YOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION SOUTHCOAST INCORPORATED

Programs: Preschool & afterschool programs:our ymca provides high quality care and education by providing comprehensive activities for preschool and school age children. We provide both full time and part time options to serve a wide range of family scheduling needs. We operate 11 licensed eec pre-school and school age centers at 8 different locations. All preschool and afterschool staff are required to attend an intensive staff training that includes age-appropriate curriculum, risk management, child abuse prevention and child care policies, behavior management and progressive discipline, and emergency procedures for medical emergencies. Each staff member goes through a rigorous pre-employment screening process that includes massachusetts criminal and sexual offender background checks (cori and sori). Financial assistance is provided to children and families that qualify, increasing access to our programs.

community servicehelping people of all ages, abilities and economic status develop in spirit, mind and body is at the core of the ymca movement. Our programs are designed to help people create goals for self-improvement and emphasize disease prevention through regular exercise, proper nutrition, stress management and health education. Thanks to the support of our friends and partners at southcoast hospitals group, we are offering specialized programs to meet community needs such as livestrong at the ymca (for cancer survivors), diabetes & cardiac transition, and the healthy start bariatric exercise group. We offer and require our wellness and aquatics staff to obtain the necessary specialized training and certifications. The ymca is for youth development, healthy living and social responsibility. At ymca southcoast, summer day camping is about having fun and developing skills while offering opportunities that allow children to grow to their fullest potential. We develop character at camp by teaching and demonstrating our core values of honesty, respect, caring and responsibility to our campers. We have been a leading provider of quality day camp programs for over 50 years. We are proud that our camps - metacomet, frederick douglass, nep-in-nae and massasoit - have achieved accreditation from the american camp association (aca). Y quequechan is an eec licensed child care provider. All camp staff are required to attend intensive staff training that includes risk management, child abuse prevention and child care policies, behavior management and progressive discipline, emergency procedures for lost campers, medical emergencies, and swimming drills. Each staff member goes through a rigorous pre-employment screening process that includes massachusetts criminal and sexual offender background checks (cori and sori). We increase access to our camp through our multi-child discount program and financial assistance is provided to families that qualify.

sharing the harvest:our ymca community including the cities of new bedford and fall river is listed among the areas with the highest concentrations of hunger in massachusetts. The sharing the harvest ymca community farm project is a grassroots effort to alleviate hunger for children and families at the local level. Working with the united way, we grow vegetables for families in need by mobilizing volunteers to farm fields on our dartmouth property. The fresh vegetables are to be distributed by the hunger commission to area food pantries, soup kitchens, and other emergency feeding programs from fall river to wareham. The crop harvested in 2014 yielded 82,242 pounds of produce, equivalent to 328,000 meals. Sharing the harvest is a source of volunteerism and community gathering for children as well as adults. Many educational components are built into the program so that visitors and volunteers understand where the food comes from, and what goes into growing and distributing it. Over 2,000 volunteers of all ages, including youth from the ymca summer camps, worked 8,100 hours at the community farm. Many organizations work together on this project to ensure that it continues to grow, feed, educate and inspire children and adults for years to come.