk, marginalized families are not decreasing. It calls for a new collective approach where we begin to actively share information, admit our challenges and build upon our respective strenghts. How we will proceed is an open question. Our YMCA as one of the larger and more robust charities is being asked to play an active role…so we are proceeding cautiously as the crystal ball is very hazy…

How is your community asking you to respond or adapt these days?

It’s interesting in Cape Breton. Services and programs for youth are gaining increasing attenion in our region, and I regret to say that our Y is currently under-delivering on its potential. Despite our lack of action, we’re being asked to provide leadership on question of youth homelessness, crime prevention and physical activity. We’re very happy to help and we’ll certainly gain new insights into what our eventual role could and should be. It’s simply a matter of organizational capacity at the moment, which we’ll overcome in the next several months.

Andre

How is your community asking you to respond or adapt these days?
The Aboriginal youth population is oen of the fastest growing populations in our city. The need for Aboriginal specific programming to meet the needs of these youth is great. Many schools have approached our department in the past year asking if we can fill that gap in programming in their schools. They need programs that not only embrace the YMCA values, but are strong in cultural essence.
YMCA Calgary Aboriginal Programs & Services department is well known in the Urban Aboriginal population here for the programs that we do, and many participants and families keep asking for so much more than we currently have. The potential for growth in this area is HUGE and highly anticipated. We are growing slowly and it is amazing!
Jesse

While our communities in Hamilton, Burlington and Brantford appreciate the leadership we give to the development and expansion of our traditional HFR centres, they are also asking us to expand our community outreach programs – to get to the children and families that can’t get to these centres, and give them the same opportunity to grow and reach their potential.

How is your community asking you to respond or adapt these days?

In response to the question, much depends on how “community is defined.”

In our community that consists of individuals, departments of government, other NFP and funding/program partners that have had a positive and mutual outcomes relationship, there continues to be a productive and evolving relationship to support changing interests and needs within community. What is not changing, in spite of evolving and in somecase emerging critical social, health and economic issues, is the continued lack of proactive approach to The YMCA by individuals, departments of government, other nfp and funding partners for involvment with them in addressing the issues. Rather than looking at “what is wrong with them or why do they not understand how we can help,” I think this is an interesting “call to action” for our movement with respect to looking in the mirror and determine our what changes are needed for our organizational and leadership competencies, behaviours and demonstratable actions to shift this balance. We have demonstrated our capacity and will to change for over 15 decades so I look forwawrd to the productive and challenging dialogue ahead.

Hi Everyone,

Sorry to be joining this great conversation a little late. I’ve been pretty focused on the CEO Forum!

I agree with Bette that we need a breakthrough in terms of the YMCA as a “sought-after” partner at the public policy table. This is beginning to happen in some parts of the country. It will only be a combination of a national brand strategy that aligns national, regional, provincial and local positioning as well as new skills and efforts in advocacy and strategic collaboration that will give us the results we want and need in this area.

I believe that the call for the YMCA to deliver program that reaches out beyond the walls of our buildings has been there for decades. Franco, Bryan and Andre point out that this call is still being heard. Perhaps if we could find a way to answer the call more often, we would be approached by more of the key policy makers more frequently.

Jesse, congratulations on your extraordinary work with urban aboriginal people in Calgary. YMCA Canada has been asked by Michael Adams of Environics Research to partner in the largest social values study of urban aboriginal people in Canadian history. I would love to get your advice on how we should respond to this opportunity.

John, I am very excited about our call to action on Healthy Children and Youth. We will definitely be building this into our communication over the coming months so that this can form a significant part of our dialogue and decision-making a the National Council meeting in May.