YMCA: A Personal Look at Helping Communities

Getting to Know the YMCA

The YMCA is one of the largest and well known non-profit organizations in the United States.  Their presence is seen throughout local communities and national campaigns.  The YMCA organization has teamed with Walmart to fight child hunger and voiced support for Michelle Obama’s Partnership for Healthier America initiative.  While most people are aware of the YMCA, few understand it from an “inside” view.  One of these few is Stephanie Crockett, a 21-year-old YMCA employee.  Stephanie has worked for YMCA for the past four years as a lifeguard, swim coach, and mentor.  The organization’s mission is “to put Christian principles into practice through programs that build a healthy spirit, mind and body for all” (YMCA, 2012).  Stephanie has seen that this mission is pursued and maintained and her personal experiences support the YMCA’s mission to help local communities.

Getting to Know Stephanie Crockett

Sporting her YMCA gear

Stephanie beams when she talks about her various experiences at the YMCA.  Her story there began when she started babysitting for children whose father worked as a director of the local chapter of YMCA.  As Stephanie grew close with the family, she realized that she loved taking care of children and being with them as they developed and learned.  This prompted her to apply for the lifeguard position at the YMCA in her home state of Michigan.  Stephanie explained that YMCA practices four to five core values, including respect, responsibility, honesty, caring, and faith.  However, depending on the area, some branches do not actively follow the “faith” value.  Stephanie notes, “Some choose to treat YMCA as a ‘gym and swim’, yet having ‘faith’ cut does not impact how the organization as much as one would think.”  It comes down to the actions of each employee, whether they are pursuing the Christian lifestyle or not.  Children’s lives are being impacted and this is not an area to take lightly.  For Stephanie, it is the moment when she can see the look on a child’s face when they realize that they can swim because it gives them confidence and a feeling of self-worth.  Through this, Stephanie’s own goals have aligned with the goals of the YMCA organization.  While Stephanie understands that some parts of the YMCA are losing the Christian principles they were based upon, she continues to speak frankly about her faith.  Regarding faith in her workplace, Stephanie says, “Hopefully, others see that YMCA means more than just a job to me.  I feel comfortable at YMCA to talk about my faith if the situation arises since YMCA was founded on Christian beliefs.”  Stephanie wishes to work as “Executive Director of Camping Services” which is a management-level position within YMCA.  She now has skills, like risk-management and leadership skills, that she can apply to her career.

Overall, it seems that though faith is being forgotten on a larger sense, employees like Stephanie can effectively mentor children through loving actions and not just branding them with Christian ideas that they might not yet understand.  Stephanie sees the importance of Christian principles and does want them to play a part in her career at YMCA.  Stephanie passionately describes her plans, “YMCA does help families and build character.  I am disappointed that YMCA doesn’t always follow Christian values; however if I were in a management position, I would refocus standards to reflect Christianity and reinforce Christian values.”  From my interactions with Stephanie, I have seen that she is already reinforcing Christian values by her kind actions and words towards those she works with.  This, in itself, upholds the YMCA’s original stance to practice Christian principles to build a healthy community.

Conversing with friends about YMCA