Mississippi Gulf Coast Young Men's Christian Association

Healthy living: health and wellness programs at the ymca help keep us all healthier and more motivated. Consistent with our mission,we endeavor to provide not just physical fitness for our members, but also programs to build healthy spirit and mind. Many adult membersbegan their Association with the ymca in youth programs and have continued their Association over the years, building a healthy lifestyle for their future. Adult programs for health and fitness include aerobics, aquatics, freeweights and fitness equipment, and opportunities for fellowship with others through volunteer activities, trips and fellowship. Fitness programs for adults translate into healthier lifestyles and less stress, balancing work and family. Health and physical fitness increase productivity, reduces medical costs, combats stress and tension, and relieves stress of work/family life. Senior programs improve quality of life by promoting healthy, active living, providing opportunities for meaningful service, offer fitness and health screening and education programs, promoting a sense of belonging through activities family programs. Parenting is an increasingly challenging task, with nearly 70% of children living in a household with both parents working or headed by a single parent. Finding quality family time is difficult. Meanwhile, children from low income families have more physical, emotional or mental challenges that interfere with their abilities to do well in school. Ymca family recreation and programs provide relevant opportunities for children and their parents to relate with each other. Ymca family programs can: create meaningful family time, reinforce parent efforts to instill values, strengthen parent-child bonds, and support the family structure

Community outreach: the Mississippi Gulf Coast ymca provides services over the entire Gulf Coast which are designed to help adolescents become successful and productive. These programs include the healthy weight and your child, reach and rise, and diabetes preventionprogram.

Youth services: childcare is the first chance the ymca has to care for its members. All ymca children and youth programs are tools forbuilding successful relationships between children and adults, whether those adults are parents, other caregivers, or ymca volunteersand staff members. Presently more than 30 different programs incorporate core values of caring, honesty, respect, and responsibility. With the encouragement of adults at the y, children of different backgrounds will have increased opportunities to gain these critical development assets. Support assets: making connections between parents, extended family members, and nonrelated adults and youth constructive use of time: ymca sponsored activities and supervised recreation provide opportunities for positive use of our youth's time through preschool, before and after school programs, and summer day camps. Commitment to learning: tutoring and homework assistance in after school programs develops a sense of commitment and a healthy perspective on learning, while nurturing all important mentor relationships. Social and physical competencies: arts programs and youth sports (here the ymca motto, "everybody plays, everybody wins" applies) help develop skills that promote good decisions and a healthy outlook on competition. Positive identity: community related programming encourages adolescents to take on leadership roles while establishing a sense of self worth. In addition, creative venues and councils allowing Young people to contribute their ideas are used to develop new programs, establish rules and guidelines and help plan youth events. Empowerment: Young people learn the importance of serving others though program specific volunteerism opportunities. These enable youth to raise the bar in setting and achieving high educational and professional goals. Before and after school child care and preschool keeps kids safe, serving over 85 kids per day in summer programs and approximately 200 kids per day during the school year, develops positive developmental assets that provides a deterrence from gangs and drugs, and meets the needs of working parents by providing a cost effective service for school age children through involvement in afterschool care, youth sports, camping, and many other experiences. Financial assistance is made possible by the united way, and by ymca members and community friends through the ymca's strong kids campaign. Water safety instruction programs keep kids safe, builds confidence, and promotes physical fitness, serving over 150 children through third grade in the learn to swim program. Hundreds more are served through ymca swim lessons summer programs. A ten week program teaching children to learn and grow through activities with children from widely varied backgrounds. Spending summers together, children can build a better future for themselves, their families, and their communities by learning respect for all. Character building experiences provided offer self improvement challenges and teach teamwork through inclusion of outdoor/environmental education, fostering fun and Christian fellowship and friendships.