National History of the YMCA :: About Us :: Marshfield Clinic Health System YMCA (2023)

The Young Men's Christian Association was founded on June 6, 1844 in London, England, in response to the unsanitary social conditions that arose in major cities at the end of the Industrial Revolution (circa 1750-1850). The growth of the railways and the centralization of trade and industry drew many rural young people to cities like London in need of work. They worked 10 to 12 hours a day, six days a week.

Far from home and family, these young people often lived at work. They slept in cramped quarters above the company shop, a place considered safer than the slums and streets of London. Outside the store it was bad: open sewers, pickpockets, thugs, beggars, drunks, paid lovers and abandoned children running around by the thousands.

Jorge Williams

George Williams, born on a farm in 1821, came to London 20 years later as a clerk in a cloth shop, the forerunner of today's department store. He and a group of close friends organized the first YMCA to replace Bible study and prayer with life on the streets. In 1851 there were 24 Ys in Britain with a total of 2,700 members. In the same year, the Y comes to North America: it is founded on November 25th in Montreal and on December 29th in Boston.

The idea caught on everywhere. In 1853, Anthony Bowen, a freed slave, founded the first YMCA for African Americans in Washington, DC. The following year the first international congress was held in Paris. At that time there were 397 Ys divided into seven nations, with a total of 30,369 members.

The idea of ​​the YMCA, which began among evangelicals, was unusual in that it broke the rigid lines that then divided all the different churches and social classes in England. This openness was a feature that would eventually lead to the enrollment of all men, women, and children in the YMCAs, regardless of race, religion, or national origin. Also, their goal of meeting the social needs of the community was clear from the start.

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

times of the civil war

In the United States, during the Civil War, the Y's membership was reduced to a third of its size as members marched into battle. Fifteen of the remaining Northern Ys formed the United States Christian Commission to assist troops and prisoners of war. It was endorsed by President Abraham Lincoln and among its 4,859 volunteers was American poet Walt Whitman. Among other things, he donated more than 1 million Bibles to warriors. It was the beginning of a commitment to working collaboratively with service members and seafarers that continues through the Armed Forces YMCAs to this day.

At the end of the war there were only 59 Ys left, but a quick rebuild followed and four years later there were 600 more. The focus was on saving souls with sermons in hallways and street corners, Christian pension lists, conferences, libraries and meetings. , especially in rented rooms.

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

In those early days, YMCAs were run almost entirely by volunteers. Before the Civil War, there were a handful of paid employees who kept the house clean, managed the library, and served as attendant secretaries. But it wasn't until the 1880s, when YMCAs were being built in large numbers, that most clubs thought they needed someone full-time there.

Gymnasiums and swimming pools, large lecture halls and bowling alleys were also built at this time. Hotel-style rooms with bathrooms down the hall, called dormitories or dormitories, were designed in all new YMCA buildings and remained so through the late 1950s. YMCA of all kinds. The residences would make a significant financial contribution to the movement for the next century.

Ys started working with boys and organizing summer camps. They created class drills, precursors to today's aerobics, using wooden dumbbells, heavy medicine balls, and so-called Indian putters, which resembled fancy long-necked skittles. Ys organized university students for social action, literally invented basketball and volleyball games, and met the special needs of railroad workers who had no place to stay when the train reached the end of the line. In the 1890s, the fourfold purpose morphed into the triangle of mind, spirit, and body.

Moody and Mott

John Mott (second from left), leader of the YMCA movement in the United States, received the 1946 Nobel Peace Prize. Mott's award was a recognition of the YMCA's role in promoting global understanding and for its humanitarian efforts. Mott himself was a student of the YMCA movement and was very influential in the Y Missionary Movement. Through the influence of nationally renowned lay evangelists Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899) and John Mott (1865-1955), who dominated the movement in the latter In the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, American YMCAs sent workers abroad by the thousands, both as missionaries, as YMCA secretaries, and as war workers.

The first secretaries of foreign works, as they were called, reflected the enormous missionary reach of the Christian churches at the turn of the century. But instead of churches, they organized YMCAs, which eventually came under local control. Both Moody and Mott have long served as paid professional members of the YMCA movement. Both maintained lifelong connections with him.

