Annual Reporting

Everyone recalls seeing the slow-motion image of a drop of water falling into a perfectly calm body of water. As the drop is absorbed into the water, a series of concentric circular waves emanate from the point of impact. The size decreases as the rings get further away, and the impact is less noticeable. The YMCA works as a point of impact in our community, and the benefits reverberate across our community.

For example, look at the impact on the children in the YMCA’s early childhood education and before and after school programs. The point of impact is directly on the student’s growth, development and well-being. The ripples of impact are on the families that now have the time to work or go to school while their children are in school. The next ripple is on the employers that receive a stable, reliable source of employees. Beyond that, the community benefits through having a more productive population. In fact, according to the Perry Preschool Project*, for every dollar invested in child care, the stakeholders see a return of $16. The YMCA provided education for over 1,500 children in these programs, of which 31% received financial assistance. Imagine the community benefit created by impacting the lives of so many children, their parents and the parent’s employers.

This year, the Y also made waves with the addition of EGYM at all three branches. EGYM is the most-advanced fitness equipment in the world. The impact on members was terrific as the YMCA partnered with them to help them improve their strength and reduce their bioage, a relative measure of physical age vs. biological age. In the past six months, our EGYM users enjoyed a 39% average increase in strength and a bioage reduction of nearly 18 years. Health improvements like these help to reduce medical costs, keep employees on the job, and improve mental health.

The Y looks to exponentially increase our impact by partnering with other organizations to serve our community’s needs better. These partnerships include other non-profits, school social workers, governmental agencies, school systems, businesses, colleges and universities and medical facilities. These efforts make the waves of benefit more significant and farther reaching. Overall, the YMCA partnered with over 100 organizations to improve our community. Given these partnerships and the over 23,000 people we directly served in 2022, the YMCA is making a tremendous impact on improving our community.