21st Century Community Learning Center Grant Recipient

The New Britain-Berlin YMCA today announced that the Association has been awarded a $200,000 21st Century Community Learning Center Grant, and will be serving as the lead agency and fiduciary, partnering with the New Britain School District.
The 21st Century Community Learning Center Program supports the creation of community learning centers that provide academic enrichment opportunities during non-school hours for children, particularly students who attend high-poverty and low-performing schools. The program helps students meet state and local student standards in core academic subjects, such as reading and math; offers students a broad array of enrichment activities that can complement their regular academic programs; and offers literacy and other educational services to the families of participating children.

Wilton Family YMCA Bubble-Up!

A sure sign that fall is arriving in New England is the annual inflation of the "air structure" covering the fifty-meter aquatic facility of the Wilton Family YMCA in Wilton, Connecticut.
The Wilton Family YMCA makes a fun event of the task of inflating the "bubble". Days of preparation culminate in an "all-volunteers-on-deck" service day to ready the natatorium for the fall-winter-spring seasons.

Defining Attributes of Pioneering Healthier Communities

What are the defining attributes of Pioneering Healthier Communities?

- Leadership model
- Utilize multiple sectors and diverse organizations to maximize experience, resources, assets and skills
- YMCA serves as a convener in the community and co-leads with partners
- Influence policy and environmental change
- Local initiatives are organically grown with strategies specific to the needs of each community

Pictured are: (L-R) Kathleen McNamara, Partner Coach, Greater Waterbury YMCA; Jim O'Rourke, Interim Executive Director of the Greater Waterbury YMCA

Wilton Family YMCA Pioneering Healthy Living

The YMCA of the USA's Pioneering Healthier Communities initiative engages community leaders, convened by local YMCAs, in policy and environmental change efforts that support and promote healthy lifestyles. These initiatives empower local communities with proven strategies and models to create and sustain positive, lasting change for healthy living.
More than 100 YMCAs are involved in Activate America's Healthier Communities initiatives. Communities that are currently involved have been successful in influencing environmental and policy changes that affect community walkability and pedestrian safety; access to fresh fruits and vegetables; physical education requirements in schools; enhancements in opportunities for employees to havde access to healthy foods, among other things.
Pictured are: (L-R) Stephanie Barksdale, Executive Director of the Wilton Chamber of Commerce, and Karen Strickland, Development and Marketing Director of the Wilton Family YMCA.

Prevalent, Costly and Preventable

The YMCA recognizes that health and well-being programs and initiatives are cricital to the nation's efforts to combat the crisis of chronic disease, including heart disease and stroke, cancer and diabetes. YMCAs also recognize that they can't do it alone. These diseases are the most prevalent, costly and preventable of all health problems.

Chronic diseases are the leading cause of death in the US;
133 million Americans live with one or more chronic diseases, and 75% of the nation's medical care costs go to treating people with these conditions;
About half of all deaths in the US can be attributed to largely preventable behaviors.

Pictured are: (L-R) Barbara Moore, Project Director for the Connecticut Pioneering Healthier Communities / Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiative; and Jason Cohen, Connecticut Statewide Pioneering Healthier Communities Chair (Director of Parks and Recreation in Colchester, CT and Treasurer / Legislative Chairman of the Connecticut Recreation and Park Association.

PHC YMCAs Visioning Success

Pioneering Healthier Communities YMCAs gathered in Arlington, Virginia this week, in the PHC Coaches Conference for the 2009 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant recipients, have established "Signs of Success for State Alliance / Statewide PHCs Work":



A thriving learning community - Statewide PHCs will have well-established forums and patterns for learning and sharing at both the local and state levels;



Increasing collaboration on state legislative priorities - Networks, communities, assocations across the respective states will have identified and committed to working together on one or more state-level priorities;



Growing more community-level work - More local communities taking on childhood obesity through policy / environmental change strategies, partly as a result of statewide PHC;



Getting meaningful and measurable results - Clear changes at the state and local level that are observable and measurable.


Pictured are: (L-R) Southington-Cheshire Community YMCA PHC Team members - Howard Thiery, Assistant Superintendent of Schools for Southington, CT; Karen DiGirolamo, Health and Wellness Director at the Southington-Cheshire Community YMCA; John Myers, Executive Director of the Southington-Cheshire Community YMCA

Healthier Communities Initiative

Tracy Wiedt, Project Director for Activate America, Healthier Communities Initiative, chats with Greater Hartford YMCA Vice President of Operations, Jim Scherer at the 2009 Pioneering Healthier Communities Coaches Conference in Arlington, Virginia.

Activate America National Director

Activate America National Director Jonathan Lever, is pictured with YMCA Resource Director Linda Schreiber, whose service portfolio encompasses YMCAs in Kentucky and West Virginia.

Jonathan oversees the strategic development and implementation of the Activate America initiative of the YMCA of the USA.

Wallingford Family YMCA Activates The Community

Participating in the Pioneering Healthier Communities Coaches Conference from the Wallingford Family YMCA are (L-R) Craig Turner, Director of Youth and Social Services for the Town of Wallingford, Sean Doherty, CEO of the Wallingford Family YMCA, and Mark Graham, Health and Wellness Director of the Wallingford Family YMCA.

Pictured second from the right is Sam Bechnel, Project Manager, Activate America, Healthier Communities Initaitive.

Darien Community YMCA a PHC YMCA

Darien Community YMCA Pioneering Healthier Communities Partner Coach / Community Volunteer Barbara Rhein chats with Connecticut YMCA Alliance Pioneering Healthier Communities / Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Project Director Barbara Moore at the opening reception for the Pioneering Healthier Communities Coaches meeting in Arlington, Virginia.

Pioneering Healthier Communities Coaches Meet

Six Pioneering Healthier Communities YMCAs (PHC) from Connecticut are participating this week with eleven like-focused YMCAs from Kentucky and Tennessee in the Pioneering Healthier Communities Coaches Conference of the 2009 cohort of the YMCA of the USA's Healthier Communities Initiative. The conference is being conducted in Arlington, Virginia, within sight of The Nation's Capitol, as the US Congress advances health care reform at the federal level.

Teams of Pioneering Healthier Communities coaches from the Darien Community YMCA, Greater Hartford YMCA, Southington-Cheshire Community YMCA, Wallingford Family YMCA, Greater Waterbury YMCA, and the Wilton Family YMCA are learning under the tutelage of leaders from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Community Initiatives, and the YMCA of the USA.

Funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is supporting a statewide PHC policy change initiative at the local and state level in six states and 32 communities over a period of five years. The aim of this initiative is to address the childhood obesity epidemic through policy and environmental changes that will have implications for communities, states and the nation. A total of 16 YMCAs within Connecticut, Kentucky and Tennessee were selected in 2009.

Pictured are: (L-R) - Audrey Haynes, Senior Vice President / Chief Government Affairs Officer, YMCA of the USA; with members of the Greater Hartford YMCA;s team - Brian Liss, Greater Hartford YMCA; Marco Palmeri, Plainville Health Department; Roger Moss, East Hartford Parks and Recreation; Chris Pallatto, Branch Executive, Wheeler Regional YMCA.

New Britaiin-Berlin YMCA Strategic Planning

The senior management team of the New Britain-Berlin YMCA retreated to YMCA Camp Sloper in Southington, Connecticut to operationalize the Association's new strategic plan. Small group sessions among the staff amplified the strategies and developed action steps to advance the objectives of the Plan.