To Our Community

The Hampshire Regional YMCA, Where We Open the Doors For One Cause: To Strengthen the Health of Our Community…

Today more than ever, we need the YMCA to strengthen our health and our hearts, through our four core values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility. Each day at the YMCA, we serve hundreds of individuals and families from all walks of life. They come to our Y for a common purpose – to improve their health. They come for physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing; to relieve stress; for emotional support and encouragement; to learn a new skill; to fight social isolation. From a new refugee learning to swim to a senior soothing the pain of arthritis, our participants need the YMCA.

It is an exciting time for us at the Hampshire Regional YMCA. In 2017, we engaged community leaders, staff and Y volunteers in our strategic planning process. We looked through internal and external research, assessing our strengths and weaknesses as an organization. A considerable amount of time was also spent analyzing our current impact and the areas of unmet need in our community. We prioritized the most meaningful work, resulting in a vision that was centered on our three strategic priorities: Youth Development, Healthy Living and Social Responsibility.

These strategies, detailed in this plan, serve as a foundation for enabling and supporting our priorities. Our mission and values drive us each and every day and set a purpose for our work. The results of this plan will bring our passion alive and will strengthen our wonderful community.

Sincerely,
Julie Green Bianco

Our YMCA Mission

The Hampshire Regional YMCA’S (HRYMCA) Mission: Strengthening our community by fostering healthy living, the development of young people, and social connection and responsibility in a welcoming environment for all.

The Y’s mission is our reason for being, and the Y’s cause is our mission in action—a promise to do everything in our considerable power to enrich the common good and make life better for individuals, families, and communities.

Focus

Strategies

We will strengthen connections and relationships with and between our members.

Create a physical, programmatic, and social environment more conducive to relationship and community building.

Attract, develop, and retain staff and volunteers who enhance and encourage connections with and between members and to the HRYMCA.

Create and sustain innovative programs and services to strengthen the seven dimensions of well-being. Physical, Emotional, Intellectual, Social, Spiritual, Environmental and Occupational.

We will increase our mission-based efforts in the community.

Reach out to currently underserved individuals, groups, and community constituencies to enable their inclusion in the HRYMCA.

Build formal and informal partnerships with other community institutions, to enhance our outreach and accessibility.

Develop appropriate programming to meet specific needs of underserved populations.

We will strengthen our Board to better meet our mission and strategies.

Strengthen the Board and its ownership of the HRYMCA mission and strategies.

Build a strong Board and volunteer-led fund development culture.

Our YMCA Beliefs

We believe that when we devote our full strength to the Y’s mission and cause, work in partnership with others, and build on our history of innovation, we can address the most pressing issues of our time unlike any other organization.

  • We believe all people have potential.
  • We believe active and connected families make for active and connected communities.
  • We believe in a holistic approach to development, promoting healthy spirit, mind, and body.
  • We believe that in a diverse world, we are stronger when we are inclusive and our doors are open to all.
  • We believe in honoring our mission, living our cause, acting in accordance with our values, and placing the greater good above self.

Our YMCA Cause

At the Y, strengthening community is our cause. We believe that positive, lasting personal and social change can only come about when we all work together to invest in our kids, our health, and our neighbors. That’s why we focus our work in three areas:

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

NURTURING THE POTENTIAL OF EVERY CHILD AND TEEN

At the Y, we recognize that successful youth development requires a holistic approach focused on achieving certain social-emotional, cognitive and physical milestones. Youth need positive adult and peer role models, and they need to feel physically and emotionally safe to thrive. The Y puts caring people in children’s lives and nurtures them along their journey to adulthood, so they can become active, thriving and contributing members of society.

HEALTHY LIVING

IMPROVING THE NATION’S HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

At the Y, we enhance the quality of life in our community by helping individuals, kids and families improve their health and well-being. With a focus on prevention, we give people the resources and support they need, whether their goal is to maintain wellness, reduce the risk of chronic disease or reclaim good health.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

GIVING BACK AND PROVIDING SUPPORT TO OUR NEIGHBORS

At the Hampshire Regional YMCA, we are devoted to engaging and connecting all segments of our community, particularly those in underserved and isolated neighborhoods. Everyone is welcome here. We believe diversity enriches and enlivens our Y and our community.