Our History - A Brief History of the YMCA Movement

The Young Men's Christian Association was founded in London, England, on June 6, 1844, in response to unhealthy social
conditions arising in the big cities at the end of the Industrial Revolution (roughly 1750 to 1850). Growth of the railroads and
centralization of commerce and industry brought many rural young men who needed jobs into cities like London. They worked 10 to
12 hours a day, six days a week.

Far from home and family, these young men often lived at the workplace. They slept crowded into rooms over the company's shop,
a location thought to be safer than London's tenements and streets. Outside the shop things were bad -- open sewers, pickpockets,
thugs, beggars, drunks, lovers for hire and abandoned children running wild by the thousands.

George Williams
George Williams, born on a farm in 1821, came to London 20 years later as a sales assistant in
a draper's shop, a forerunner of today's department store. He and a group of fellow drapers
organized the first YMCA to substitute Bible study and prayer for life on the streets. By 1851
there were 24 Ys in Great Britain, with a combined membership of 2,700. That same year the Y
arrived in North America: It was established in Montreal on November 25, and in Boston on
December 29.

The idea proved popular everywhere. In 1853, the first YMCA for African Americans was
founded in Washington, D.C., by Anthony Bowen, a freed slave. The next year the first
international convention was held in Paris. At the time there were 397 separate Ys in seven
nations, with 30,369 members total.

The YMCA idea, which began among evangelicals, was unusual because it crossed the rigid
lines that separated all the different churches and social classes in England in those days. This
openness was a trait that would lead eventually to including in YMCAs all men, women and
children, regardless of race, religion or nationality. Also, its target of meeting social need in the
community was dear from the start.

George Williams was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1894 for his YMCA work and buried in
1905 under the floor of St. Paul's Cathedral among that nation's heroes and statesmen. A large
stained glass window in Westminster Abbey, complete with a red triangle, is dedicated to
YMCAs, to Sir George and to Y work during the first World War.

Civil War times

In the United States during the Civil War, Y membership shrunk to one-third its size as
members marched off to battle. Fifteen of the remaining Northern Ys formed the U.S.
Christian Commission to assist the troops and prisoners of war. It was endorsed by
President Abraham Lincoln, and its 4,859 volunteers included the American poet Walt
Whitman. Among other accomplishments, it gave more than 1 million Bibles to fighting
men. It was the beginning of a commitment to working with soldiers and sailors that
continues to this day through the Armed Services YMCAs.

Only 59 Ys were left by war's end, but a rapid rebuilding followed, and four years later
there were 600 more. The focus was on saving souls, with saloon and street corner
preaching, lists of Christian boarding houses, lectures, libraries and meeting halls, most of
them in rented quarters.

But seeds of future change were there. In 1866, the influential New York YMCA adopted a
fourfold purpose: "The improvement of the spiritual, mental, social and physical condition
of young men."

In those early days, YMCAs were run almost entirely by volunteers. There were a handful of paid staff members before the Civil
War who kept the place clean, ran the library and served as corresponding secretaries. But it wasn't until the 1880s, when YMCAs
began putting up buildings in large numbers, that most associations thought they needed someone there full time.

Gyms and swimming pools came in at that time, too, along with big auditoriums and bowling alleys. Hotel-like rooms with
bathrooms down the hall, called dormitories or residences, were designed into every new YMCA building, and would continue to be
until the late 1950s. Income from rented rooms was a great source of funds for YMCA activities of all kinds. Residences would
make a major financial contribution to the movement for the next century.

Ys took up boys work and organized summer camps. They set up exercise drills in classes -- forerunners of today's aerobics --
using wooden dumbbells, heavy medicine balls and so-called Indian clubs, which resembled graceful, long-necked bowling pins.
Ys organized college students for social action, literally invented the games of basketball and volleyball and served the special
needs of railroad men who had no place to stay when the train reached the end of the line. By the 1890s, the fourfold purpose was
transformed into the triangle of spirit, mind and body.
Moody and Mott
John Mott (second from left), a leader of the YMCA movement in America, received
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946. Mott's award was in recognition for the YMCA's role
in increasing global understanding and for its humanitarian efforts. Mott himself was
a student of the YMCA movement, and he was a major influence on the Y's
missionary movement. Through the influence of nationally known lay evangelists
Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899) and John Mott (1865-1955), who dominated the
movement in the last half of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries respectively,
the American YMCAs sent workers by the thousands overseas, both as missionary --
like YMCA secretaries and as war workers.

The first foreign work secretaries, as they were called, reflected the huge missionary
outreach by Christian churches near the turn of the century. But instead of churches,
they organized YMCAs that eventually were placed under local control. Both Moody
and Mott served for lengthy periods as paid professional staff members of the YMCA
movement. Both maintained lifelong connections with it.

The U.S. entered World War I in April 1917. Mott, on his own, involved the YMCA
movement in running the military canteens, called post exchanges today, in the
United States and in France. Ys led fundraising campaigns that raised $235 million
for those YMCA operations and other wartime causes, and hired 25,926 Y workers --
5,145 of them women -- to run the canteens.

It also took on war relief for both refugees and prisoners of war on both sides, and
worked to ease the path of African American soldiers returning to the segregated
South. Y secretaries from China supervised the Chinese laborers brought to Europe to unload ships, dig trenches and clear the
battlefields after the war. Y.C. James Yen, a Yale graduate working with YMCAs in France, developed a simple Chinese alphabet
of 100 characters that became a major weapon in wiping out illiteracy in China. Funds left over from war work helped in the 1920s
to spur a Y building boom, outreach to small towns and counties, work with returning black troops and blossoming of YMCA trade
schools and colleges.

Buddy can you spare a dime?

The Great Depression brought dramatic drops in Y income, some as high as 50 percent. A number of associations had taken up
direct relief of the poor beginning in 1928, as employment mounted before the stock market crash of 1929. When direct relief was
taken over by the federal government in 1933, it released YMCAs and other nonprofits from their welfare tasks.

Forced to reevaluate themselves by hard times and by pressure from militant student YMCAs, community Ys became aware of
social problems as never before and accelerated their partnerships with other social welfare agencies. Programs and mission were
reviewed as well. Some results were joint community projects, renewed emphasis on group work and more work through organized
classes and lectures. Ys were forced to prove to their communities that both character-building agencies and welfare agencies
were needed, especially in times of stress.

Between 1929 and 1933, Bible class enrollment fell by 60 percent and residence use was down, but exercise and educational
classes were both up, along with vocational training and camping.

A typical Y program of the day was the Leisure Time League in Minneapolis. It drew thousands to that YMCA in 1932 to "unite
unemployed young men who desire to maintain their physical and mental vigor and wish to train themselves for greater usefulness
and service to themselves and the community," reported the association. The program offered a wide range of free services such
as medical assistance, physical programs, school classes on a dozen subjects and recreation. As conditions improved even
slightly, they went back to work. A few were left behind -- in most cases, those considered unemployable. The YMCA offered them
vocational training.

The idea spread widely and YMCAs discovered they could survive handily if they served a large number of people and had low
building payments. In fact, the Chicago Y was able to organize a new South Shore branch in the depths of the Depression.

Wartime challenges
During World War II, the National Council of YMCAs (now the YMCA of the USA) joined with Ys around the world to assist
prisoners of war in 36 nations. It also helped form the United Service Organization (USO), which ran drop-in centers for
servicepeople and sent performers abroad to entertain the troops. Ys worked with displaced persons and refugees as well, and
sent both workers and money abroad after the war to help rebuild damaged YMCA buildings.

After more than two decades of study and trial YMCA youth secretaries in 1944 agreed to put a national seal of approval on what
was already widespread in the movement to focus their energies on four programs that involved work in small groups. They
became known as the "four fronts" or "four platforms" of Youth Work: a father-son program called Y-Indian Guides, and three boy's
clubs -- Gra-Y for those in grade school, Junior Hi-Y and Hi-Y. (There would eventually be all-female and coed models as well.)

Times of change
At the close of the war, the Ys had changed. Sixty-two percent were admitting women, and other barriers began to fall one after the
other, with families the new emphasis, and all races and religions included at all levels of the organization. The rapidly expanding
suburbs drew the Ys with them, sometimes abandoning the old residences and downtown buildings that no longer were efficient or
necessary.

In 1958, the U.S. and Canadian YMCAs launched Buildings for Brotherhood in which the two nations raised $55 million which was
matched by $6 million overseas. The result was 98 Y buildings renovated, improved or built new in 32 countries.
In what could be called the Great Disillusion of 1965-1975, the nation was rocked by turmoil that included the Vietnam War, urban
noting, the forced resignation of a U.S. president, the outbreak of widespread drug abuse among the middle class, assassination of
major political leaders, and a loss of confidence in institutions.

The Ys, in response, were challenged by National General Secretary James Bunting to change their ways. He said the choice was
"either to keep learning or to become 20th-century Pharisees clinging to forms and theories that were once valid expressions of the
best that was known, but that today are outdated and irrelevant."

With national YMCA support and federal aid, new outreach efforts were taken up by community Ys in 150 cities. The Ys poured
their own money and talent into outreach as well. Outreach programs were not new to the organization, but the size and scope
involved were new.

The four-fronts youth programs withered for lack of attention, dying out entirely in many major centers, but holding fast in YMCA
camping and in parts of the Midwest and much of the South. When federal aid dried up, money troubles began to reappear, as Ys
struggled to keep faith with those they were helping.

An even more insidious problem was in the mix. Long schooled in conciliation, Y people found themselves being confronted
aggressively both at home and abroad. It was particularly hard to deal with and discouraging. Beginning in 1970 the fraternal
secretaries serving YMCAs overseas were being called home. Some buildings in U.S. cities were shuttered and residences dosed
for lack of clientele and insufficient funds for proper maintenance. Y leaders were urged to become more businesslike in both their
appearance and their operations, a topic raised by Y boards since the 1920s.

Trends
After 1975, the old physical programming featured by YMCAs for a century began to perk up as
interest in healthy lifestyles increased nationwide. By 1980, pressure for up-to-date buildings and
equipment brought on a boom in construction that lasted through the decade.

Child care for working parents, an extension of what YMCAs had done informally for years, came
with a rush in 1983 and quickly joined health and fitness, camping, and residences as a major source
of YMCA income.

Character Development and Asset-Based Approach

During the 1980s and '90s, the ideas of "values clarification" were slowly replaced by
ideas of "character." The moral upbringing of children had been considered the sole
domain of the family, and enabling the child to discover his or her own ethical system
was the goal. But by the mid to late '80s, this was seen as contributing to a morally
bankrupt society, in which there is no notion of virtue (or of vice), just different points of
view. The ideas of character development and civic virtues became central, with
Bennet's The Book of Virtues hitting the best-seller lists and organizations such as
Character Counts! being born. "Preach what you practice" became as much a part of
the ideal of youth development as "practice what you preach," and "it takes a village" replaced "it's the family's job to
develop morals."

The YMCA movement had been involved in character development from the beginning, but in an implicit and
practical focus rather than an explicit one. (George Williams stated this perfectly in his response to how he would respond to a
young man who said that he had lost his belief in Jesus, by saying that his first act would be to see that the young man had dinner.)
The YMCA movement studied the issue and emerged with four "core values" -- caring, honesty, respect and responsibility -- and
promptly began to incorporate these in all programming in an explicit and conscious way.

During the '90s, a tremendous change occurred in the field of youth development. Previously, the focus had been on the "deficit
model," in other words, what went wrong with the youth who got into trouble, and how could they be corrected. But the same way
that prevention and development of health, rather than just the cure of disease pervaded the medical world, youth workers and
academics started to look at what contributes to healthy development and prevents problems -- an "assets model." The YMCA of
the USA collaborated with The Search Institute on studying this issue in depth and coming up with practical results.