The United States entered World War I in April 1917. Mott involved the YMCA movement in operating military canteens, now called Postbags, in the United States and France at his own expense. Ys directed fundraisers that raised $235 million for YMCA operations and other wartime causes, and hired 25,926 Y employees, including 5,145 women, to run the soup kitchens.

He also helped with war aid for refugees and prisoners of war on both sides and worked to smooth the way for African American soldiers to the separated South. China's Y secretaries oversaw Chinese workers brought to Europe after the war to offload ships, dig trenches, and clean up battlefields. YC James Yen, a Yale graduate working with the YMCA in France, developed a simple 100-character Chinese alphabet that has become an important weapon in ending illiteracy in China. Funds left over from war work helped fuel a Y-building boom in the 1920s that affected small towns and counties, worked with returning black troops, and prospered the YMCA schools and trade colleges.

Dude, can you give me a dime?

The Great Depression caused Y incomes to drop dramatically, some by as much as 50%. Various clubs took over direct aid to the poor from 1928 as employment increased before the 1929 stock market crash. When the federal government took over direct aid in 1933, it freed the YMCA and other non-profit organizations from their welfare efforts. 🇧🇷

Forced by hard times and pressure from YMCA student activists to rethink themselves, community Ys became more aware of social issues than ever before and accelerated their partnerships with other charities. Programs and mission were also reviewed. Some outcomes have been collaborative community projects, a renewed emphasis on group work, and more work through organized classes and conferences. The Ys were forced to show their communities that personal development agencies and charities were needed, especially in times of stress.

Between 1929 and 1933, enrollment in Bible courses fell 60 percent and dormitory use declined, but athletic and educational courses increased, along with job training and camping.

A typical Y program back then was the Leisure League in Minneapolis. Thousands were drawn to this YMCA in 1932 to "unite unemployed youth who wish to maintain their physical and mental strength and train themselves for greater usefulness and service to themselves and the community," the association reported. The program offered a wide range of free services, including health care, fitness programs, school classes in a dozen subjects, and recreation. When conditions improved even slightly, they got back to work. Some were left behind, mostly those who considered themselves unemployed. The YMCA offered them vocational training.

The idea spread widely and YMCAs found they could survive comfortably by serving large numbers of people and having low building payments. Indeed, in the midst of the Depression, the Y of Chicago managed to establish a new branch on the South Shore.

war challenges

During World War II, the National YMCA Council (now YMCA USA) joined forces with Y from around the world to help POWs in 36 countries. He also helped found the United Services Organization (USO), which operated drop-in centers for military personnel and sent entertainers abroad to entertain the troops. Ys also worked with displaced people and refugees, and after the war sent workers and money abroad to help rebuild damaged YMCA buildings.

In 1944, after more than two decades of study and testing, the YMCA youth secretaries agreed to give what was already widespread in the movement a national seal of approval, to focus their energies on four programs that promoted work in small groups included. They became known as the "four fronts" or "four platforms" of youth ministry: a parent-child program called Y-Indian Guides, and three children's clubs: Gra-Y for elementary school students, Junior Hi-Y, and Hi-and (Eventually there would be also female and mixed models).

times of change

By the end of the war, the Y had changed. Sixty-two percent were enrolling women, and other barriers began breaking down one by one, with families being the new focus and all races and religions being included at all levels of the organization. The fast-growing suburbs dragged the Ys with them, sometimes leaving behind old apartment buildings and downtown buildings that were no longer efficient or needed.

In 1958, the United States and Canada YMCAs created Buildings for Brotherhood, with the two nations raising $55 million, matched by $6 million abroad. The result was 98 years of renovated, modernized or new buildings in 32 countries.

In what might be called the Great Disappointment of 1965-1975, the nation was rocked by turmoil, including the Vietnam War, urban protests, the forced resignation of a US President, the rise of widespread middle-class drug abuse, the assassination of important political leaders and a loss of confidence in institutions.

In response, the Ys were urged by National Secretary James Bunting to change their course of action. He said the choice was "to continue learning or to become the 20th-century Pharisees associated with forms and theories that were once valid expressions of the most well-known but are now outdated and irrelevant."

