La Crosse Area Family Y M C A Inc

Programs: Youth development: we believe that all kids deserve the opportunity to discover who they are and what they can achieve. That's why, through the la crosse y, thousands of youth are cultivating the values, skills and relationships that lead to positive behaviors, better health and educational achievement. Some highlights in the area of youth development: childcare: our ymca provides high quality child care by providing comprehensive activities for preschool and school age children drawing on diverse members of the community. We provide both full and part time options to serve a wide range of family scheduling needs. Woven into the fabric of the ymca mission is a commitment to strengthening families. Ymca childcare programs relieve the burden of balancing work and family and make it possible for parents of children in our care to remain gainfully employed, knowing that their children are thriving in a safe, developmentally sound environment. The ymca provides a variety of activities that emphasize parent education and helps parents learn more about how to raise healthy, happy children who develop self-esteem and moral and ethical values. So that every child can lead a healthy life we have implemented national healthy eating and physical activity standards so that we can be an overall healthy childcare option. Every child in our programs receives fresh fruits and vegetables everyday in their breakfast and snack meals and enjoys 30 minutes or more of physical activity each day. Children have the opportunity to grow stronger and be ready for learning when their bodies and minds are healthy and active. We believe in meeting the needs of families in our community. In 2017 our school age childcare program and summer school age childcare programs provided care for 1,740 children. Our full time childcare center provided care for 140 children. Strengthening mental health & mental health awareness: thanks to generous support from the la crosse community foundation and gundersen lutheran medical foundation, our full time mental health director continued bringing awareness to mental health. Our mental health director is charged with improving mental health awareness in the community while continuing the teen mental health work at our community teen center. In 2017, we provided 207 hours of training to 2,500 individuals. Teen mentoring: the ymca community teen center continued to be revitalized thanks to a new community teen center. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, we opened a new state of the art 5,600 square foot community teen center. Under the supervision of the teen center director, we seek to fulfill the teen center's mission of 'engage youth and strengthen the community' by encouraging physical activity, getting teens outdoors to play, helping teens explore artistic talents and stretching comfort zones by asking teens to try new things. We serve adolescents from 8th grade to 12th grade. In 2017, teens visited the teen center more than 5,900 times and spend more than 13,200 hours at the center. Youth engagement: our youth engagement program, designed to work with and engage the youth and teens at our dahl ymca who are not normally engaged in a ymca programs, supported 3,178 visits in 2017. Our youth engagement staff work closely with children and teens in developing social skills, encouraging kids to make positive choices, and we provide free meals for young people. Gymnastics program: with the opening of our new gymnastics center, we experienced record enrollment with 5,186 enrollments in 2017 with children participating in our progressive lessons, clinics, camps, open gyms, private lessons and at the team level. Sports and play: in 2017 we had enrollment in our sports programs of 2,160. Our youth activity and sports programs are for children ages 3 - 17. This includes basketball, soccer and baseball classes and leagues for all ages, well as martial arts and activity camps like geo-caching and fishing. We also provided competitive basketball opportunities for 338 players in our aau basketball program. At the y, we believe every child deserves the chance to be healthy, active and confident. At our youth outdoor summer camps, children have the opportunity to meet new friends, develop their skills, and build self confidence while they explore and discover new things. The y's adapted programs: designed for children and teens with special needs, served 377 children and adults in adaptive programs in 2017. This includes adapted swimming lessons, adapted baseball and soccer, as well as adapted fitness classes. Our adapted programs have seen tremendous growth in recent years as a result of a concentrated effort to serve more people with special needs. Arts and humanities programs: arts and humanities classes had annual enrollment of more than 1,677 children participating in dance and art programming. Music lessons continued to experience record growth with enrollment of 98 children. Pre-school programs: pre-school classes including gym classes, arts classes and cooking classes had enrollment in 2017 of 661 children. The dahl aquatic center and rundle aquatic centers: continue to be popular destinations at our ymcas, with more than 170,000 visits annually. In addition to providing swimming lessons, water fitness activities, and family time, our aquatics departments provide community outreach programs around water safety for various community organizations. Education on basic water rescue, lifejacket fitting, open water swimming, river awareness and backyard pool safety is taught. In 2017, we had swimming lesson enrollment of 6,301 at our two pools. In addition, 180 young people participated on our wave swim team.