The research showed 30 (later increased to 40) developmental assets that positively correlated with pro-social and healthy
behaviors in youth, and negatively correlated with anti-social and unhealthy behaviors. The more assets a youth has, the more
likely he or she is to behave well, the less likely to engage in risky behaviors. This not only provided a "road map" for Ys to follow in
creating healthy kids, families and communities, but also was an inherent proof of the effectiveness of youth programs.

It also showed a wider focus than had been thought possible. It doesn't matter if a program consists of sports, music, a teen center,
mentoring or aerobics, or if it's aimed at reducing teen pregnancy, smoking or crime. If it provides one or more of the
developmental assets, it will reduce the overall risk of any kind of negative behavior, and raise the likelihood of positive behavior.

Highlights and Accomplishments of the YMCA Movement in America

Ys have been so integral to their communities that organizations have been founded at meetings at YMCAs without being part of Y
programs. The Gideons organization famous for putting Bibles in hotel rooms was started at a YMCA, but without Y staff or
volunteer involvement. So we say that the Gideons was founded at a Y, but not that a Y started Gideons.

It would be impossible to list all of the individuals and organizations contributing to this document. We received information from
sources ranging from trade associations to university professors to current and retired YMCA employees. The only things they had
in common were a deep respect for Y traditions, a love for what the YMCA stands for and a desire to help. Special recognition must
go to the staff of the YMCA of the USA Archives. Their efforts and irreplaceable resources provided needed details when no one
else knew where to look.

The reason to look at what YMCAs did in the past is to inspire today's YMCA staff and volunteers to serve their communities with
the same concern, dedication and courage. They may not make a list of firsts, but they will keep YMCAs foremost with their
accomplishments.
Everybody plays, everybody wins-sports at YMCAs
Millions of people have been introduced to sports at YMCAs. Many of the
sports people play were introduced at YMCAs, too.

Volleyball was invented at the Holyoke (Mass.) YMCA in 1895, by William

Morgan, an instructor at the Y who felt that basketball was too strenuous
for businessmen. Morgan blended elements of basketball, tennis and
handball into the game and called it mintonette. The name "volleyball" was
first used in 1896 during an exhibition at the International YMCA Training
School in Springfield, Mass., to better describe how the ball went back
and forth over the net. In 1922, YMCAs held their first national
championship in the game. This became the U.S. Open in 1924, when
non-YMCA teams were permitted to compete.

Racquetball was invented in 1950 at the Greenwich (Conn.) YMCA by Joe

Sobek, a member who couldn't find other squash players of his caliber
and who did not care for handball. He tried paddleball and platform tennis
and came up with the idea of using a strung racquet similar to a platform tennis paddle (not a sawed-off tennis racquet, as some
say) to allow a greater variety of shots. After drawing up rules for the game, Sobek went to nearby Ys for approval by other players,
and at the same time formed them into the Paddle Rackets Association to promote the sport. The original balls Sobek used were
half blue and half red. When he needed replacements, Sobek asked Spalding, the original manufacturer, to make the balls all blue,
so they wouldn't mark the Y's courts.

Softball was given its name by motion of Walter Hakanson of the Denver YMCA in 1926 at a meeting of the Colorado Amateur
Softball Association (CASA), itself a result of YMCA staff efforts. Softball had been played for many years prior to 1926, under such
names as kittenball, softball and even sissyball. In 1926, however, the YMCA state secretary, Homer Hoisington, noticed both the
sport's popularity and its need for standardized rules. After a gathering of interested parties, the CASA was formed and Hakanson
moved to settle on the name softball for the game. The motion carried, and the name softball became accepted nationwide. Shortly
thereafter, the Denver YMCA adopted a declaration of principles for softball, adhering to noncommercialized recreation open to all
ages and races and demanding good sportsmanship. When the Amateur Softball Association of America was formed in 1933, the
Denver YMCA team represented Colorado in its first national tournament, held in Chicago.

Professional football began at a YMCA. In 1895, in Latrobe, Pa., John Brailer was paid $10 plus expenses by the local YMCA to
replace the injured quarterback on their team. Years later, however, Pudge Heffelfinger claimed that he was secretly paid to play
for the Allegheny Athletic Association in 1892. The NFL elected to go with Pudge's version of events.

Yes, it was at the International YMCA Training School that in December 1891,
James Naismith invented the game of basketball, doing so at the demand of
Luther Gulick, the director of the school. Gulick needed a game to occupy a
class of incorrigibles -- 18 future YMCA directors who, more interested in
rugby and football, didn't care for leapfrog, tumbling and other activities they
were forced to do during the winter. Gulick, obviously out of patience with the
group, gave Naismith two weeks to come up with a game to occupy them.

Naismith decided that the new game had to be physically active and simple to
understand. It could not be rough, so no contact could be allowed. The ball
could be passed but not carried. Goals at each end of the court would lend a
degree of difficulty and give skill and science a role. Elevating the goal would
eliminate rushes that could injure players, a problem in football and rugby.

Introducing the game of basketball at the next gym class (Naismith did meet
Gulick's deadline), Naismith posted 13 rules on the wall and taught the game
to the incorrigibles. The men loved it and proceeded to introduce basketball to
their home towns over Christmas break. Naismith's invention spread like wildfire.

Not only was basketball invented by a YMCA institution, but the game's first professional team came from a Y. The Trenton (N.J.)
YMCA had fielded a basketball team since 1892 and in 1896 its team claimed to be the national champions after beating various
other YMCA and college teams. The team then severed its ties with the Y. It played the 1896-97 season out of a local Masonic
temple, charging for admission and keeping the proceeds.

No idle hands -- YMCA programs

YMCAs run programs of all types, from activities for older adults to Zen aerobics. Some of the biggest are camping, swimming and
child care. Here are some stories of their development.

Camping has been a part of YMCA programming for more than a century. The claim for a YMCA first in camping, however, must
be worded carefully, since the YMCA did not invent camping in 1885, and Sumner Dudley did not lead the first YMCA camping
program. What YMCAs can claim is having founded the first continuously used camp. The first school camp was started in 1861 by
William Gunn, and Gunn camps became well known. A camp for weakly boys was organized in 1876 by Dr. Joseph Trimble
Rothrock. The first church camp for boys was started in 1880, and in 1881 the first private camp to meet special educational needs
was established. None of these camps was a YMCA camp, and none of them operates today.

YMCAs became involved in camping in the 1860s, with the earliest reference being that of the Vermont Y's boy's missionary (who
would now be the youth director) taking a group of boys to Lake Champlain for a summer encampment. In 1881, the Brooklyn
(N.Y.) YMCA reported taking 30 boys on a camping out. Many other YMCAs had camp experiences for youth as well, and in 1882
national records started recording camping programs under outings and excursions.
The oldest camp, now known as Camp Dudley, began in 1886 on Lake Champlain, NY Sumner Dudley, long active in both the
New York and New Jersey YMCA movements, was asked in 1884 to take young honor YMCA members camping. In 1885 he took
seven boys for a week's encampment at Orange Lake, NJ The next year Dudley moved the site to Twin Islands, Lake Wawayanda,
NJ Ultimately, the camp settled on Lake Champlain, NY, in 1908. Dudley referred to the first camp as Camp Baldhead. After
Dudley's death in 1897, the camp was renamed Camp Dudley.

The Ragger Society, the forerunner of today's Rags and Leather Program, was started in 1914 at Camp Loma Mar in California. It
started because a camp director wanted to award athletic ability. Other camp leaders objected, noting that a boy with physical
disabilities would then never be able to win. They settled on a program of personal counseling and seeking God's will for oneself.
The hymn, I Would Be True, written in 1917 by Howard A. Walker, was inspired by the program's creed. Walker himself later went
to India and performed YMCA work there.

Swimming and aquatics have long been associated with the YMCA, and tens of
millions of people across the country learned how to swim at the YMCA. It was not
always this way, however, and for many years swimming was seen as a
distraction from legitimate physical development.

The first reported YMCA swimming bath was built at the Brooklyn (NY) Central
YMCA in 1885. By the end of the year, it was reported that 17 Ys had pools. Pools
then bore scant resemblance to the pools of today: The Brooklyn Central pool was
14' x 45' and 5' deep. Early pools, in addition to being small, had no filters or
recirculation systems. The water in the pool just got dirtier and dirtier until the pool
was drained and cleaned, which some Ys did on a weekly basis. No wonder the
medical community saw them as a threat to health.

Two developments helped change YMCA staff attitudes towards pools. The first
was the development of mass swim lessons in 1906 by George Corsan at the
Detroit YMCA. What Corsan did was to teach swimming strokes on land, starting with the crawl stroke first, as a confidence builder.
Prior to Corsan's methods, strokes were only taught in the pool and the crawl was not taught until later. Corsan also came up with
the ideas of the learn-to-swim campaign and using bronze buttons as rewards for swimming proficiency. He gave a button to boys
who swam 50 feet. Corsan's learn-to-swim campaigns resulted in 1909 in the first campaign to teach every boy in the United States
and Canada how to swim.

Perhaps Corsan's land drills for swimming came about as a result of how swimming had been taught.
Early YMCA staff viewed swimming as a distraction from the real job of physical development, which
meant exercise and gymnastics. Boys in San Francisco, for example, could not use the pool until after
they had passed a proficiency test in gymnastics. In the 1890s, swimming was taught by using a rope
and pulley system.

The second development was the use of filtration systems for keeping the water clean. Ray L.
Rayburn, a founder of what was the Building Bureau (now BFS), came up with the ideas of building
pools with roll-out rims and water recirculation systems. Recirculation meant that the water could be
filtered and impurities removed. The first roll-out rim was installed in 1909 in the Kansas City, Mo.,
pool. In 1910, a filtration system was added to the Kansas City pool. No more would pools be
considered health menaces.

The combination of these developments, Corsan's mass teaching techniques and Rayburn's filtration
systems, came together to popularize swimming and swim instruction at YMCAs. In 1932 there were
more than 1 million swimmers a year at YMCAs. In 1956, the national learn-to-swim campaigns
became Learn to Swim Month. In 1984, it was reported that YMCAs collectively were the largest
operator of swimming pools in the world.

It is hard to overestimate the effect the YMCA movement has had on swimming and aquatics in general. A Springfield College
student, George Goss, wrote the first American book on lifesaving in 1913 as a thesis. It was a YMCA national board member (then
the YMCA International Committee), William Ball, who in the early 1900s encouraged the Red Cross to include lifesaving
instruction in its disaster and wartime services programs. The first mobile swimming pool was invented at the Eastern Union (NJ) Y
in 1961, enabling the Y to take instruction and swimming programs to people who could not go to the Y. The YMCA Swimming and
Lifesaving Manual, published in 1919, was one of the earliest works on the subject. The Council for National Cooperation in
Aquatics, formed in 1951, was created as a result of the efforts of the YMCA. A group of 20 national agencies, the Council was
organized to expand cooperation in the field of aquatics.

Even the military used YMCA swim instruction techniques. In World War I, the Army used mass land drills to teach doughboys. In
1943, Dr. Thomas K. Cureton, chairman of the YMCA National Aquatic Committee, published Warfare Aquatics, which was widely
used by the armed forces (and YMCAs!) during the conflict and after.

The term "bodybuilding" was first used in 1881 by Robert Roberts, a member of the staff at the Boston YMCA. He also developed
the exercise classes that led to today's fitness workouts.

Group child care was not started at a YMCA, but Ys moved swiftly to meet the needs of a
changed and changing society. Rosie the Riveter went back home after World War II, but
her daughter left and didn't look back. Today's YMCA movement is the largest not-for-profit
provider of child care, and is larger than any for-profit chain in the country.