With national support from the YMCA and government support, Ys Municipality launched new outreach efforts in 150 cities. The Ys also invested their own money and talent in publicity. Outreach programs were not new to the organization, but the size and scope involved were.

Youth programs on all four fronts withered from lack of attention and disappeared entirely in many major centers, but they held their own in the YMCA camp and in parts of the Midwest and much of the South. When government aid ended, financial problems resurfaced as Ys struggled to remain loyal to those they helped.

An even more insidious problem lay in the mix. Trained in arbitration for a long time, the Y people were aggressively confronted at home and abroad. It was particularly difficult to deal with and discouraging. Beginning in the 1970s, fraternal secretaries serving YMCAs abroad were called home. Some buildings in North American cities were closed and homes were closed due to a lack of clientele and insufficient funds for proper maintenance. Y executives were urged to become more professional in both their appearance and operations, an issue that had been raised by Y executives since the 1920s.

tendencies

After 1975, the YMCAs' centuries-old fitness program made a comeback as interest in healthy living increased across the country. In 1980, the push for modern buildings and equipment sparked a decades-long construction boom.

Childcare for working parents, an extension of what YMCAs have been doing informally for years, quickly emerged in 1983 and quickly joined health and fitness, camping and housing as the YMCA's main source of income.

Character development and asset based approach

In the 1980s and 1990s, "value clarification" ideas were slowly being replaced by "character" ideas. The moral education of children was considered the exclusive domain of the family, and the goal was to enable the child to discover his or her own ethical system. But by the mid-1980s this was seen as contributing to a morally bankrupt society where there is no concept of virtue (or vice), only differing perspectives. Ideas of character development and civic virtues became central, with Bennett's Book of Virtues ending up on bestseller lists and organizations like Character Counts! born. "Preach what you practice" became part of the youth development ideal, as did "Practice what you preach" and "It Takes a Village" replaced "It is the family's job to build morals."

The YMCA movement has been involved in character development since its inception, but with an implicit and practical focus rather than an explicit one. (George Williams put it perfectly in his response to how he would respond to a young man who said he had lost his faith in Jesus, saying that his first act would be to see that the young man eating dinner.) The YMCA movement studied the and came up with four "core values" (Caring, Honesty, Respect and Responsibility) and soon began to explicitly and consciously incorporate them into all programming.

In the 1990s there was a huge change in the field of youth development. So far it has been about the "deficit model", i.e. what went wrong with young people who got into trouble and how it could be fixed. But just as the prevention and development of health, and not just the cure of disease, permeated the medical world, young workers and scientists began to concern themselves with what contributes to healthy development and prevents problems: a "model" good. The USA YMCA has worked with The Search Institute to research this issue in depth and to produce practical results.

The research showed 30 (later increased to 40) developmental assets that were positively correlated with prosocial and healthy behaviors in adolescence and negatively correlated with antisocial and unhealthy behaviors. The more active a youth is, the more likely they are to behave well and the less likely they are to engage in risky behavior. Not only did this provide Ys ​​with a “road map” for them to follow in order to create healthy children, families and communities, but was inherent evidence of the effectiveness of youth programs.

It also showed a broader approach than previously thought possible. It doesn't matter if a program consists of sports, music, a youth center, orienteering or aerobics, or if it aims to reduce teenage pregnancy, smoking or crime. By providing one or more developmental traits, you reduce the overall risk of any type of negative behavior and increase the likelihood of positive behavior.

Highlights and Achievements of the YMCA Movement in America

The Ys were so important to their communities that organizations were formed at meetings in YMCAs without being part of Y programs. The Gideons organization, famous for placing Bibles in hotel rooms, started out in a YMCA but without the YMCAs and the participation of volunteers. So we're saying that the Gideons were founded on a Y, but not that a Y founded the Gideons.

It would be impossible to list all the people and organizations that contributed to this document. We receive information from sources ranging from trade associations to college professors to current and retired YMCA employees. The only thing they had in common was a deep respect for the Y traditions, a love for what YMCA stands for and a desire to help. Special credit goes to the staff of the Archives of USA YMCA. Their efforts and irreplaceable resources provided the necessary detail when no one else knew where to look.

The reason to look at what YMCAs have done in the past is to inspire YMCA staff and volunteers today to serve their communities with the same concern, dedication and courage. They may not make a list of firsts, but they will keep the YMCAs number one with their performances.

