The YMCA ofCentral Massachusetts– Central Community Branch has been a pillar of strength for the struggling communities it serves and, in particular, growing “teen” population within its market.
In recent years, the Central Community Branch has experienced increased diversity and density within the branch’s 3 mile service radius. In fact, one third of the city’s population lives within a five mile radius of this downtown urban branch. The immediate service area is more than 60% percent Hispanic/Latino.
This demographic change created a greater opportunity for the branch to engage an emerging population, particularly teens”. The YMCA had made deliberate efforts to embrace all teens with a friendly membership policy, however, it was critical that the branch created specific tactics to recruit, enroll, engage and retain this emerging population.
The Central Community Branch implemented a plan that focused on their Minority Achievers, Y-FIT, and Youth-At- Risk Spartacus programs. The next steps focused on creating the appropriate engagement strategies to meet expected outcomes. The Y did the following:
- Created partnership with local Hispanic/Latino leadership within our community, particularly the local pastors of churches.
- Collaborated with local Health Care providers who interacted directly with the HL community.
- Created focus group with staff and teens to better understand their needs.
- Implemented “All Staff” meetings, where the branch was closed for an evening, for Diversity & Inclusion training and shared with membership that we were involved in this type of work.
- Reworked staffing and hiring pattern to mirror the community and required at least one person to be bilingual on a membership shift.
- Created bi-lingual welcome extension to support member calling the branch.
- Created a newTeenWellnessCenterto foster building smaller communities within the branch.
- Modified programs to ensure that they had specific culturally appropriate classes for the teen population.
- Created celebratory events to foster dialogue among staff and the teens and family members.
- Created signage in Spanish to improve communication.
While the Y has more work to do, they are encouraged that by providing an atmosphere that is inviting, engaging and inclusive, they will enhance their efforts to strengthen our community.
For more information on the great work of engaging the Latino community in Central MA, contact David Connell at [email protected] or 508-755-6101 ext 223
From: Youth/Teen “sparks”, March 2012 – ymca.net