No one could have predicted that in the beginning. The origins of group child care are
obscure and we will probably never know who had the first group care program. A strong
possibility, however, is that group care grew out of gang prevention and teen intervention
programs in the 1960s. The Chicago YMCA had a strong youth outreach program in the
1960s (Ys had been working with youth gangs in one way or another since the 1880s).
Workers noticed, however, that youths attending the program often brought their younger
siblings along because they were providing care while their parents worked. Child care was organized so that the older kids could
attend these programs without concern or distraction.

Another impetus for group child care at the Y came from John Root, general secretary (today
he would be CEO) of the Chicago YMCA. Root had returned from a trip to the Soviet Union,
where he had observed firsthand the extensive child care programs offered by the
government and how the availability of child care benefited both children and their families.
Root was determined to have YMCAs do as much in America.

The idea quickly spread to other cities. In the 1990s, about half a million children received
care at a YMCA each year. In 1996, child care became the movement's second largest
source of revenue, after membership dues.

The American way -- YMCAs' influence on society

Many times YMCAs influenced society simply by coming up with creative solutions to their own problems, such as a need for
trained YMCA employees. These solutions then spread throughout our society because they met the needs of others. Often
YMCAs set themselves up as models long before others even knew there was a problem. Here are some examples of how YMCAs
shaped the development of social institutions in America.

Many of the practices of colleges and universities in America, in fact, several colleges and
universities themselves, can be traced back to YMCA involvement in higher education. Ys in
the 19th and early 20th centuries placed much more emphasis on formal and informal classes
and teaching than they do now. This stemmed in part from the fact that free public education
was not so widespread as it is today. That meant that there were large numbers of working
teens who needed classes and instruction if they were to avoid the traps and pitfalls that
George Williams so keenly observed in London decades earlier. YMCA classes and instruction
also stemmed from the need for properly trained staff to run local Ys and carry on its programs.

The first institution of higher learning organized by the YMCA national organization was the
School for Christian Workers in Springfield, Mass. Later known as the International YMCA
Training School and finally as Springfield College, the School was to train Y workers in all aspects of business and management.
Previously, academic training for YMCA employees was mostly summer institutes and training sessions, the first being held in 1884
at Lake Geneva, Wis. These were insufficient, though, and at least since 1876 there had been calls for Ys in large metropolitan
areas to set up training schools.

The need for a formal school was also felt in the Midwest, with a YMCA Training School housed in the downtown Chicago YMCA
opening in 1890 with five students. It ultimately became George Williams College, after merging with the Western Secretarial
Institute, a summer training school in Lake Geneva, Wis., in 1892. A century later, George Williams College became part of Aurora
University, in Aurora, Ill.

The idea that large metropolitan associations should have classrooms for teen education and staff training was put into practice in
San Francisco and Boston in the 1880s and 1890s. What is now Northeastern University in Boston started as informal law courses
in 1897 with the founding of the Evening Institute of the Boston YMCA. Formal classes started in 1898, under the name of the
Evening School of Law of the Boston YMCA. The school added additional subject areas and became Northeastern College in
1916. Later expansion led to its becoming Northeastern University in 1922. The Evening Institute of the Boston YMCA was also the
birthplace of student work study, a concept familiar to students receiving financial aid at almost every college or university in the
country.

The origins of Golden Gate University in San Francisco are similar. The San Francisco Y was founded in 1853, one of 13 YMCAs
operating in North America at the time. In 1881, the YMCA Night School was established, a name it kept until 1895, when it
became the YMCA Evening College. The Evening College formed a YMCA Law School in 1910, becoming Golden Gate College in
1923.

Many YMCAs had cooperative agreements with some of the most prestigious institutions of higher learning in America, many
starting in the 1920s and 1930s. Some of the more notable institutions include Oberlin College (America's first coeducational
school), Yale Divinity School, Whittier College, Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary. The Southern YMCA College
and Graduate School was founded in Nashville, Tenn., in 1919, with the help of Vanderbilt University, Peabody College for
Teachers, and Scarritt College for Christian Workers. It closed in 1936, with many of its programs going to the Blue Ridge
Assembly. In Chicago, Roosevelt University was founded in 1945 as a result of a split within the existing Central YMCA College.

The YMCA movement played a large role in the development of higher education. By 1916, there were approximately 83,000
students taking more than 200 YMCA courses. In 1946, approximately 130,000 students were taking courses through Ys. In all
there were 20 YMCA colleges in 1950, ranging from Fenn College in Cleveland to Springfield College. Beginning in the 1930s, as
the colleges became freestanding institutions of higher learning and not just training centers for YMCA staff, it made sense for them
to break free of the YMCA movement altogether. In 1997, only Springfield College and the George Williams College of Aurora (Ill.)
University retain close ties with the movement.

Another aspect of YMCA involvement in higher education was the work of student YMCAs at many colleges and universities. The
first recorded student Ys opened in 1856 at Cumberland University in Tennessee and at Milton Academy (now College). Students,
of course, must have been active in informal YMCA bodies before then. Student Ys offered counseling and services to students on
an ecumenical basis, an approach that heavily influenced and ultimately changed the way church and college staff conducted their
own campus outreach programs. Student work was so important to the movement that in 1922, the movement authorized the
organization of a national student council, complete with its own statement of purpose.

Certification of staff with respect to general training is a YMCA development, growing out of the need for education that led to
establishing YMCA schools in the 19th century. In 1922, a plan for voluntary certification to be a YMCA secretary (today's director)
was drawn up.
YMCAs were also among the first to develop systems of certification for staff in teaching programs. In part, this can be traced to the
publication by Association Press of manuals and materials for use by staff in teaching courses. In 1938 a national plan was
developed for certifying aquatic directors and instructors. In 1959, certification was offered in skin and scuba diving. In 1996, more
than 54,000 people were certified in various subjects or as trainers of trainers.

The YMCA organized a Retirement Fund for employees in 1922, with about 1,000 Ys and 4,000 staff participating. The first official
steps to organizing the fund began in 1913. Prior to that, churches and welfare organizations, if they made any provision for the
future at all, had widows and orphans plans. The Y's retirement plan was a first for any major welfare organization and probably the
first for any such nonchurch association.

When the fund became operational in 1922, it began with an endowment of $4 million, including a $1 million conditional gift (in the
form of a challenge grant) from John D. Rockefeller Jr. (who had been active in the student Y at Brown University). Around that
time, the Gamble family, of Proctor & Gamble fame, gave the fund a large block of stock.

Successful investments allowed it to survive the stock market crash of 1929, and in 1934 the fund corpus had grown to $15 million.
The initial retirement age was 60. The fact that YMCAs organized one of the earliest retirement funds should be seen in
perspective. YMCA staff had worked in other ways to improve working conditions. YMCAs had been active in labor's campaigns to
shorten the work week since 1885.

The Nobel Peace Prize awarded for pioneering work in peace making was jointly awarded in 1946 to John R. Mott, a leader of the
YMCA movement in America, and to Emily Greene Balch. Mott's award was in recognition for the role the YMCA had played in
increasing global understanding and for its humanitarian efforts. Mott himself was a product of the student YMCA movement and
he was a major influence on the Y's missionary movement. In 1993, the Jerusalem International YMCA, the only Y owned by the
YMCA of the USA, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for its work for promoting peace in the Middle East.

Residences at YMCAs play a vital part in both the movement and in American society. Staying in a YMCA room has been
mentioned in song and literature, and the list of people who stayed at Y residences range from Dave Thomas, the founder of
Wendy's restaurants, to Charlie Rich, the country music star and black revolutionary Malcolm Little, later known as Malcolm X.

Dormitories were seen as giving young men a place of refuge from the evils of the world. In 1898, Young Men's Era, a Y
publication, declared that dorms were more in keeping with the YMCA mission than other moneymaking devices. The first known Y
dormitory was noted in 1867, when the Chicago YMCA had a 42-room dormitory in Farwell Hall. Intended for young men who could
not afford more ample accommodations, it was, in the words of Dwight L. Moody, to be a Christian home for the stranger young
men coming to this city. Farwell Hall burned down shortly thereafter.

It was 20 years before the second dormitory was built at a YMCA, this time in Milwaukee in 1887. In the meantime, though, several
YMCAs maintained emergency dormitories for the unemployed. The Harrisburg (Pa.) YMCA opened a Y dormitory in 1877 in a
renovated hotel.

By 1910, 281 Ys had about 9,000 rooms available, and in 1916 the Chicago YMCA Hotel opened with 1,821 rooms. By 1922 Ys
had approximately 55,000 rooms and in 1940 there were about 100,000 rooms at YMCAs. No hotel chain had more rooms.

And a star to steer by -- organizations influenced by YMCAs

The influence of YMCAs on others extends far beyond individuals in their programs. Here are some organizations that drew on
YMCA experience or assistance during their formative years.

The Camp Fire Girls (now Camp Fire Boys and Girls) were founded in 1910 through the joint efforts of Luther Gulick, M.D., and his
wife, Charlotte. Gulick was already well known for his work in the YMCA, his understanding of the whole person leading to his
design of the YMCA's inverted triangle, one side each for spirit, mind and body. Busy with his existing commitments, Gulick did not
want to take on the task of forming another organization. He did, however, advise others on the organization of the Thetford Girls,
the forerunner of the Camp Fire Girls. Charlotte by then had become interested in the Thetford Girls and was inspired to name their
first camp, at Sebago Lake, Maine, Camp WoHeLo, from the first two letters of the words Work, Health and Love. She saw them as
forming an upright triangle, which she pictured superimposed over the Y's symbol to make a star.

YMCA staff members played a key role in the development of the Boy Scouts of America. After Lord S.S. Baden-Powell and others
started Scouting in 1907 in Britain, it spread to America, and many YMCAs here had Boy Scout programs around the turn of the
century. YMCA and Scout leaders realized that Scouting in the United States needed to be a separate movement, but that it would
benefit from YMCA nurturing, too.

Soon it was decided by the Boy Scouts that they needed their own national organization, and in June, 1910, a temporary national
headquarters for the Boy Scouts was housed in a YMCA office in New York City. The first National Council office of the Boy Scouts
of America was opened in New York City in 1911.

Ties to the YMCA continued for some time after 1910. That year, Lord Baden-Powell and others held the first training conference
for Scout leaders, the Scout Master's Training School, at the Silver Bay Association, which was well known for hosting retreats and
meetings for the leaders of the YMCA movement (the YWCA and other organizations also used Silver Bay for similar purposes).
These Scout Master's Training Schools continued for some years.

In 1985, on the occasion of their 75th anniversary, a plaque first given in 1947 was rededicated at Silver Bay by the Boy Scouts of
America, in honor of its role in founding of Scouting in the United States.

The United Service Organizations, better known as the USO, was created in October 1940, as a joint effort by the YMCA, YWCA,
National Catholic Community Service, National Jewish Welfare Board, Traveler's Aid Association and the Salvation Army. These
organizations, like the YMCA, had long histories of helping servicemen and noncombatants in the nation's wars, but the scale of
mobilization needed as America prepared for World War II was far beyond the scope of any one organization. The only way to deal
effectively with the needs of the hundreds of thousands of young men being drafted was to combine and coordinate efforts. In
January, 1941, USO leaders met with President Roosevelt and various military leaders. In settling a dispute between which areas
of the USO's activities would be controlled by the military and which by the civilians, Roosevelt ordered that the private
organizations would handle the recreation services and the government would put up the buildings and put the USO name on the
outside.

