Essay On Ymca

901 Words2 Pages

They retain a commitment to serve all ages, abilities, and income to meet the community needs. The YMCA was found to address the problems of its communities and now YMCA looks at cities and towns leading new initiatives to help meet the needs of youth and their families. The YMCA ensures that people have the opportunity to become healthier, more confident, and secure in their own neighborhood. The original YMCA started in London in 1844 with a small group of young men who were new to the city. They came to look for jobs, but instead they found tenement housing and dangerous street influences. Twenty- two year old George Williams and 11 of his friends organized the first Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), which was a safe place to study the Bible and escape from the dangerous life of the streets (Maier, 2000). This association opened up to different members helping people meet social needs in the community. The YMCA made people feel safe and it also built a place for friendship because people started going there to share ideas and problems that they had. As days went by, YMCA became more popular and new associations opened up in different parts of the United States. One popular YMCA program, which is right here in New York City, is Cross Island YMCA Beacon Center. The Cross Island YMCA Beacon Center believes in promoting social and emotional growth in the people of the community. This program offers a wide variety of programs and services to help people learn healthy behavior and positive values. For teen programs, they offer services such as sports (basketball, martial arts, tennis, etc.), creative arts (dance, drama, step team, etc.), and visual arts (art works, fashion design, and photo works). These services help teens... ... middle of paper ... ... others to stay healthy. One important social problem that this agency addresses is poverty and lack of education. The Cross Island YMCA Beacon Center uses the social policy of education to improve educational outcomes for youth, particularly in low-income communities. YMCAs across the country provide academic support and enrichment in both early learning and also out of school environment. The Beacon Center offer tutoring, mentoring, and counseling for the youth so they can have the tools and motivation to succeed in school and in life. The agency provides many programs for the youth to help children interact with other people enhancing the child to mature emotionally and socially. Also, children who come from families that struggle to make ends meet have the opportunity to develop skills in different areas such as computer skills, drama, and graphic designs.

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