Everyone plays, everyone wins - Sports at the YMCA

Millions of people have learned about exercise from YMCAs. Many of the sports that people play have also been featured at YMCAs.

Volleyball was invented in 1895 at the YMCA in Holyoke, Massachusetts by William Morgan, a Y coach who thought basketball was too strenuous for business people. Morgan combined elements of basketball, tennis and handball into the game and called it a mintonette. The name "volleyball" was first used in 1896 during an exhibition at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts to better describe how the ball went back and forth across the net. In 1922, the YMCA held its first national championship game. This became the US Open in 1924 when non-YMCA teams were allowed to compete.

Racquetball was invented at the Greenwich (Conn.) YMCA in 1950 by Joe Sobek, a member who could not find other squash players of his caliber and had no interest in handball. He tried padel and platform tennis and came up with the idea of ​​using a stringed racquet similar to a platform tennis racquet (not a serrated tennis racquet as some say) to allow for a greater variety of shots. After drafting the rules of the game, Sobek went to nearby Ys to get the approval of other players while also training them in the Padel Racket Association to promote the sport. The original balls used by Sobek were half blue and half red. When he needed replacements, Sobek asked Spalding, the original manufacturer, to make all the balls blue so they wouldn't mark the Y blocks.

Softball got its name from a proposal by Walter Hakanson of the Denver YMCA in 1926 at a Colorado Amateur Softball Association (CASA) meeting as a result of the efforts of YMCA staffers. Softball was played many years before 1926 with names like kitty, softball and even sissyball. In 1926, however, YMCA Secretary of State Homer Hoisington noted the sport's popularity and the need for standardized rules. After a stakeholder meeting, CASA was formed, and Hakanson defined the softball name for the game. The motion was accepted and the Softball name was accepted across the country. Shortly thereafter, the Denver YMCA adopted a mission statement for softball that encompasses non-commercial recreation that is open to all ages and races and requires good sportsmanship. When the American Amateur Softball Association was formed in 1933, the Denver YMCA team represented Colorado in its first national tournament, held in Chicago.

Professional football started at a YMCA. In 1895, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, John Brailer received $10 plus expenses from the local YMCA to replace the injured quarterback on his team. Years later, however, Pudge Heffelfinger claimed he was secretly paid to play for the Allegheny Athletic Association in 1892. The NFL decided to go along with Pudge's version of events.

Yes, it was at the International YMCA Training School that James Naismith invented the game of basketball in December 1891 at the request of Luther Gulick, the school's principal. It took Gulick a game to keep a class of diehards occupied: 18 future YMCA directors who were more interested in rugby and soccer and uninterested in the jumps, stunts and other activities they were forced into during the winter. Gulick, who clearly lacks patience with the group, gave Naismith two weeks to create a game that would keep them engaged.

Naismith decided that the new game should be physically active and easy to understand. It couldn't be difficult, so no contact could be allowed. The ball may be passed but not carried. Goals at each end of the pitch would indicate a level of difficulty, emphasizing skill and science. Raising the goal would eliminate rushes that could injure players, a problem in football and rugby.

Naismith introduced the game of basketball at the next gym class (Naismith met Gulick's deadline), posted 13 rules on the wall, and taught the game to die-hard players. The men loved it and began introducing basketball to their hometowns during the Christmas holidays. 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 had a basketball team since 1892, and in 1896 its team claimed to be the national champion after winning several had defeated other YMCA and college teams. The team then severed its ties with the Y. It played the 1896-97 season at a local Masonic temple, charging admission and pocketing the proceeds.

No Idle Hands - YMCA Programs

YMCAs run programs of all kinds, from activities for seniors to Zen aerobics. Some of the biggest are camping, swimming, and babysitting. Here are some stories of its development.

Camp has been part of YMCA programming for more than a century. However, the call for a first camping YMCA must be worded carefully, since the YMCA did not invent camping in 1885 and Sumner Dudley did not direct the YMCA's first camping program. What CVJMs can claim for themselves is to have founded the first campsite in continuous operation. William Gunn started the first school camp in 1861 and Gunn's camps became well known. A camp for weak children was founded in 1876 by Dr. Joseph Trimble Rothrock organized. The first church camp for boys was established in 1880 and in 1881 the first private camp for special educational needs was established. None of these camps were YMCA camps and none of them are in operation today.