The Peace Corps, founded in 1961 by order of President Kennedy, was patterned after the YMCA's program of World Service
Workers, which had started in the 1880s. The student Ys of that era included as members John Mott and Robert Wilder, who
founded the Student Volunteer Movement in 1888. The volunteers pledged themselves to overseas missionary work after
graduation from college. The YMCA was given the opportunity to organize the Corps, but turned it down due to the burden of its
other activities.

Association Press, first established in 1907 as the YMCA Press, was created as the publishing arm of the YMCA movement,
producing technical works, Bible study courses and other works suitable for building character and leadership skills, and was a
pioneer in publishing books on sex education. It was also the leading publisher of evangelistic materials used by YMCAs, including
the popular everyday life series of devotionals written by Harry Emerson Fosdick between 1910 and 1920. Association Press also
printed the text first used by Dale Carnegie in teaching public speaking: Public Speaking, a Practical Course for Business Men. The
name Association Press was given in 1911, and it was closed and sold in the late 1970s after many years of declining book sales.

Many people confuse the Association Press with the current YMCA Press in Paris, France, also known as the Paris Press. The
Paris Press does in fact have a U.S. YMCA connection. It was started in Prague in 1920 by Julius Hecker, a World Service Worker,
who wanted to publish works in Russian for those fleeing the revolution and the civil war. Since many books didn't fit in with
Communist ideology, they couldn't be printed under Communist rule. Hecker's efforts helped the refugees sustain their culture and
community in the face of great upheaval. One of the most important works put out by the Paris Press was the Russian edition of
Alexander Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago.

That they may all be one -- diversity in the YMCA

YMCAs have interpreted their Christian mission in a practical way, including in their programs and outreach
missions many groups excluded by others at the time. For example, long before the phrase cultural diversity
was used, YMCAs were at work in the Great Plains with both the U.S. Cavalry and the Sioux Indians.

U.S. Indian Ys first started in 1879, with the founding of a YMCA by Thomas Wakeman, a Dakota Indian, in
Flandreau, S.D. The Dakota Indian associations were formally received into the state organization in 1885. By
1886 there were 10 Indian associations with a total of 156 members. By 1898 there were about 40 Indian
associations, including several student YMCAs. The student department's interest in Indian work was fueled by
James A. Garvie's presentation to the convention of 1886: Garvie, a Sioux, had translated the model college
constitution of a student Y into the Sioux language.

The first Y employee hired to do Indian work full time was Charles Eastman, MD, a Sioux hired in 1895. Prior
to that, however, the Kansas state association had engaged a native Indian missionary to work among his own
people. In 1920 Indian efforts were overseen by the student department. By 1926 the number of Indian YMCAs
was too small to include separately in the annual report. The General Convention of Sioux YMCAs in Dupree, SD, and the Mission
Valley YMCA Family Center in Ronan, Mont., are the last YMCAs on reservations.

U.S. YMCAs serving Asians were first established in San Francisco to

serve the large Chinese population there in 1875, although the YMCA in
Portland, Ore., had opened a mission school and engaged a Chinese man
to distribute religious tracts five years earlier. The Chinese were subjected
to violent racism at this time, as witnessed by the Chinese Exclusion Act of
1882. The secretaries of these Chinese Ys were natives of China who
converted to Christianity. A Japanese YMCA was founded in San
Francisco in 1917.

YMCAs in the African American community have a long and varied history.
The first YMCA for blacks was founded in 1853 by Anthony Bowen, a freed
slave, in Washington, D.C. It was the first nonchurch black institution in
America, predating Lincoln University in Oxford, Pa., by a year. In 1888,
William Hunton became the first full-time black secretary in the YMCA
movement, and in 1900, the first conference of black secretaries was held.
In 1896 there were 60 active black Ys, 41 of which were student Ys at
colleges (the first black student YMCA was formed in 1869 at Howard
University, Washington, D.C.). By 1924, there were 160 black Ys with
28,000 members.

Twenty-five black YMCAs were built in 23 cities (there were three in New York City) as a result of a challenge grant program
announced by Julius Rosenwald in 1910. Rosenwald promised $25,000 toward the construction of YMCAs in black communities if
the community raised $75,000 over a five-year period. Adjusting for inflation, Rosenwald's grants would total about $10 million
today. The effect of these Rosenwald Ys was keenly felt in the 1950s and '60s: YMCAs, being integral parts of the black
community, played important roles in the struggle for civil rights.

YMCAs and Y leaders also played important roles in the fight for civil rights. In 1932, the student YMCAs voted to not hold
meetings in states with Jim Crow laws. Eugene E. Barnett, head of the national YMCA organization during the 1940s, was a strong
advocate of integrating YMCAs and full civil rights for minorities.

While YMCAs provided proud firsts on racial matters in the 19th and early 20th centuries, they also provided some sad lasts later
on. In the 1960s, some 300 YMCAs were still racially segregated, and a few left the movement rather than comply with the national
organization's directive to integrate.

The YMCA also had a role in the creation of modern black historigraphy. Carter G. Woodson, Ph.D., a historian and the second
African American to receive a doctorate in history from Harvard University, stayed at the Wabash Area YMCA in Chicago when he
visited the city during the 1910s. During that era, formal and informal segregation limited blacks to only certain areas of the city. As
a result, the Wabash Area Y became a major institution in serving the black neighborhood known as Bronzeville. It was there that
Dr. Woodson and three friends met in 1915 to found the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. The men felt that if
whites learned more about blacks, race relations would improve. The association, and Dr. Woodson's later scholarship, were
important vehicles in establishing the study of African American history as an accepted academic pursuit at all major colleges and
universities. Dr. Woodson was also a practical man in addition to being a scholar: he knew that demonstrating the talents and
accomplishments of blacks in America would help increase white regard for blacks. In 1926 he organized the first Negro History
Week, held in Washington, D.C. In the 1960s it grew into Black History Month and is now celebrated throughout the country.

In the 1970s, Bronzeville ran down, the Wabash YMCA was closed and the building nearly torn down. Now the neighborhood is
improving and the building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The early history of women in the YMCA is not well documented, although it is believed that the first female member of a YMCA
joined in Brooklyn, NY, in the late 1850s. This is based on a statement by one observer in 1869 that Brooklyn had had women as
members for half of its existence. The Brooklyn YMCA was founded in 1853. There were several female members, at least
unofficially, by the 1860s. The Albany (NY) convention of 1866 went so far as to refuse to seat several women delegates, holding
that representation at the convention had to be based on male membership. Ellen Brown, who was not only the first female
employee of a YMCA, but also the first boy's work secretary in the movement, was hired in 1886. By 1946, women accounted for
12 percent of the membership.

This is not to say that women were not active in YMCAs before the 1860s. Almost immediately after the founding of the YMCA in
the United States in 1851, women taught classes, raised funds and functioned as a ladies aid society would in a church. These
committees of women were largely informal, and official Ladies Auxiliaries were not formed until the 1880s. There is record of lady
members using YMCA gyms in 1881.

Wherever the soldier goes -- YMCAs and the military

George Stuart, founder of the Philadelphia YMCA and head of the Y's efforts in the Civil War, said that there is a good deal of
religion in a warm shirt and a good beefsteak. YMCAs, to meet the needs of those in the armed forces, responded with care,
imagination and skill. Here is an overview of the YMCA and the military.

YMCAs and the military have enjoyed a relationship that predates the Civil War. YMCAs have always sought out young men to
assist, and the fact that men went into the military simply meant that the YMCA followed them there. Before the Civil War, there is
record that the Portsmouth (Va.) YMCA supplied a library in 1856 to a Navy port and later held meetings aboard a training ship. In
1859, the Boston YMCA made similar efforts.

Ys first participated in American wars with the May, 1861, formation of the Army Committee by the New York Association during
the Civil War. Several YMCAs, notably the New York and Chicago associations, raised troops, including New York's 176th, the
Ironsides Regiment. In Chicago, it was reported that the Chicago YMCA raised five companies of troops and could have raised five
more.

The New York Association's Army Committee and similar efforts by several other Ys were merged into the Christian Commission,
responsible for directing Union YMCAs' relief efforts. The Christian Commission oversaw approximately 4,850 volunteers, one of
the most famous of whom was the poet Walt Whitman, who served as a nurse. Through the Christian Commission, YMCAs
supported hospitals and supplied nurses and aides to tens of thousands of casualties and prisoners of war throughout the
hostilities, on both sides of the conflict. YMCAs were also active in distributing tracts and Bibles throughout the Union and the
Confederacy. The Chicago Y held devotional services for the soldiers and later helped maintain a home for men in transit, the sick
and the wounded.

Not only did YMCAs help raise military units, but military units started YMCAs. Southern units were more active than Northern ones
in this regard, and about 30 such Ys left records. The federal POW camp at Johnson's Island, Ohio, organized a YMCA, its chief
functions being looking after the prison hospital and holding weekly lecture meetings. In the winter of 1863-64, the YMCA of one
Mississippi brigade organized a one-day-a-week fast among its members and sent the saved rations to the poor in Richmond.

The Civil War generally devastated YMCA membership in both the North and South. The work of the YMCA during the war,
however, made it popular with the troops, and the movement recovered swiftly.

In the period between the Civil War and the Spanish-American War, YMCA work with the military consisted mainly of providing a
regimental writing tent for the men during the summer and holding Bible studies. Annapolis had a functioning YMCA among the
midshipmen by 1879, and West Point reported a cadet branch in 1885. Finally, a YMCA was given permanent quarters in Fort
Monroe, Va., in 1889. Things got onto a more official footing when the 1895 YMCA Convention authorized greater efforts. Little was
done before the Spanish-American War to implement this directive.

The outbreak of war with Spain saw a repeat of YMCA efforts during
the Civil War. Ys raised military units and followed the flag to the
Philippines and Cuba, attending to the needs of servicemen, prisoners
of war and noncombatants.

The experiences of the YMCA movement showed that helping

servicemen would require full-time resources, and in September, 1898,
an Armed Services department was established. In 1902, Congress
authorized the erection of permanent YMCA facilities on military bases,
and in 1903, special training was available for secretaries heading
Army and Navy Ys.

By 1914 there were 31 military YMCAs and 180 traveling libraries.

Almost a quarter of a million men stayed in their dormitories. The
YMCA had an extensive presence in the military during the period
before World War I.

Almost 26,000 YMCA staff and volunteers performed YMCA work

during the first World War, some of it years before America entered the
war. American secretaries, under the sponsorship of the World Alliance in Geneva, were sent to Europe at the beginning of the war
to care for prisoners held by both sides. While firm figures are not available, it is safe to say that YMCA efforts directly helped
hundreds of thousands of POWs, and indirectly helped most of the 4 million POWs of that war.

With its more than 1,500 canteens and post exchanges, the YMCA fed and entertained
more troops during World War I than did any other welfare organization, including the
Knights of Columbus and the Salvation Army. It was common for Catholics and Jews to
use Y buildings for religious services. In all, the YMCA performed more than 90 percent of
the welfare work of the time, mostly in the form of running canteens and post exchanges.
The canteens and post exchanges the YMCA ran in France were released from minimum
price laws in effect in America, its history and reputation being sufficient guarantees
against abuse.

The Y's efforts during WWI even inspired music. One song about the Y was written by
Irving Berlin, who was stationed at Fort Yaphank in 1918. Berlin wrote I Can Always Find A
Little Sunshine in the Y.M.C.A., which was performed in a revue he wrote titled Yip, Yip,
Yaphank. Another, The Meaning of YMCA (You Must Come Across), written by Ed Rose
and Abe Olman in 1918, had the lyric: They've done their bit and more. To help us win the
war....The Y is right there on the firing line.