healthy living: throughout our community, the y is a leading voice in health and well-being. With a mission centered on balance, the y brings families closer together, encourages good health and fosters connections through fitness, sports, fun and shared interests. As a result, thousands of youth, adults and families in our community are receiving the support, guidance and resources needed to achieve greater health and well-being for their spirit, mind and body. Some highlights in the area of healthy living: family time: we believe that families that play together stay together. Recognizing the need for quality family time we offer several parent/child classes as well as monthly family fun nights. Our parent/child classes are designed to give mom and/or dad an opportunity to interact with their child/ren through activity. Whether it's family strength training, parent/child soccer or mommy and me cooking, our parent/child programs encourage open dialogue and learning together. Health, well-being & fitness: the r. W. Houser wellness center and cleary family wellness centers continue to be popular destinations at our y's with nearly 410,000 visits in 2017, up more than 100,000 visits over the prior year. Health & fitness classes: fitness classes continue to be a great way for members of all ages to get engaged and active, with 140,000 visits in 2017. Ymca special events: designed to improve the health and well-being of our community by engaging people of all ages through walks, runs, and more served more than 7,000 people in 2017. Ymca personal training: the ys personal training program emphasizes that fitness and wellness should be encouraged in a supportive environment. Each of our personal trainers strive daily to make each session impactful with their clients. Our unwavering determination to help our members achieve their fitness goals is just one reason our trainers love to work with our members. In 2017, we provided nearly 6,500 sessions of personal training, up 1,000 sessions over the prior year. Our pioneering healthier communities: work continued with a focus on improving the health and well-being of the community. The initiative where we focused our time and energy was on the development of the community's first food forest. The mission of the community food forest at the y is to increase access to healthy food in our community through an urban, easily-replicable model. Our vision for the food forest is to grow food together, rehabilitate our local ecosystem and provide educational opportunities for healthier residents and families. In 2017, more than 1,400 people visited the food forest and donated more than 2,500 hours of volunteer time. Program initiatives: livestrong at the ymca is a health and well-being program designed to address the specific wants, needs and interests of those impacted by cancer. Our y helps cancer survivors through the program. This work is important because medical studies show that moderate levels of appropriate physical activity can reduce fatigue, boost self esteem and improve muscle strength and physical endurance in individuals following cancer treatment. Physical activity has also been shown to reduce the risk for cancer reoccurrence. When a cancer survivor joins the livestrong at the ymca program, they do so knowing that our instructors will guide them safely through a workout program that allows our survivors to become stronger, gain functional ability and connect emotionally with other cancer survivors. In 2017, more than 650 cancer survivors were livestrong alumni group. Childwatch: our y's childwatch areas, which provide quality drop-in childcare for children while their parents are exercising, improve the health and well-being of families by providing quality care. In 2017, our childwatch programs experienced 51,000 visits. Diabetes prevention program: the ymca's diabetes prevention program is a lifestyle modification program that helps people reduce their risk for type 2-diabetes by helping them learn about eating healthier, increasing physical activity and other behavior changes. This program is available to anyone in the community who is at risk for developing diabetes. In 2017, classes impacted 45 participants in this life-changing program. In addition, our staff provided wellness coaching to 117 clients.

social responsibility: our y has been listening and responding to our communities' most critical needs for nearly 135 years. Whether developing skills or emotional well-being through education, welcoming and connecting diverse demographic populations, or preventing chronic disease and building healthier communities through collaborations with community partners, the y fosters the care and respect all people need and deserve. Through the y, hundreds of volunteers and donors as well as community leaders are empowering one in four of our community residents to be healthy, confident, connected and secure. Some highlights in the area of social responsibility: volunteerism: more than 1,200 volunteers contribute more than 8,000 volunteer hours annually in support of the ymca. Giving: in 2017, donations were made to the ymca toward our annual campaign totaling $750,000. These gifts support our neighbors by providing the funding needed to support the financial assistance program. Addressing hunger: in 2017 we continued our efforts to address food insecurity with children and families in our community. Through the y, we provided more than 200,000 healthy snacks and meals to children in the community. We partnered with the la crosse school district and the boys and girls club of la crosse to deliver the meals and snacks to children and families in need. Supporting our neighbors: in 2017 we provided approximately $1,200,000 in free, subsidized, or sponsored memberships and programs to thousands of our neighbors annually, ensuring the availability of the ymca's programs and services to those most in need. Currently one in four y members participates in ymca programs and activities through the y's financial assistance program. Capital expansion: in 2017, we experienced our first full year of occupancy and programming of our new expanded spaces. We programmed approximately 40,000 square feet of new space at our onalaska facility including a second gymnasium, a new fitness studio, an expanded wellness center, a large multi-purpose room with a teaching kitchen, and a gymnastics center. We added approximately 25,000 square feet of new space at our la crosse facility including a new wellness center, a new fitness studio, a group cycling studio, and a healthy living center - a new space created in partnership with gundersen health system. The healthy living center includes exam and consultation rooms, an exercise area for cancer patients and physical therapy, a lounge for our cancer survivorship program, and a large classroom and teaching kitchen. This new healthy living center is designed to move people from medically based care to y supervised care, with an emphasis helping people adopt a long term healthy lifestyle. In 2017, through the health living center partnership, there were more than 2,700 visits to this new and innovative area. Wellness warriors: through the work of three of our staff members who are military veterans (christopher matt, lee walraven, and carl klubertanz), we continued our wellness warriors program, a program to support veterans in their quest for improved physical and mental health. Programing is provided at no cost thanks to granting dollars and support from the local american legion. Additionally, y memberships are provided to families at no cost.