YMCAs became involved in camping in the 1860s, with the earliest mention being that of Vermont missionary Y Boy (now youth director), who took a group of boys to Lake Champlain for summer camp. In 1881, the YMCA in Brooklyn, N.Y. reported that it was taking 30 children on a camping trip. Many other YMCAs also had youth camping experiences, and in 1882 national registries began recording camping programs on tours and field trips.

The oldest camp, now known as Camp Dudley, began in 1886 on Lake Champlain, New York. Sumner Dudley, long active in the New York and New Jersey YMCA movements, was invited in 1884 to take honorable young YMCA members camping. In 1885 he took seven children on a week-long camping trip to Orange Lake, NJ. The following year, Dudley relocated to Twin Islands, Lake Wawayanda, NJ. 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 founded in 1914 in Camp Loma Mar, California. It all started when a warehouse manager wanted to reward athletic performance. Other camp leaders protested, pointing out that a disabled child could never win. They established a personal counseling program and sought God's will for themselves. The hymn I Would Be True, written by Howard A. Walker in 1917, was inspired by the show's creed. Walker himself later went to India and conducted YMCA work there.

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

The first reported YMCA pool was built in 1885 at the Brooklyn (NY) Central YMCA. By the end of the year, 17 Ys are expected to have pools. The pools of that time bore little resemblance to the pools of today: the Brooklyn Central pool was 14' x 45' and 5' deep. Not only were the early pools small, they also had no filters or recirculation systems. The pool water kept getting dirtier until the pool was emptied and cleaned which some Y's did on a weekly basis. No wonder the medical community sees them as a health threat.

Two events helped change YMCA staff attitudes toward swimming pools. The first was the development of mass swimming lessons in 1906 by George Corsan at the Detroit YMCA. What Corsan did was teach swimming moves on land, starting with the front stroke, to build confidence. Before Corsan's methods, punches were only taught in the pool, and crawls were taught later. Corsan also came up with the idea for the campaign to learn to swim and wear brass buttons as a reward for swimming competitions. He gave a button to the kids who swam 50 feet. Corsan's "Learn to Swim" campaigns led to the first campaign in 1909 to teach all children to swim in the United States and Canada.

Perhaps Corsan's shore swimming practices are due to how swimming was taught. Early YMCA officials saw swimming as a distraction from actual physical development work, which meant exercise and gymnastics. Children in San Francisco, for example, were not allowed to use the pool until they passed a gymnastics fitness test. In the 1890s, swimming was taught using a rope and pulley system.

The second development was the use of filter systems to keep the water clean. Ray L. Rayburn, founder of what later became the Building Bureau (now BFS), came up with the idea of ​​building pools with retractable rims and water return systems. Recirculation meant the water could be filtered and impurities removed. The first drop down tire was installed at a swimming pool in Kansas City, Missouri in 1909. In 1910, a filtration system was added to the Kansas City swimming pool. Swimming pools would no longer be considered a health hazard.

The combination of these developments, Corsan's mass teaching techniques, and Rayburn's filtering systems came together to popularize swimming and swim instruction at YMCAs. In 1932 there were over 1 million swimmers a year in the YMCAs. In 1956, the National Learn-to-Swim Campaigns became Learn-to-Swim Month. In 1984 it was reported that the YMCAs together were the largest swimming pool operators in the world.

It's hard to overstate the impact the YMCA movement has had on swimming and water sports in general. Springfield College student George Goss wrote the first American rescue book as a dissertation in 1913. It was a member of the national board of directors of the YMCA (then the YMCA International Committee), William Ball, who in the early 20th century encouraged the Red Cross to include life-saving instruction in its relief programs in times of war and disaster. The first mobile pool was invented at the Y in Eastern Union (NJ) in 1961, which enabled the Y to offer swimming lessons and programs to people who couldn't make it to the Y. The YMCA Swimming and Rescue Manual, published in 1919, was one of the first works on the subject. The National Council for Aquatic Cooperation, established in 1951, was formed as a result of the efforts of the YMCA. The Council, a group of 20 national bodies, was set up to increase cooperation in the aquatic field.