World War II saw a continuation of YMCA services for the military and displaced persons.
The scale of the YMCA's efforts during WWII is seen not only in its USO work, but also in
the number of prisoners of war assisted through YMCA efforts. It is believed that between
1939 and 1945, YMCAs worked with, or supplied the bulk of the financing for working with,
some 6 million POWs in more than 36 countries.

YMCAs also worked with the 10 internment camps set up in 1942 to hold the 110,000
Japanese Americans held during the war. The bulk of the Y's work consisted of clubs and
camping for boys in the camps. In the words of David M. Tatsuno, an internee and former
member of the Japanese Y in San Francisco: The Y never forgot us. Tatsuno smuggled an
eight millimeter movie camera into the Topaz, Utah, internment camp, where he took some
extremely rare footage of daily life in the camp. Tatsuno's film was recently given to the Library of Congress. It is one of only two
amateur films in the Library's collection. The other is Abraham Zapruder's film of President Kennedy's assassination.

I'll meet you at the Y-organizations started at YMCAs

YMCAs have long been places where things happened. Here are some of the organizations and events that first took place at a
YMCA.

Toastmasters International was invented in 1903 as an older youth public speaking program by Ralph C. Smedley, education
director of the Bloomington (Ill.) YMCA. Smedley realized that older boys visiting the Y needed training in communication skills. He
arrived at the name The Toastmasters Club because meetings resembled a series of banquet toasts. At each YMCA Smedley
transferred to, he would start a new club. Viewed as a personal idiosyncrasy of Smedley by other YMCA secretaries, the
Toastmasters Clubs he started were by and large not successful until he began working at the Santa Ana (Calif.) YMCA. After the
first Toastmasters Club meeting there on October 22, 1924, the idea took hold and spread, and a federation of Toastmasters Clubs
was soon created. The federation of clubs incorporated in 1932, and by 1941 Toastmasters needed Smedley's full attention, so he
resigned from the YMCA to devote himself to his creation.

The Negro National League, the first black baseball league to last a full
season, was formed at a meeting at the Paseo YMCA in Kansas City, Mo.,
in 1920.

Gideons International was formed on July 1, 1899, at the YMCA in

Janesville, Wis., by three men (Nicholson, Hill and Knights) who had come
up with the idea a few months earlier. The Gideons were a group of
Christian commercial travelers who were to evangelize as they went around
the country on business. To that end, Gideons would leave Bibles in the
rooms in which they had stayed. While their meeting was at the YMCA, they
were not Y staff or volunteers or members. Nor were they taking part in a
YMCA program.

Jazzercise, a famous aerobic exercise program for women, was started in

1969 in Evanston, Ill., by a dancer, Judi Missett. Missett began teaching
Jazzercise® in 1972 at the La Jolla, (Cal.) YMCA. Jacki Sorensen, by the
way, who is frequently but erroneously associated with Jazzercise®, has
no connection with the YMCA. She has popularized aerobic exercise,
however, and YMCAs have benefited greatly from her efforts in the field.

Father's Day in its present form was created at a meeting at the Spokane, Wash., YMCA in 1909 by Louise Smart Dodd. The Y and
the Spokane Minister's Alliance swiftly endorsed the idea and helped it spread, holding the first Father's Day celebration on June
10, 1910. President Wilson officially recognized Father's Day in 1916, President Coolidge recommended it in 1924, and in 1971
President Nixon and Congress issued proclamations and endorsements of Father's Day as a national tradition.

Some lists of YMCA firsts state that Warner Sallman painted Head of Christ in the reading room of the Central YMCA in Chicago in
1940. Unfortunately, there's no evidence to support that claim. According to Valparaiso University's Art Department, Sallman made
a charcoal sketch of Head of Christ at his studio at 5412 North Spaulding, Chicago, in 1924 as cover art for a magazine called The
Covenant. In 1940 he was asked to create a color version and created the oil painting that has been reproduced approximately 500
million times, making it one of the most popular works of art in history. The oil version was probably created at his studio.
 The idea that Sallman originally painted Head of Christ in a YMCA probably got started as a result of Sallman's chalk talks.
Sallman, a devout Christian, held some 500 chalk talks, many at YMCAs, where he would make a charcoal sketch of Head of
Christ while giving a testimonial about Jesus. At the conclusion of his talk he would give the sketch to the Y or other organization
sponsoring the session. Sallman did make additional oil paintings of Head of Christ, some of which may have been made in
YMCAs during talks, or on commission. At least one YMCA has confirmed that, in 1949, Sallman countersigned an oil copy of
Head of Christ which is still at the YMCA. Sallman himself related that he had made the original 1924 charcoal sketch in his studio
one night.

YMCA History
On 6 June 1844, Sir George Williams founded the first YMCA in London, England. The first meeting was held in Williams’ drapery
shop in St Paul’s Churchyard and included 12 young men in total. Their objective was the “improvement of the spiritual condition of
the young men engaged in houses of business, by the formation of Bible classes, family and social prayer meetings, mutual
improvement societies, or any other spiritual agency.”

Sir George Williams wasted no time in organising YMCA branches throughout England, Scotland and Ireland. Over the next 10
years, YMCA movements also began to develop across Western Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, and India.

The idea of creating a truly global movement with an international headquarters was pioneered by Henry Dunant, Secretary of
YMCA Geneva, who would later go on to found the International Committee of the Red Cross and win the first Nobel Peace Prize.
Henry Dunant successfully convinced YMCA Paris to organise the first YMCA World Conference. The Conference took place in
August 1855, bringing together 99 young delegates from nine countries.

The Conference adopted the Paris Basis affirming YMCA’s mission and purpose, and created the Central International Committee.
The committee operated without a headquarters until 1878, when a permanent headquarters and formal structure was created in
Geneva, Switzerland. This was a turning point for the Central International Committee that would eventually become known as the
World YMCA.

First YMCA World Conference in Paris, 1855

1) E. W. Heyblom, Netherlands. 2) E. Renevier,

France. 3) T. H. Gladstone, Great Britain. 4) E.
Laget, France. 5) Max Perrot, Switzerland. 6) Henry
Dunant, Switzerland. 7) T. H. Tarlton, Great Britain.
8) A. Stevens, USA. 9) Sir George Williams, Great
Britain. 10) G. Dürselenen, Germany

George Williams founded the YMCA in 1844.

 
In 1844, industrialized London was a place of great turmoil and despair. For the young men who migrated to the
city from rural areas to find jobs, London offered a bleak landscape of tenement housing and dangerous
influences.

Twenty-two-year-old George Williams, a farmer-turned-department store worker, was troubled by what he saw.
He joined 11 friends to organize the first Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), a refuge of Bible study and
prayer for young men seeking escape from the hazards of life on the streets.

Although an association of young men meeting around a common purpose was nothing new, the Y offered
something unique for its time. The organization’s drive to meet social need in the community was compelling,
and its openness to members crossed the rigid lines separating English social classes.

Years later, retired Boston sea captain Thomas Valentine Sullivan, working as a marine missionary, noticed a
similar need to create a safe “home away from home” for sailors and merchants. Inspired by the stories of the Y
in England, he led the formation of the first U.S. YMCA at the Old South Church in Boston on December 29,
1851.
 Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA)
The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was founded in London, England, on June 6, 1844, in response to unhealthy
social conditions arising in the big cities at the end of the Industrial Revolution. Growth of the railroads and centralization of
commerce and industry brought many rural young men who needed jobs into cities like London. They worked 10 to 12 hours a day,
six days a week. Far from home and family, these young men often lived at the workplace. They slept crowded into rooms over the
company’s shop, a location thought to be safer than London’s tenements and streets. Outside the shop things were bad — open
sewers, pickpockets, thugs, beggars, drunks, lovers for hire and abandoned children running wild by the thousands.

George Williams, born on a farm in 1821, came to London 20 years later as a sales assistant in a draper’s shop, a forerunner of
today’s department store. He and a group of fellow drapers organized the first YMCA to substitute Bible study and prayer for life on
the streets. By 1851 there were 24 Ys in Great Britain, with a combined membership of 2,700. That same year the YMCA arrived in
North America: It was established in Montreal on November 25, and in Boston on December 29.

The idea proved popular everywhere. In 1853, the first YMCA for African Americans was founded in Washington, D.C., by Anthony
Bowen, a freed slave. The next year the first international convention was held in Paris. At the time there were 397 separate Ys in
seven nations, with 30,369 members total.

Teaching “The Art of Self Defense” at Boise YMCA, 1936

The YMCA idea, which began among evangelicals, was unusual because it crossed the rigid lines that separated all the different
churches and social classes in England in those days. This openness was a trait that would lead eventually to including in YMCA’s
all men, women and children, regardless of race, religion or nationality. Also, its target of meeting social need in the community was
dear from the start. Local YMCA’s engaged in a variety of community services, e.g., emergency relief, distribution of coal to the
poor, clothing for destitute children.

The national YMCA organization grew out of a conference of local associations in the U.S. and Canada, held in Buffalo, New York
in 1854. In its activities and organization, the American YMCA experienced considerable growth in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. State and local associations flourished, organizing their own conventions; dormitories and restaurant facilities
became a regular part of YMCA buildings.

Local YMCA leaders became aware of the need to provide professional training for men seeking careers within the YMCA field. As
a result, several association-affiliated colleges were set up in the late nineteenth century, including Springfield College in
Massachusetts in 1885 and George Williams College in Chicago in 1890.

Spurred on by men such as the clergyman Henry Ward Beecher, Y leaders accepted the precept that a healthy moral spirit is best
maintained by a healthy body. By 1880, most Ys had gyms for their members use. A swimming pool was first introduced by the
Brooklyn YMCA in 1885. Physical work programs became an integral part of the Ys mission to enrich the “spiritual, mental, social
and physical” aspects of a man’s character. Dr. Luther Halsey Gulick, a physician and pioneer in the field of organized recreation
brought a scientific and philosophical coherence to the YMCA’s physical program. As the first physical work secretary of the YMCA
from 1886 to 1903, Gulick wrote and spoke widely on his theory of the “unified man,” a theory that rejected the traditional mind-
body dualism of earlier thinkers and argued that, like Christ, man’s nature was an essential unity of “body, mind, and spirit.”
Excerise and recreation were, therefore, not merely useful but vital to the development of the “perfect” Christian man. To illustrate
his notion of the tripartite nature of man’s unity, Gulick devised an inverted equilateral triangle, which became — and remains– the
universally recognized symbol of the YMCA.

Another accomplishment of Dr. Gulick was inviting James Naismith, a physical education teacher at the YMCA’s Springfield
International Training School to look for a way to relieve his students’ boredom during indoor winter gym classes. Inspired in part by
a game he played as a child in Ontario called Duck-on-a-Rock, Naismith’s basketball started sometime in December 1891 with
thirteen rules, a peach basket nailed to either end of the school’s gymnasium, and two teams of nine players. On January 15, 1892
Naismith published the rules for basketball. Today, basketball is one of the world’s most popular sports.

HISTORY AND TIMELINE

Volunteer founded and volunteer led, the YMCA was established in London, England, in 1844 by George Williams, a draper’s shop assistant, to
give young men an alternative to life on the streets.
 TIMELINE
 1844 First YMCA was founded in London England.

 Second oldest YMCA was founded in Boston

 1852 Third oldest YMCA was founded in Montreal.

 1852 Fourth oldest YMCA was founded in Springfield- 5/3/1852 (second oldest Y in the USA) Old First Church was the site of the first
association meeting.

 1873 Milton Bradley (publishing/lithography) was elected President now known as Chief Volunteer Officer from 1873 – 1874.

 1885 YMCA International Training School now Springfield College.

 1891 Luther Gulick, superintendent of the physical department, at the International YMCA Training School, assigned the task of
creating an indoor game to be played by students. The game of basketball was invented by James Naismith.

