Central Florida Young Mens Christian Association

Programs: Healthy living programs and initiatives:the ymca of central florida is committed not only to strengthening communities, but also in strengthening families and individuals. Using our family centers as a springboard for healthy living, the y offers a plethora of programs from youth fitness programs to personal training for adults and group exercise programs for seniors, all focused to encourage healthy living habits. With families making up 81% of y memberships, the y works to connect families through fitness games and weekly activities, including nutrition education and cooking classes. Across our 19 family centers in 2017, the y offered over 5,200 group exercise classes including aqua-zumba, core training, cycling, strength training and many more. Similarly, y staff worked with over 55,000 individuals on our wellness floors to help create a personalized program to meet their individual health goals, including the use of traditional wellness programming, such as treadmills and other machines. Additionally, with one in two adults being diagnosed with one or more chronic health conditions, the y is focusing on leveraging evidence-based programs to promote wellness, reduce risks of chronic conditions, and reclaim health after diagnosis. In 2017, the ymca of central florida ran five evidence-based programs in multiple sites across six counties, serving over 1,000 individuals and families. These programs include: the ymca's diabetes prevention program, livestrong at the ymca (cancer survivorship), healthy weight and your child (youth obesity), enhancefitness (arthritis), and moving for better balance (falls prevention). But healthy living expands beyond the four walls of the y through initiatives such as communities for health, in its second year, designed to engage individuals where they work to reduce their risk of diabetes. This workforce initiative, partially funded by the kresge foundation, impacted over 2,500 individuals who wanted to begin a health journey together; while similarly, healthier life rx, the y's personalized health coaching program, also impacted 515 individuals at work and in the community, reducing risks for chronic conditions including obesity, high blood pressure and certain types of cancer. Finally, last year the y worked in partnership with florida hospital, orlando health, munroe regional medical and the west orange healthcare district to create and implement an array of healthy living programs and initiatives that, coupled with our other healthy living initiatives, impacted over 412,500 individuals and strengthened the lives and communities the ymca of central florida serves by improving health, wellness and chronic disease prevention.

youth development programs and initiatives: youth development is a key pillar of the ymca of central florida and focuses on nurturing the potential of every child and teen through programs focused on values, reading/achievement, wellness and strengthening families. The y's education initiative objective is to substantially increase the y's capacity to support the school readiness and school success of children. Specifically, in 2017, the y cared for 2,200 children daily in their child development centers and used evidence-based early learning in its two ymca child development centers at walt disney world, which served 650 children per day 365 days a year. Similarly, over 11,000 elementary, middle and high school students in our after school programs, located directly in 64 schools across orange, osceola, lake, brevard and seminole counties, were provided hands-on reading, science and math activities, along with career mentoring, music and arts. This commitment to providing an innovative learning environments is also seen in summer learning and out of school time learning to improve academic outcomes, with last year including 25,441 over 25,000 campers attending weekly summer programs at 48 sites and at the y's camp wewa (a unique overnight y camp experience). Additionally, youth programming is designed to focus on wellness to reduce childhood obesity and teach healthy habits. In 2017, more than 25,000 kids learned values, sportsmanship and confidence while being physically active in y youth sports and another 25,000 youth completed 60 minutes or more of physical activity every day during our 8-week summer camp program. Moreover, hundreds developed character and leadership skills through involvement with ymca teen boards, the y christian youth conferences and youth in government activities, as well as community service projects. And as families struggle to stay connected, the y continues to focus on providing opportunities for families to engage through the creation of special events such as healthy kids day, where in 2017, an additional nearly 7,000 families were served across central florida. The y continues to work towards the daily provision of a safe, positive place to learn and grow for our youth and where families can reconnect and become stronger together.