Even the military used swimming instruction techniques from the YMCA. During World War I, the military used massive ground exercises to train gangsters. In 1943 Dr. Thomas K. Cureton, Chair of the YMCA National Aquatics Committee, Warfare Aquatics widely used by the military (and YMCAs!) during the conflict and afterward.

The term "bodybuilding" was first used in 1881 by Robert Roberts, a staffer at the Boston YMCA. He also developed the training courses that led to today's fitness workouts.

Group childcare didn't start in a YMCA, but Ys moved quickly to meet the needs of an ever-changing and changing society. Rosie the Riveter returned home after World War II, but her daughter is gone and she has no regrets. The YMCA movement is the largest non-profit child care provider today, larger than any for-profit network in the country.

At first nobody could have foreseen this. The origins of group day care are obscure and we will likely never know who had the first group day care program. However, it is very likely that group mentoring grew out of gang prevention and youth intervention programs in the 1960s. The Chicago YMCA had a strong youth work program in the 1960s (Ys had worked with youth gangs in one form or another since the 1880s). However, workers found that young people participating in the program often brought their younger siblings with them because they cared for them while their parents worked. The daycare was set up so that older children could attend these programs without worry or distraction.

Another impetus for group childcare at the Y came from John Root, secretary general (now general manager) of the Chicago YMCA. Root had returned from a trip to the Soviet Union where he saw firsthand the extensive childcare programs the government offers and how the availability of childcare benefits both children and their families. Root was determined to get YMCAs to do the same in America.

The idea quickly spread to other cities. In the 1990s, around half a million children were cared for in a YMCA every year. In 1996, childcare became the movement's second-largest source of income after membership dues.

The American Way - The impact of the YMCA on society

Many times YMCA have influenced society simply by finding creative solutions to their own problems, such as the need for trained YMCA staff. These solutions spread throughout our society because they met the needs of others. YMCAs often pose as role models long before others know there's a problem. These are some examples of how YMCAs have shaped the development of social institutions in the United States.

Much of the practice of American colleges and universities, and many colleges and universities themselves, can be traced back to the YMCA's involvement in higher education. Much more emphasis was placed on formal and informal instruction and instruction in the 19th and early 20th centuries than today. This was partly because free public education was not as widespread as it is today. This meant there were large numbers of hard-working teenagers who needed instruction and guidance if they were to avoid the pitfalls and pitfalls that George Williams had so closely observed in London decades earlier. YMCA classes and instruction also arose from the need for well-trained staff to administer local Ys and run their programs.

The first higher education institution organized by the national YMCA organization was the School for Christian Workers in Springfield, Massachusetts. Later known as the International YMCA Training School and eventually Springfield College, the school was intended to train Y staff in all aspects of management. Previously, academic training for YMCA staff consisted primarily of summer institutes and training courses, the first being in 1884 in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. However, they were inadequate, and since at least 1876 there had been Y-calls defining training schools in major metropolitan areas.

The need for a formal school was also felt in the Midwest, with a YMCA Training School in downtown Chicago. YMCA opened its doors in 1890 with five students. It eventually became George Williams College after merging in 1892 with the Western Secretarial Institute, a summer school in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. A century later, George Williams College became part of Aurora University in Aurora, Illinois.

The idea that large metropolitan organizations should have classrooms to teach youth and train staff was put into practice in San Francisco and Boston in the 1880s and 1890s. What is now Northeastern Boston University began in 1897 with the founding of the Evening Institute as something informal. from the Boston YMCA. Formal instruction began in 1898 under the name Boston YMCA Evening Law School. The school added other disciplines and became Northeastern College in 1916. Further expansion resulted in the name Northeastern University in 1922. The Boston YMCA Evening Institute was also the birthplace of undergraduate work study, a concept familiar to students who receive financial aid at almost every college or university in the country.

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

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

The YMCA movement played an important role in the development of higher education. In 1916, about 83,000 students were enrolled in more than 200 YMCA classes. In 1946 about 130,000 students took courses through Ys. In all, there were 20 YMCA colleges in 1950, from Fenn College in Cleveland to Springfield College. From the 1930s, as colleges became autonomous colleges and not just training centers for YMCA staff, it made sense for them to break away from the YMCA movement entirely. As of 1997, only Springfield College and George Williams College at Aurora University (Illinois) have maintained close ties to the movement.