 1896 Camp Norwich, on Lake Norwich Huntington, MA was the first Y camp in New England. Closed in 1989; sold to Springfield
College 1994; purchased back 2002; sold to Hampshire Regional YMCA 2006.

 1904 Springfield YMCA Railroad – Railroad YMCA associations popped up nationwide.

 1915 Horace Moses; President 1915 – 1917.

 1916 New Central branch moved to Chestnut Street & Hillman Street location. West Springfield Branch – Horace Moses, Strathmore
Paper, was involved with the development of this branch as well. Endowment gifts from Mr. Moses still support the YMCA of Greater
Springfield with our mission.

 1919 The YMCA contracted with Northeastern College to become a division of the Springfield Northeastern College now known as
Western New England College (WNEC).

 1963 Women were invited into “everything YMCA”.

 1965 Paucatuck Park Family Center/Camp Weber established; Years later the Agawam Family Center/Camp Millbrook was
established.

 1968 Moved to our new and current location, 275 Chestnut Street, Springfield.

 1996 Scantic Valley YMCA – “Y Without Walls”.

 1997 North End Youth Center was established in the old Jefferson Theater, Main St, Springfield. It was a collaboration of local
agencies to keep our kids safe and off the streets.

 2002 Capital Campaign started; the purpose of the campaign was to build a new branch for the Scantic Valley YMCA and create a
new home for the NEYC.

 2004 NEYC moved to its new location at 1772 Dwight Street, Springfield in the former Blessed Sacrament Church in January.

 2004 Scantic Valley YMCA opened its new facility at 45 Post Office Park in Wilbraham in September.

 2005 Scantic Valley Child Development Center was established: it is also located in Post Office Park Wilbraham, opened in
September.

 2010 Y-AIM program Inception

 2011 Dunbar YMCA Family & Community Center Inception

TODAY
YMCAs are collectively the largest not-for-profit community service organization in the U.S. YMCAs are for people of all faiths,
races, ages, abilities and incomes. Nobody is turned away for inability to pay. YMCAs are the heart of community life in America:
42 million families and 72 million households are located within three miles of a YMCA.

YMCA HISTORY & MISSION

The Y is a powerful association of men, women and children from all walks of life joined together by a shared passion: to
strengthen the foundations of community.  With a focus on Youth Development, Healthy Living and Social Responsibility; the Y
nurtures the potential of every youth and teen, improves the nation's health and well-being and provides opportunities to give back
and support neighbors.
 OUR MISSION
To put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all.

NOTABLE MOMENTS IN OUR HISTORY:

1844
The YMCA was founded in London England by George Williams.
1971

 A group of altruistic volunteers founded the Oahe YMCA in Pierre.  The humble beginnings
started in the Masonic Temple and the "Little Church" located next to the State Theater.  Out of this
"storefront operation" support grew as well as the programs.
1978

 The original building was opened on Church St. and quickly outgrown by the early 1990's.
1997

 New additional added on which included the gym, track, weight room, class rooms and the
cardio area.
2000

 The Pierre Aquatic Center was added to the YMCA.

2019

 Phase I Expansion completed which included a new 2nd aerobics studio, new child watch
and playground along with new Cybex strength room.

Facts & Figures

 The Y is a leading nonprofit organization for youth development, healthy living and social
responsibility. 
 The Y is a powerful association of men, women and children committed to bringing about
lasting personal and social change. With a focus on nurturing the potential of every child and teen,
improving the nation’s health and well-being and providing opportunities to give back and support
neighbors, the Y enables youth, adults, families and communities to be healthy, confident,
connected and secure.
 In the U.S., the Y is comprised of YMCA of the USA, a national resource office, and 2,700
YMCAs with approximately 20,000 fulltime staff and 600,000 volunteers in 10,000 communities
across the country.
 The Y engages 9 million youth and 13 million adults each year in the U.S.
 Worldwide, the Y serves more than 45 million people in 119 countries. Ys across the U.S.
play an integral role in strengthening the leadership and youth programs of the Y around the
world.
 Members, staff and volunteers of the Y include men, women and children of all ages and
from all walks of life.
 The Y offers programs, services and initiatives focused on youth development, healthy
living and social responsibility, according to the unique needs of the communities it engages.
 The Y is accessible to all people. Financial assistance is offered to individuals and families
who cannot afford membership.
 The Y is guided by four core values: caring, honesty, respect and responsibility.
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP
YMCA of the USA, the national resource office for America’s 2,700 YMCAs, is led by a diverse and
experienced group of staff professionals. Some of them have spent their entire careers in the Y,
and others have brought valuable perspectives to the Movement from other organizations and
sectors. All of them are deeply committed to advancing the Y’s mission. 

Kevin Washington
President and CEO
A 40-year YMCA professional, Kevin Washington is the 14th person and
first African American to lead the Y in the United States. He came to
YMCA of the USA (Y-USA) in February 2015 from the YMCA of Greater
Boston Opens a new window, where as President and CEO from 2010 to
2014 he expanded membership and access by reducing rates, increased
diversity and engagement among the Board of Directors to better
reflect the community and implemented a childhood-education quality
initiative that benefits thousands of children and families throughout eastern Massachusetts.

YMCA FACTS

1. IT WAS CREATED IN RESPONSE TO THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION .

Appalled by his native England’s squalid living conditions during the Industrial Revolution  period,  Sir George Williams began
organizing a series of Bible meetings which later expanded and ultimately gave birth to the Young Men’s Christian Association.

2. THE ORGANIZATION EVENTUALLY SPREAD TO MORE THAN 120 COUNTRIES.

Also, by the “Y’s” official tally, there are upwards of  2500  individual branches in the United States alone.

3. IN THE EARLY DAYS, SOME PEOPLE WERE OPPOSED TO THE YMCA OFFERING EXERCISE
PROGRAMS.

“Our object,” Sir George Williams once declared  of the YMCA's mission, “is the formation of the spiritual condition of the young
men engaged in houses of business, by the formation of Bible classes, family and social prayer meetings, mutual improvement
societies, or any other spiritual agency.” By this line of reasoning, several of his associates felt that the theologically-inclined
YMCA had no business getting involved with physical education—an attitude that persisted until a few American locations
beganproducing  workout courses in the late 1800s.

4.  MALE SWIMWEAR USED TO BE AGGRESSIVELY PROHIBITED BY NUMEROUS CHAPTERS.

Before the 1960s, mandatory nudity was common practice in American swimming pools (unless you were a lady, in which case
you’d have to don a full suit at all times). The YMCA didn’t take a national stance on this topic, allowing individual locations to
draft their own rules. Many enforced compulsory male skinny dipping, claiming that buck-naked patrons supposedly  spread
less  bacteria than their clothed counterparts.

5. BASKETBALL WAS INVENTED BY A YMCA EMPLOYEE.

While working as an instructor at Springfield, Massachusetts’s YMCA International Training College, James Naismith famously
created the game of basketball as a way to invigorate his students during the  harsh  New England winter of 1891.
6. VOLLEYBALL WAS A YMCA INVENTION, TOO.

Four years after Naismith, William G. Morgan—another Bay State YMCA teacher—developed volleyball as a  less-demanding
alternative  to Naismith’s flourishing indoor sport.

7. ONE OF THE Y'S EARLIEST PROPONENTS ENDED UP WINNING THE VERY FIRST NOBEL PEACE
PRIZE.

Henry Dunant, who passionately fanned the YMCA’s flames throughout Northern Africa and Europe, helped found the Red Cross,
and—in 1910—won the original Nobel Peace Prize for his achievements.

8. GEORGE H.W. BUSH HELPED START A LOCAL Y IN MIDLAND, TEXAS.

Back in 1953, America’s 41st president served as chairman of a temporary board which rallied to secure the necessary funds for
building their city its very own YMCA chapter .

9. THE WORD "BODYBUILDING" WAS COINED BY A PHYSICAL CULTURIST WORKING FOR THE
YMCA.
Strength-training devotee Robert J. Roberts even allowed his employers to advertise their brand by  running ads  that included
photos of his broad, muscular backside. “Bodybuilding” was a term he  thought up  in 1881.

10. THE Y WAS SHUT DOWN IN THE SOVIET UNION FOR OVER 70 YEARS.
In the 1920s, despite having commanded a strong presence in Czarist Russia, the U.S.S.R.  shut down  all of its YMCA branches,
barring the organization until 1990.

11. THE YMCA SPONSORED COMBAT-READY "CIGARETTE DOGS" DURING WWI.

Previously, YMCA magazines had condemned tobacco’s addictive evils. However, in a publicity stunt during World War I, the
agency sponsored a group of specially-trained bulldogs to carry cartons of cigarettes to nervous soldiers across war-torn Europe.

12. WE HAVE THE Y TO THANK FOR FATHER'S DAY.

Sonora Louise Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington pitched the idea of having a special day to honor dutiful dads everywhere at a
regional YMCA meeting. The organization loved the idea, and held America’s  first  Father’s Day celebration on June 19, 1910.

13. WITH THE YMCA'S HELP, BASKETBALL HAS (ARGUABLY) BECOME CHINA'S FAVORITE
SPORT.
Today, approximately 300 million Chinese citizens play  basketball , which was originally introduced to the country by YMCA
missionaries in the late 19th century.

14. THE YMCA SUED THE VILLAGE PEOPLE FOR THEIR HIT 1978 SINGLE .

Admit it: You’ve had the chorus stuck in your head from the moment you read this article’s headline, haven’t you? Released in
1978, “Y.M.C.A.” was an instant hit, which rapidly became one of the decade’s most enduring classics. However, the actual
YMCA strongly disapproved and, the following year,  sued  the disco group for copyright infringement (the case was eventually
dropped).

15. COLIN POWELL SANG A PARODY OF THE SONG … WHILE IN OFFICE!

Donning his best Weird Al impression, the Secretary of State delivered a strange spoof with lyrics like “The President Came to Me
and Said / ‘Colin, I am Sure You’ll Agree/ I Need You to Run/ The Department of State/ We’re Between a Rock and a Hard
Place!” in the middle  of a 2004 security meeting in Indonesia.
YMCA FACTS
The YMCA is a prominent non-profit-making organization for the youth development, healthy living
as well as social responsibility.

The YMCA is an effective alliance of men, women, and kids devoted to initiating long term
personal plus social change. With prime focus on nurturing the potential of every young person,
improving the people's health, wellness and providing opportunities to for everyone to be
connected, secure and ability to help each other.

In the U.S., there are 2,700 YMCAs with more than 19,000 fulltime staff members and over
600,000 volunteers in 10,000 communities spread across the united states.

 The YMCA engages 9 million young person as well as 13 million adults annually in the U.S.
 YMCA serves more than 45 million people in 119 countries.  
 YMCA members, staff and volunteers people of all ages and from all walks of life.
 The YMCA offers programs focuses on youth development, healthy living and social
responsibility.
 The YMCA also offers financial assistance  to individuals who cannot afford its membership
fee.
 The YMCA is directed by four fundamental beliefs: caring, honesty, respect and
responsibility.