aquatics: with water everywhere in florida, the y knows that swimming is a life skill that every child must learn to stay safe, secure and enjoy the water. And to meet the needs of everyone from infants to seniors, the ymca of central florida has invested in an aquatics program that ranges from drowning prevention (safe start) to introductory swimming (safety around water week) and swim lessons for youth and adults. To meet these demands, the y of central florida is home to two olympic-size pool and diving platforms at the ymca aquatic center as well as easy access pools that provide dignity and mobility across our association. Additionally, these pools are home to ycf diving and swim teams that compete locally and nationally and serve as home to seven (7) high school swim and water polo teams, plus host over 60 high school swim meets as well as special olympics. But for the y it all begins with the reality that with drowning as the leading cause of death in florida for children under the age of four (4) years and, in central florida, where water is plentiful and easily accessible, the risk of drowning is even higher. To respond to this challenge, the y of central florida teamed with dr. Phillips charities and infant swimming resource to develop and deliver "safe start," which is a drowning-prevention swim class offered to infants as young as six (6) months. Safe start teaches kids how to survive in the water by holding their breath underwater and how to roll over and float. Safe start allows the y to combat the rate of child drowning one infant at a time, and in 2017, over 800 children ages six (6) months to six (6) years of age, enrolled in safe start, bringing the total to over 19,000 kids who have completed the program since 1999. In addition, in 2017, the y offered its annual safety around water program where for one week in april, the y provided free swim lessons in family center locations with pools. During this week, kids who sign up receive a daily -hour swim lesson, a water safety component, character value lessons, a take-home activity, and a y-memory-maker. Kids ages 3 to 14 are eligible and over 1,600 kids participated in this one-week life-saving focus. In total, over 70,000 y swim lessons were taught to adults and children in 2017 and the result of this type of scope and effort is a strong aquatics program that encourages not only water safety, but swim proficiency, and saw 1,000 youth participate on one of the 15 ycf swim teams, which placed in the top 12 at the 2017 ymca short course swimming nationals, featuring 200 ys from across the country. Similarly, over 100 youth participated on a ycf dive team last year, who were overall combined team champions at the ymca diving nationals. With 26 indoor and outdoor pools, including zero-depth pools, a warm-water teaching pool and a dive well, the ymca of central florida is committed to water safety and the positive impact aquatics can have on health and well-being.

social responsibility inititatives: at the ymca of central florida, we provide opportunities to give back, support our neighbors, and make our community a better place by uniting people of all ages, faiths and backgrounds through the y mission. There are many ways to get involved in making a difference through the y, like becoming a volunteer, tutor, mentor or donor. In fact, as a volunteer-based organization, the y depends upon volunteers to provide the necessary support and infrastructure to run programs. In 2017, that included over 2,500 volunteers serving as youth sports coaches and over 1,000 donors/volunteers filling nearly 10,000 boxes for operation christmas child. Additionally, 25 community clergy volunteered as chaplains in eight y family centers across central florida to support our members and visitors in spirit, mind and body. In total last year, over 22,000 individuals served as y volunteers and, to continue to serve our community in this way, our plan is to grow an army of 40,000 community advocates to help make our neighborhoods and everyone in them stronger than ever. Additionally, in 2017, in support of the y's christian mission, the ymca of central florida convened over 5,000 people of every faith and background to pray for our communities and their leaders during ymca prayer breakfasts known as the arthur "pappy" kennedy/martin luther king prayer breakfast and annual celebration of prayer. The y's social responsibility is focused on bringing our cause to life by giving back and providing support to our neighbors. This organization funds services, programs, and membership costs in fragile communities, equating to over $3 million annually. Approximately 95% of members in these outreach communities are given membership financial assistance through the scholarship fund. We are heavily involved in supporting brighter futures for our all of our youth, and in 2017 $121,000 was used to fully fund the youth development program known as teen achievers. Teen achievers helped prepare a diverse group of nearly 300 students in our outreach communities for a successful future in 2017, by offering them mentoring opportunities, tutoring, and even college tours. This association collaborates with orange county to run before and after school programs. 14 of those elementary schools and four middle schools are considered title one schools, with 60-100% of the student body receiving free and reduced lunch. To support this need for approximately 1,300 elementary and 400 middle school students, over $1. 5 million was provided by the ymca and partnerships with local government. The y holds true to our mission in everything we do: "to improve lives of all in central florida by connecting individuals, families, and communities with opportunities based on christian values that strengthen the spirit, mind, and body. " the y, in partnership with local donors, has invested roughly $18 million to update and operate outreach ys in fragile communities so that we can organize diverse communities and help break the social trend of isolation among neighbors. Our desire is for each y family center to be the community-gathering place that connects families and neighbors, provides resources to meet needs, and inspires participants to give back to their community.