The YMCA is back! After most of its programming was put on pause due to the pandemic, on June 15 the community hub fully reopened its doors for members who were ready to get back to exercising on the treadmills, swim lessons, group classes and so much more. While the pandemic understandably caused a drop in membership, the Y’s Reimagining Taskforce is ready to take the nearly 70-year-old neighborhood institution to the next level with more programs and offerings, while making sure the Y is always mindful of serving its community. Get the scoop on this month’s spotlight by reading below and hear from YMCA Senior Executive Director John Loussararian.
organizations, groups or people you’d like to give a shout out to? A. That is absolutely correct, and we have too many partners and supporters to adequately list! First and foremost, a huge shout out to our members who kept their memberships active despite our closure as a contribution toward our emergency COVID response fund. We couldn’t have responded to our communities‘ needs without your support–thank you! We are also extremely grateful for our relationship with: the Inglewood Unified School District, which allowed us to provide distance-learning and preand post-school daycare to students from 85 families during this past school year; Aerospace Corporation, with whom we’ve partnered to bring STEM programming to our middle school summer day camp curriculum; and Clark Construction, who helped us provide construction career orientations. And, we’d be remiss to not recognize our most generous donors who have supported the Y since our beginning, including the Drollinger Family Charitable Foundation, Bob Abernethy, and the William H. Hannon Foundation, all of whom contributed toward our COVID response efforts.
Q. The YMCA fully reopened recently after more than a year of most of its regular programming being paused. How has the last year impacted the Y? A. The closure caused our active membership to fall by 81 percent, but we were able to forge new partnerships as we responded to immediate needs in the community. The benefits from those partnerships will outlast the challenges that the membership decline presents. Being forced to pivot due to COVID-19 restrictions amplified the need for us to re-imagine our Y’s strategic focus, since our programming has always been based around responding to community needs. A “Reimagining the Y Task Force” was formed and an expanded list of priorities came about as a result. Q. During the last few months, the Y has implemented a lot of new services and community outreach programs, like the Painted Pantry Project, blood drives and free produce distribution. Will these continue now that the Y has fully reopened? A. To accommodate the increasing numbers of our returning members, we’ve discontinued the shower program, but will continue with our community pantry, blood drives and produce distributions (Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Y’s Annex), as long as the need exists and our partners in those programs are able to participate. In addition, we’ve been able to begin offering swimming instructions to students participating in our remote learning program and look forward to continuing our Youth in Government led “Finding Common Ground” webinar series, bringing back traditionally popular programming such as the Adventure Guides, family/ summer camps, youth sports leagues, and expanding on the number of Page 4 • July 2021
Top photo by Zsuzsi Steiner.
Community spotlight: Westchester YMCA looks to the future after reopening
Top: Y fans show their support for the organization. 2. Kids have fun in the after-school program. 3. The Y celebrates the opening of their outdoor food pantry, which is open 24/7.
exercise classes available now. Finally, we also look forward to relaunching our school-based Health & Wellbeing programs including youth yoga, which we provided pre-pandemic at 11 partnering schools, serving more than 3,900 students on school days. Q. Membership has understandably declined during this time. What is your plan for bringing people back and gaining new members? What are some of the Y’s goals for the year? A. We’ve managed to regain more than 42 percent of our pre-COVID
membership since restrictions began being lifted in May, and as we are able to continue to bring back staff and programming relevant to them, additional members are returning. Our goals are to continue to add back programming as we are able, to convert program participants into full memberships and to attract new members through inperson community outreach and communications. Q. I know the YMCA works with a lot of community partners to fulfill its mission. Are there any
Q. Is there anything else the community should know about the Westchester Family YMCA that you’d like to share? A. While health and wellbeing are central to our core mission, the YMCA is much more than a gym and swim. We have identified key needs in our community, including senior support, learning recovery, food insecurity, drowning prevention and equity and inclusion, and we will continue focusing on them through our partnerships and programming moving forward. We encourage everyone to come by for a visit, or to give us a try. Our pool, basketball courts, racquetball courts, and workout facilities are open and available, and we are adding additional programming options regularly. We have an app for class sign-ups, as well as court/pool reservations, and we look forward to seeing you there! Joining the Y is like joining a family, and a strong Y is great for the community. Visit ymcala.org/wc or facebook. com/westchesterfamilyymca for more information. We love highlighting great community businesses, organizations and people in our spotlight series. Email us your suggestions on who to feature next at westchesterhometown@yahoo.com.
Westchester • Playa del Rey • Marina del Rey • Playa Vista HomeTown News