YMCA Fun Facts

The YMCA has a long and very interesting history.  Some of our current holidays, sports and
organizations began with the Y.
Did you know:

 The original Young Men’s Christian Association started in London in 1844 in response to
unhealthy social conditions arising in the big cities at the end of the Industrial
Revolution
 The first U.S. YMCA was formed in Boston on December 29, 1851
 The YMCA established the first retirement fund for any major welfare organization
founded through a donation from industrialist John D. Rockefeller
 The YMCA provided the right environment for ideas and organizations that might never
have started without them such as:  The Boy Scouts of America, Camp Fire Girls,
Toastmasters and Father’s Day (all of which got their start at YMCAs)
 One of the first YMCAs was also one of the earliest African-American organizations in
the United States founded in Washington, D.C. in 1853 by Anthony Bowen
 The Cincinnati YMCA offers the nation’s first-recorded English as a Second Language,
courses for German immigrants in 1856 – known today as ESL
 The first “student YMCA” started in 1856 at Cumberland University in Lebanon,
Tennessee
 First YMCA to serve the military is founded in Portsmouth, Virginia in 1857
 The Charleston, South Carolina YMCA starts the first Y women’s auxiliary in 1858 which
led classes and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for new buildings
 First YMCA building in the United States is built in Baltimore in 1859 at a cost of $7,000
 May 27, 1861 the New York YMCA Army Committee is formed to aid soldiers in the Civil
War
 June 28, 1864 President Lincoln signs the Congressional charter of the YMCA of
Washington, D.C.
 1867: E.V.C. Eato of New York City becomes the first black delegate to attend the
YMCA annual convention – he is given a standing ovation
 1869: a YMCA membership receipt shows the annual dues at $2.00
 The first YMCA buildings constructed with gymnasiums are opened in Washington,
D.C., San Francisco and New York City in 1869
 The first black student YMCA formed at Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1869
 The first Chinese-American YMCA is founded in San Francisco in 1871
 The first Railroad YMCA was organized in Cleveland in 1872 in a “lowly room set apart
in the Cleveland Passenger Station, to improve the conditions of
railroad men”
 The first Sioux Indian YMCA was organized in 1879 in the Dakota Territory by Thomas
Wakeman, son of Chief Little Crow – the number grew to 66 Sioux
associations with more than a thousand members
 In 1881 Robert Roberts of the Boston YMCA coins the term “body building”
 September 29, 1885 the world’s first indoor swimming pool is dedicated at the Brooklyn,
New York Central YMCA
 1885: Sumner Dudley, a Y volunteer from New Jersey, takes a group of boys camping to
Orange Lake, near Newburgh, New York – he would later be called the “father of YMCA
camping”
 1885: The Brooklyn, New York housed the first reported “swimming bath”
 1886: the Buffalo, New York YMCA hires Ellen Brown the first full time secretary in
America employed for work with boys – worked until her death in 1922
 1888: William Hunton becomes the first African-American general secretary of a local
YMCA in Norfolk, Virginia – William Hunton in 1891 is later hired to become the national
secretary of the “Colored men’s department” which was created by the national YMCA
 In 1889 Hi-Y, a high-school boys’ service club starts in Chapman, Kansas to promote
Christian character in speech, sportsmanship and scholastic achievement
 1889: the first permanent Army YMCA is built at fort Monroe, Virginia
 1891: James Naismith, a Springfield College instructor, with the International YMCA
Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts invents basketball as an indoor winter
sport – in 1895 he went on to became director of physical education for the Denver
YMCA – James Naismith went on to invent the football helmet
 1894: England’s Queen Victoria knights YMCA founder George Williams on the 50th
anniversary of the Y’s founding
 1895: middle-aged businessmen played the first game of volleyball in the gymnasium
of the Massachusetts’ Holyoke YMCA – In the span of only four years the YMCA invented
two athletic “contests” destined to be Olympic sports: basketball (1891) and volleyball
(1895)
 1907: at the Detroit YMCA the world’s first mass swim lessons began under the
instruction of George Corsan, a Canadian who invented the new radical method: group
swimming lessons
 1909: the YMCA launched a campaign “to teach every man and boy in North America”
to swim – the year prior 3,300 people drowned in the United States, mostly young men
 1910: the world’s first indoor filtered pool is built at the Kansas City, Missouri YMCA
 June 6, 1910 Father’s Day, founded by Sonora Louise Smart, starts at the Spokane,
Washington YMCA
 1910: YMCA leader Dr. Luther Gulick and his wife, Charlotte, founded the Camp Fire
Girls
 YMCA of Central New Mexico opens 1915 in downtown Albuquerque.
 YMCAs pioneered lifesaving – Springfield College student George Goss writes first book
on lifesaving as his college thesis, published 1916
 Forerunner of today’s Black History Month began at the Wabash Avenue YMCA in
Chicago in 1926 where is was originally known as the Association for the Study of Negro
Life and History
  President Ronald Reagan was a YMCA-trained lifeguard in Dixon, IL and is credited with
saving 77 lives in Rock River.  He also played in the YMCA’s band.
 1989: YMCA Earth Service Corps start in Seattle.
 2007: Grand opening of the H.B. and Lucille Horn Family YMCA.
 2010: McLeod Family YMCA remodel is completed.

Philippines – National Council of YMCAs

Date of foundation of the YMCA: 1898

Mission Statement
We, the Young Men’s Christian Associations in the Philippines of a Christ-centered
national movement, member of the world-wide YMCA fellowship and voluntary
organization of men and women, are committed to establish a just social order and
humane society, and to promote unity, mutual respect and understanding among
people regardless of age, sex, race, color, creed, belief and social status based on
the teaching of Jesus Christ towards the realization of His Kingdom on nearth.

Main Programmes
Empowerment of the people has become imperative to sustain the development
efforts in our country. Development becomes meaningless in our context if our
people do not have the capacity to sustain it. Building people’s organizations has
proved to be effective in this process. People’s organization is basically an
association which is self-governed and self-sustained by the people at the grass-root
level. Decisions are taken by participatory method by the members involved in this
process. The PVDO (Private Voluntary Development Organization) plays a facilitative
and supportive role in this process. The YMCA movement in Bangladesh re-affirms to
work for the extension of the Kingdom of God in order to restore the distorted image
of humanity through building People’s Organizations.
This was affirmed at the 14th General Assembly of the Asia Alliance of the YMCAs
held in 1995 and the re-entry plan was elaborately worked out at the Sub-regional
Conference on Empowerment of the People held in Dhaka in 1996.

The National Movement of YMCAs in Bangladesh has been involved in this process for
the empowerment of the people since 1989. In this process Community Organizing
Program was initiated as a peoples empowerment process in the economic and socio-
political areas. The local YMCAs situated in different parts of the country were
involved in this process. The thrust of the Community Organizing Program is to
empower its beneficiaries in three major areas. The Economical Empowerment,
Social Empowerment and Political Empowerment. We believe empowering the people
in these three areas will bring a positive change in their lives.

From the Field

The Philippines is one of the most organised senders of labour migrants in Asia.
Almost 10% of Filipinos (about 8.5 million) work abroad. This large-scale migration is
triggered by widespread poverty in the country. People choose to leave and work far
from their families in order to send the kids to school, buy their own house or save up
for a small business that could hopefully generate enough for them not to have to
leave the country and their families again.

Working in foreign countries poses serious difficulties for Filipino workers, not least
the language barrier. Also, adjusting to an entirely different culture and lifestyle can
come as a total shock, particularly to those who come from the provinces with no
experience of living in the city. Ignorance renders the workers vulnerable, and as
such, violation of human rights has become a terrible reality for Filipino overseas
workers, including violence, sexual abuse, and unpaid working hours.

As a result of the many cases of human rights violations and the continuous upsurge
in labour migration, the YMCA of the Philippines has come forward to address the
concerns of migrant workers with the practice of global citizenship.

Given the risks Filipinos may face when working abroad, it is important that a
potential overseas worker should make an informed decision. The Pre-Employment
Orientation Seminar (PEOS) does just that. The PEOS is an education session for
people who are contemplating working abroad, where potential migrants are
encouraged to assess their priorities and also their technical, physical, and emotional
readiness for working abroad.
The PEOS has been extended to include the children and relatives of migrant
workers, since it is also they who suffer from the consequences and social costs of
migration.

The YMCA of the Philippines also believes it is important to communicate with high
school students through the PEOS because they are already attracted by overseas
employment. The PEOS provides education together with career guidance, and can
put overseas employment in proper perspective for the students.

When the workers are finally ready to leave, the YMCA of the Philippines provides
them with Pre-Departure Orientation Seminars, especially for those going to the
Middle East. 

Since migration involves both the sending and the receiving countries, communication
and integration of efforts are necessary if the migrant workers are to have decent
working conditions. The YMCA’s Exchange Programme addresses this need.

The YMCA of the Philippines has run successful exchanges with the YMCAs of
Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Japan, Sri Lanka and Tainan (Taiwan). For example, the
Philippines YMCA sent a volunteer staff to Tainan to work with about 400 Filipino
workers there. The programme organised counselling sessions, recreational, cultural
and language programmes, and dialogue with workers.

In February 2007, countries in East Asia, including the Philippines, hosted a

networking workshop to develop their work with migrants. Common issues were
identified together with how YMCAs can respond to such issues.

The Philippines YMCA has also drawn up a Memorandum of Understanding with the
YMCA of Korea in a Philippines-Korea Leaders Bilateral Roundtable Meeting held from
31st March – 3rd April 2007. A priority common agenda was identified that includes
global citizenship, movement strengthening and the empowerment of youth and
women’s leadership.   

Eloisa D. Borreo, National General Secretary, YMCA of the Philippines

Extract from YMCA World Magazine on : Global Citizenship, June 2007

Our History
The YMCA story began in London, England over 170 years ago with one man who had an idea about how to make his
community stronger. From that idea sprang a movement that would spread across the globe, inspiring millions to
grow in spirit, mind and body. Throughout the years, we’ve evolved with the times, from the Industrial Revolution to
the Digital Revolution…and made many important contributions to society along the way.
 
Here’s a look at the significant milestones in the YMCA movement, both in Canada and internationally.
1844 – The YMCA is founded in London, England
1851 – The first YMCA in North America opens in Montreal
1866 – Canadian YMCA War Services are established
1880s – Railway YMCAs help grow the Canadian Pacific Railway
1891 – The Invention of Basketball
1892 – First YMCA Leader Corps begins in Montreal
1895 – The Invention of Volleyball
1906 – Group swimming lessons debut at the YMCA
1910 – Father’s Day established at the YMCA
1918 – A YMCA teacher is the first to wear a poppy for Remembrance Day
1926 - 1959 – The YMCA plays a role in the founding of 3 Canadian universities
1967 – Canadian YMCAs sponsor overseas projects for the first time
1968 – YMCAs establish child care programs for working parents
1981 – The YMCA Fellowship of Honour is established
1984 – YMCA Canada begins to commemorate YMCA Peace Week
2006 – YMCA Playing to Learn™ curriculum introduced to YMCA child care centres
2016 – New before and after school program curriculum introduced

Race and the YMCA

The YMCA expanded its demographic reach with the help of Anthony
Bowen. A former slave, Bowen became the first African-American to work in
the U.S. Patent Office. He was introduced to the YMCA by a friend, but
despite its general inclusiveness, Bowen was disappointed to learn that the
early YMCA barred blacks from membership. In response, he established
the YMCA for Colored Men and Boys in 1853 in Washington, D.C.
In 1888, William A. Hunton became the first full-time director of an African-
American YMCA. Such establishments became linked to the Civil Rights
Movement, as they offered African-American their own institutions and
facilities. In 1910, Julius Rosenwald, then president of Sears, Roebuck &
Company, donated large sums of money for the creation of more African-
American chapters. Known as 'Rosenwald Ys,' these often included
dormitories. Although it took decades to formally crystalize, in 1946, the
National Council of YMCAs of the United States of America called for the
desegregation of YMCA facilities.
Expanding Roles
The YMCA initially spread through volunteer work, but beginning in the
1880s, permanent facilities were constructed. As in the Boston chapter
under Sullivan and the African-American chapter under Bowen, the YMCA
spread through regional founders. The facilities often included dormitories,
day cares, and were fully staffed. Modern one today feature gymnasiums,
weight rooms, swimming pools, and sports facilities. The reach of the
YMCA did not go unnoticed. The YMCA reached new heights in early
decades of the 20th century in the person of John Mott and Dwight L.
Moody. John Mott, a longtime leader of the YMCA, was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1946 for its global and humanitarian work and Chicago
evangelist Dwight L. Moody expanded the missionary outbreak of the
YMCA.

