Your local YMCA: Get involved!

Share

"Every hour you spend as a YMCA volunteer translates into the caring attention a child or teen needs to grow up healthy and resilient." - YMCA, get involved

The Chilliwack, Langara, and Tong Louie FamilyYMCA are anchors in those greater Vancouver communities. Now, the city is excitedly anticipating the May 2010 opening of the Robert Lee facility on Burrard Street. Local YMCA's are welcoming volunteers with endless opportunity and a great place to help out.

Yvonne Comfort, fitness manager, opened the Tong Louie YMCA seven years ago. She trained the volunteer fitness leaders they had on opening day. Many of these volunteers are still with the YMCA, some of them in employment positions, now training new volunteers themselves. Yvonne noticed that these people "knew they wanted to be part of the YMCA in their community even before the doors opened". This is something, she notes, that you just can't find anywhere else.

YMCA volunteers are very well cared for and appreciated for the work they do. The BCRPA recognizes YMCA fitness leadership courses and volunteers are free to challenge any provincial course. The in-depth training provided to volunteers includes theory, relationship building, individualized conditioning and a group fitness focus. The volunteer teams are very close. Each September there is a provincial retreat for all the volunteers where they share resources and team build.

It is easy to look at the beautiful and full-featured fitness facility and think that the YMCA is just a great place to exercise. It's much more than that. YMCA Membership supports so many community initiatives, impacting youth leadership programs, inner city after school programs, child and youth activities and summer camps. Yvonne says "YMCA work is charitable and people want to be part of it." You end up with a unique group of people when they unite over more than just health and fitness goals. Nobody is ever turned away because of an inability to pay. The YMCA established roots in the community and cares to help each person in that community.

The fitness floor isn't the only place for volunteers at the YMCA. "Everything the YMCA does has volunteers to support it," says Yvonne. The youth basketball league alone has nearly 120 volunteers. You'll see volunteers working in childcare, helping out with membership services; youth outreach programs and the annual campaign. We are even governed by a Volunteer Board of Directors.

The annual campaign provides tremendous financial support for the charitable work the YMCA does to serve the community. Volunteers fundraise, host events, and share their YMCA success stories. Without volunteer support, the annual campaign could not be as successful as it is each year.

Interested in volunteering? Contact your local YMCA for an interview. They are looking for people who are eager to learn, share the YMCA values and focus on relationship building. The Y is looking for people who, as Yvonne says, "feel inspired and want to give back".

Give back to your community, gain experience, and make connections, changes lives; volunteer.

- Francesca Clarke -