Community Wellbeing

Community Wellbeing is the first of the four YMCA Vision 2030 Pillars of Impact. YMCA Vision 2030 was adopted at the 20^th YMCA World Council in July 2022

The YMCA believes every person should have the means to grow and thrive in body, mind and spirit while taking care of their individual and collective wellbeing.

By 2030 the YMCA will co-create, provide and advocate for high-quality, relevant and sustainable health and wellbeing solutions for young people and communities worldwide.

Strategic Goals

(1) The YMCA Movement aims to ensure that its leaders, staff and volunteers at all levels work in a culture where individual, organisational and community wellbeing is a fundamental priority, with relevant policies and practices.

(2) By 2030 the YMCA strengthens and expands safe and inclusive spaces within the 12,000+ local communities where it is active, empowering every young person we engage with to care for their physical, spiritual and mental health, as well as the broader wellbeing of their families and communities.

(3) The YMCA effectively champions improved mental and physical health-oriented policies and solutions at local, national and global levels.

• Over 90 National YMCAs worldwide are working in Wellbeing-related issues
• YMCA worldwide runs over 117,000 programmes on Wellbeing-related issues, involving and reaching nearly 16.9 million people (Data: 2018)

Examples of projects

Physical health

• HIV Positive programme (YMCA England and Wales): fitness programme for people affected by HIV
• Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) programme (YMCA Africa): Improving young people’s access to SRHR information and services using a holistic approach is a key component of AAYMCAs work on empowering youth for the African Renaissance.

Spiritual health

• Because I count (YMCA Africa): ‘Because I Count’ is about engaging young people in interfaith dialogue that prevents the effects of religious marginalisation.
• Week of Prayer: Since 1904, World YMCA and World YWCA have worked together to deliver the World Week of Prayer and World Fellowship.

Mental health

• Inside our Minds campaign (YMCA Australia): seven young Australians discuss their mental health experiences, personal challenges and how they could reduce the stigma.
• Mental Health programmes (East Jerusalem YMCA)
  A Rehabilitation and psychosocial support programme – for people with disabilities), for Post Trauma Ex-Detainee Palestinian Children

Refugees and migrants focus

• The Medical Assistance Programme of YMCA Lebanon has been serving chronically ill patients since 1988, through a network of 451 dispensaries. Around 15,000 Syrian refugees are currently beneficiaries of the programme
• Inside our Minds (YMCA Australia): as a refugee, Hadi suffered from discrimination and racism. Watch his powerful testimony

During the Covid-19 pandemic, 2020

• YMCAs mark World Mental Health Day 2020: In a world disturbed by a global pandemic which has left many people exhausted and anxious, marking World Mental Health Day on 10 October is an important opportunity to acknowledge our emotions and to allow ourselves to seek and find support
• Resources (YMCA Seattle): Four Ways to Take Care of Your Mental Health During Covid-19
• The YMCA Regional Biosafety Protocol (YMCA Latin America and Caribbean) aims to create a “YMCA standard” that serves the different YMCA movements in the region to take the necessary biosecurity measures at the time of the gradual reopening of facilities

Vision 2030

YMCA Vision 2030 is a Movement-wide Vision statement, Mission statement, and four key areas of activity (‘Pillars of Impact’). It was adopted at the 20^th YMCA World Council in July 2022.

Each of the four key areas of activity sets three collective goals to turn the priorities into action: at the YMCA, at the community, and at the global levels.

Vision 2030 is a framework for global alignment which allows each of the 120 YMCA National Movements to go at their own pace according to their own strengths and their own communities’ needs, in pursuit of common goals.

Vision 2030 pdf

Historical position paper

Read the World YMCA’s position paper on young people and Health (2018)