Another aspect of the YMCA's involvement in higher education has been the work of YMCA students at many colleges and universities. The first recorded student Ys opened in 1856 at Cumberland College in Tennessee and Milton Academy (now the college). The students must of course have previously been active in informal YMCA committees. Student Ys provided student counseling and ministry on an ecumenical basis, an approach that greatly influenced and ultimately transformed the way church and university staff conducted their own campus programs. So important was the work of the students to the movement that in 1922 the movement authorized the organization of a national student council, complete with its own memorandum of understanding.

Staff certification related to general education is a development of YMCA arising from the educational needs that led to the establishment of YMCA schools in the 19th century. In 1922 a plan was drawn up for voluntary certification as Secretary (now Director) of the YMCA.

YMCAs were also among the first to develop certification systems for staff in teaching programs. This is due in part to Association Press' publication of manuals and materials for use by classroom staff. In 1938 a national plan to certify water sports directors and instructors was developed. In 1959, certification was offered in freediving and scuba diving. In 1996, more than 54,000 people were certified in various disciplines or as trainers of trainers.

The YMCA organized an employee pension fund in 1922, with around 1,000 Ys and 4,000 employees participating. The first official steps to organize the fund began in 1913. Before that, churches and charities had plans for widows and orphans as they provided for the future. The Y's retirement plan was the first for a major charity and probably the first for a non-religious association.

When the fund began operations in 1922, it began with a $4 million gift, including a $1 million contingent gift (in the form of a challenge gift from John D. Rockefeller Jr. University) . At that time, the Gamble family, known for Procter & Gamble, donated a large block of shares to the fund.

Successful investments enabled it to survive the stock market crash of 1929, and by 1934 the fund's corpus had grown to $15 million. The initial retirement age was 60 years. The fact that YMCAs organized one of the first pension funds should be put into perspective. YMCA employees worked in other ways to improve working conditions. YMCAs have been active in labor campaigns to shorten the workweek since 1885.

The 1946 Nobel Peace Prize for pioneering peacebuilding was awarded jointly to John R. Mott, leader of the YMCA movement in the United States, and Emily Greene Balch. Mott's award was a recognition of the role the YMCA has played in increasing global understanding and for its humanitarian efforts. Mott himself was a product of the YMCA student movement and was a major influence in the Y Missionary Movement. In 1993, the International YMCA of Jerusalem, the only Y owned by the YMCA in the United States, was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work promoting peace in the Near East.

YMCA residencies play an important role in both the movement and American society. Staying in a YMCA room has been featured in music and literature, and the list of people who have stayed in the Y residences ranges from Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's Restaurants, to Charlie Rich, star of country music Music and the black revolutionary Malcolm Little, later known as Malcolm X.

Dormitories were considered a refuge for young people from the evils of the world. In 1898, Young Men's Era, a Y publication, found that dormitories were more in line with the YMCA's mission than other means of making money. The first known Y dormitory is mentioned in 1867 when the Chicago YMCA had a 42-room dormitory at Farwell Hall. It was intended for young people who could not afford larger housing and, in the words of Dwight L. Moody, was a Christian home for young foreigners who came to this city. Farwell Hall burned down soon after.

It was 20 years before a YMCA's second dormitory was built, this time in Milwaukee in 1887. However, several YMCAs now maintained shelters for the unemployed. The YMCA in Harrisburg, Pa. opened a Y-style dormitory in a renovated hotel in 1877.

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

And a Star to Guide: Organizations Affected by YMCAs

YMCAs' impact on others extends well beyond the people in their programs. Here are some organizations that have used the YMCA's experience or support during its formative years.