Basketball : a YMCA Invention

James Naismith was a Canadian farm boy from Almonte, Ontario, a small town just
a few kilometers from Canada’s capital city, Ottawa. He was born on November 6,
1861. His father and mother died when he was eight and thereafter he made his
home with an uncle.He wondered about his future and decided that ‘the only real
satisfaction that I would derive from life was to help my fellow beings.’ In 1883 he
left Almonte for McGill University where he earned a degree in theology. While
studying at McGill Naismith was influenced by D.A. Budge, General Secretary of the
YMCA of Montreal, to pursue a career in the YMCA and to study at the YMCA
International Training School in Massachusetts (later to be named Springfield
College).
Naismith attended as a student in 1890 and was asked to join the faculty in 1891 by
Dr. Luther Halsey Gulick, the director of the physical education department. During
a psychology seminar Dr. Gulick challenged his class to invent a new game. Gulick
was desperately looking for an indoor activity that would be interesting, easy to
learn, and easy to play indoors in the Winter. Such an activity was needed both by
the Training School and YMCAs across the country. Naismith believed that one way
to meet that challenge was to take factors of known games and recombine them.

At the same time Dr. Gulick assigned Naismith one particular class that was
completely uninterested in the routine exercises, marching and mass calisthenics
that formed a part of their compulsory daily physical education session. Three
instructors have gone down in defeat trying to rouse enthusiasm in this group of
young men.

‘When he had assigned me the class of incorrigibles,’ writes Naismith in his own
version of the invention of the game basketball, ‘I had felt that I was being imposed
on; but when he told me to do what all the directors of the country had failed to
accomplish, I felt it was the last straw’.

Naismith struggled with the class of young men with no success. He made attempts
at modifying football and soccer. ‘I had pinned my hopes on these two games and
when they failed me, there seemed little chance of success,’ writes Naismith. He
tried lacrosse, a game he had learned to play in Almonte, Even though some
members of the class were Canadians and knew how to play the game, it didn’t
succeed. The beginners were injured and the experts were disgusted; another game
went into the discard. ‘With weary footsteps,’ recounts Naismith, ‘I mounted the
flight of narrow stairs that led to my office directly over the locker room. I slumped
down in my chair, my head in my hands and my elbows on the desk. I was a
thoroughly disheartened and discouraged young instructor.’

The game that grew out of Naismith’s discouraged but determined spirit on that day
has since gone worldwide, attracting millions of players and spectators young and
old. It was invented by a man sitting at his desk thinking it through.

‘As I sat there at my desk, I began to study games from the philosophical side. I had
been taking one game at a time and had failed to find what I was looking for, this
time I would take games as a whole and study them’.

Naismith then methodically studied the elements of existing team games and
factored out a number of specifics he would mold into a new game. ‘My first
generalization was that all team games used a ball of some kind; therefore, any
new game must have a ball.’ He settled on the existing Association (soccer) football
after eliminating smaller balls because they were difficult to handle, could be
hidden, and required equipment to use them, thereby making the learning of skills
more difficult. He sought a game that could involve many and was easy to learn.

Tackling, a popularcomponent of football, was a problem in Naismith’s mind, he

could see the carnage that would result indoors on wooden floors. ‘But why was
tackling necessary,’ he reasoned, ‘It was because the men were allowed to run with
the ball, and it was necessary to stop them. With these facts in mind, I sat erect at
my desk and said aloud: ‘If he can’t run with the ball, we don’t have to tackle, and
if we don’t have to tackle, the roughness will be eliminated.’ I can still recall how I
snapped my fingers and shouted, ‘I’ve got it!’He then concluded that a game must
have an objective, and there must be some kind of goals, but he eliminated the
goal used in soccer, lacrosse and hockey and turned instead to a game he played as
a child called ‘Duck on the Rock.’ ‘With this game in mind, I thought that if the goal
was horizontal instead of vertical, the players would be compelled to throw the ball
in an arc; and force, which made for roughness, would be of no value. A horizontal
goal, then, was what I was looking for, and I pictured it in my mind. I would place a
box at either end of the floor, and each time the ball entered the box it would
count as a goal. There was one thing, however, that I had overlooked. If nine men
formed a defense around the goal, it would be impossible for the ball to enter it;
but if I placed the goal above the players’ heads, this type of defense would be
useless.’

He settled on a toss-up between two players as a way to start the game after
considering several alternatives.

Naismith was ready to try the new game with the class and set down on a scratch
pad the first set of 13 rules in less than an hour. A stenographer typed them up. He
asked the building superintendent to fetch two boxes about eighteen inches square.
‘No, I haven’t any boxes,’ replied the superintendent, ‘but I’ll tell you what I do
have. I have two old peach baskets down in the store room, if they will do you any
good.’ A few minutes later, baskets tucked under his arm and a few nails and a
hammer in hand, Naismith tacked the baskets to the lower rail of the balcony, one
at either end of the gym, posted the rules on the gym bulletin board and lay in
waiting for his class of ‘incorrigibles.’

Naismith recalls, ‘The first member of the class to arrive was Frank Mahan. he
gazed at me for an instant, and then looked toward the other end of the gym.
Perhaps I was nervous, because his exclamation sounded like a death knell as the
said ‘Huh! another new game!” There were eighteen men in the class and Naismith
promised them that if this game proved to be a failure he would not try any more
experiments on them. They went over the rules, divided the group into two teams
of nine players each and tossed up the first basketball in history. The date was
December 21, 1891.

YMCA Logo – History

The official emblem of the World YMCA was first adopted in 1881, at the 9th
International YMCA World Conference, and is still in use today.

The emblem is circular and made up of five segments, each one

carrying the name of a continent. You will see that the
segments are held together by small “cartouches” with
monograms of the YMCA in different languages. As early as
1881, YMCA leaders believed the Movement could be truly international and united
across borders.

In the centre of the circle is a larger monogram of Christ’s name (a combination of

the two first letters of the name in Greek), as seen in the catacombs painted by
early Christians. An open Bible sits on top of the monogram, showing John XVII,
Verse 21, “that they all may be one”. This was to remind YMCAs that Christ is at the
centre of the Movement, a source of strength, hope and unity, binding us all
together.

Sir George Williams (1821 – 1905)

Founder of the first YMCA
George Williams was born in Somerset, England on 11 October
1821. In 1836 he moved to London to work as an apprentice to a
Draper, and by 1841 was working as a Draper’s. He stayed in the
accommodation provided by the firm in the same building, and
became one of the 150,000 young men like him that crowded
the city of London

On 6th June 1844, George Williams, together with ten Christian

young men, established the YMCA. “Our object is the improvement of the spiritual
condition of the young men engaged in houses of business, by the formation of Bible
classes, family and social prayer meetings, mutual improvement societies, or any
other spiritual agency.”

Williams was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1894, and after his death was
commemorated with a stained-glass window in the nave of Westminster Abbey. Sir
George Williams is buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Henry Dunant (1828 – 1910)

Founder of YMCA Geneva
Henry Dunant, who was born in Geneva on 8 May 1828, came from
a devout and charitable Calvinist family. Motivated by his strong
sense of faith and desire to help others, as a young man, Dunant
began organising prayer groups and bible studies from his home. He
went on to co-found the YMCA of Geneva in 1852.

Driving Force behind the international YMCA Movement Henry

Dunant then played a pivotal role in the growth of the international YMCA
Movement.
He became a fervent spokesperson for the YMCA, promoting it all over the world,
and visiting emerging YMCAs across Europe and North Africa. He was also in regular
correspondence with YMCAs around the world, updating them on YMCA work in each
country; by1852 he was corresponding with YMCAs in nearly 30 different towns.

In 1855 when leaders of YMCA Paris suggested holding an international meeting with
other francophone YMCAs, Dunant expressed his disapproval and his wish to have a
more inclusive international gathering with YMCA representatives from England,
Scotland and Holland for example. His enthusiasm and passion to have a truly
international movement led to the first ever International YMCA Conference held in
Paris in 1855.

Recognised Humanitarian and Winner of Nobel Peace Prize

Henry Dunant would later go on to found the International Committee of the Red
Cross, and win the first ever Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.

John R. Mott (1865 – 1955)

Leader of the World YMCA Movement
John R. Mott was born in New York on 25 May 1865. In 1885 he
became a student at Cornell University, where as President of
the student YMCA, he increased membership threefold, and
raised money for a University YMCA building. He graduated in
1888 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and history, and
immediately began a service of 27 years as Secretary of the
Intercollegiate YMCA of the USA and Canada. From 1915 to 1928
he served as General Secretary of the International YMCA Committee (that would
later become the World Alliance of YMCAs) and as President of the World Alliance
from 1926 to 1937.
Pioneer of the Student Christian Movement
As a student, Mott also participated in the first ever international
interdenominational student Christian conference. After graduating, Mott organised
the World’s Student Christian Federation in 1895 and as its General Secretary went
on to organise national student movements in India, China, Japan, Australia, New
Zealand, parts of Europe and the North East.
Winner of Distinguished Service Medal and Nobel Peace Prize
During World War I, when the YMCA offered its services to President Wilson, Mott
became General Secretary of the National War Work Council, receiving the
Distinguished Service Medal for his work.
He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946 for his work in establishing and
strengthening international Protestant Christian student organisations that worked
to promote peace.

The first basketball team, consisting of nine players and their coach, on the steps of
Springfield College Gymnasium in 1891. Back row: John G. Thompson, New Glasgow,
N.S.; Eugene S. Libby, Redlands, Cal.; Edwin P. Ruggles, Milton, Mass.; William R.
Chase, New Bedford, Mass.; T. Duncan Patton, Montreal, Que. Centre: Frank Mahan,
Memphis, Tenn.; James Naismith, Almonte, Ont. Front row: F. G. Macdonald,
Pictou, N.S.; Wm. H. Davis, Holyoke, Mass.; Lyman W. Archibald, Truro, N.S.

The game was a success from the first toss-up onward and word spread that
Naismith’s class was having fun. Within a few days the class attracted a gallery.
Teachers from a nearby girls school watched the game and took it away with them
to organize the first girls’ basketball team. Frank Mahan suggested the game be
given a name, and he and Naismith settled on ‘basketball’.

In those earlier days of the game it was reported as ‘an uproarious game
accompanied by much yelling and undignified cheering’. In that respect it has
changed little through the ages. ‘When the first game had ended’, says Naismith, ‘I
felt that I could now go to Kr. Gulick and tell him that I had accomplished the two
seemingly impossible tasks that he had assigned to me; namely, to interest the class
in physical exercise and to invent a new game.’

Naismith continued to control the development of the game and its rules for five
years. he left Springfield for Denver to become the physical education director for
the YMCA in that city and to study for his medical doctorate. On his graduation the
University of Kansas was seeking an athletic coach and a director for their 650 seat
chapel which students attended every morning. He was ideally prepared for the
post and was recommended to the University as ‘..inventor of basketball, medical
doctor, Presbyterian minister, teetotaler, all-round athlete, non-smoker, and owner
of a vocabulary without cuss words.’

Dr. Naismith and his wife attended the Olympic Games in 1936 when basketball
became one of the Olympic events. He died in 1939 at age 78