Camp Fire Girls (now Camp Fire Boys and Girls) was founded in 1910 through the combined efforts of Luther Gulick, MD, and his wife, Charlotte. Gulick was already known for his work at the YMCA, his understanding of the whole person led to the design of the YMCA's inverted triangle, a side for mind, spirit and body. Preoccupied with his existing commitments, Gulick did not want to take on the task of founding another organization. However, she did advise others in organizing Thetford Girls, the forerunners of the Camp Fire Girls. Charlotte then became interested in Thetford Girls and was inspired to name their first camp in Sebago Lake, Maine, Camp WoHeLo, after the first two letters of the words Work, Health, and Love. She saw them form a vertical triangle that she thought to be placed over the Y symbol to form a star.

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

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

Relations with the YMCA continued for some time after 1910. That year Lord Baden-Powell and others held the first training conference for Scout leaders, the Scoutmaster Training School, at the Silver Bay Association, which was known for its retreats and meetings. for leaders of the YMCA movement (the YWCA and other organizations also used Silver Bay for similar purposes). These Scoutmaster Training Schools continued for a number of years.

In 1985, on the occasion of his 75th birthday, the Boy Scouts of America rededicated a plaque, first presented in Silver Bay in 1947, to honor his role in founding Scouting in the United States.

The United Service Organizations, better known as the USO, were formed in October 1940 as a joint effort of the YMCA, the YWCA, the National Catholic Community Service, the National Board of Jewish Welfare, the Travelers' Aid Association, and the Army. of redemption. These organizations, like the YMCA, had long histories of assisting soldiers and non-combatants in the country's wars, but the scale of mobilization required as the United States prepared for World War II was well beyond the reach of anyone Organization. The only way to effectively meet the needs of the hundreds of thousands of recruited youth was to pool and coordinate efforts. In January 1941, USO leaders met with President Roosevelt and various military leaders. To settle a dispute over which areas of USO's activities were controlled by the military and which by civilians, Roosevelt ordered the private organizations that run recreational services and the government to erect the buildings and put the USO name on the outside. 🇧🇷

Founded in 1961 by order of President Kennedy, the Peace Corps was inspired by the YMCA World Service Workers program that began in the 1880s. The YMCA was offered the opportunity to organize the corps, but turned it down due to the weight of its other activities.

The Association Press, founded in 1907 as YMCA Press, established itself as the publishing arm of the YMCA movement, producing technical works, Bible study courses, and other works suitable for developing character and leadership skills, and pioneering the publication of books on sex education . It was also the primary publisher of evangelistic materials used by YMCAs, including the popular series of Everyday Life Devotionals written by Harry Emerson Fosdick between 1910 and 1920. The Association Press also printed the text first used by Dale Carnegie to teach public speaking: Public Speaking, a Businessman's Practice Course. It was given the name Association Press 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. Paris Press has affiliation with the US YMCA and was founded in Prague in 1920 by Julius Hecker, a World Service worker, who wanted to publish works in Russian for people fleeing revolution and civil war. Since many books did not conform to communist ideology, they could not be printed under the communist regime. Hecker's efforts helped refugees preserve their culture and community in the face of major disruption. One of the most important works published by Paris Press was the Russian edition of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago.

That All May Be One – Vielfalt beim CVJM

YMCAs interpreted their Christian mission in a practical way and included in their outreach programs and missions many groups that were being excluded by others at the time. For example, long before the term cultural diversity was used, YMCAs worked with the US Cavalry and the Sioux Indians on the Great Plains.

The American Indian Ys began in 1879 with the founding of a YMCA by Thomas Wakeman, a Dakota Indian, in Flandreau, S.D. The Dakota Indian Associations were officially incorporated into a 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 labor was fueled by James A. Garvie's presentation at the 1886 Convention: Garvie, a Sioux, had translated Student Y's Model University Constitution into the Sioux language.

The first Y laborer hired to work full-time in India was Charles Eastman, MD, a Sioux hired in 1895. Before that, however, the Kansas State Conference hired an Indian missionary to work among their own people. In 1920 the Indian effort was overseen by the student department. In 1926 the number of Indian YMCAs was too small to include separately in the annual report. The Sioux YMCA General Convention in Dupree, SD and the Mission Valley YMCA Family Center in Ronan, Mont. are the last YMCAs with reservations.

American YMCAs ministering to Asians were first established in San Francisco in 1875 to minister to the large Chinese population there, although the YMCA in Portland, Oregon, opened a mission school five years earlier and hired a Chinese to distribute religious tracts. The Chinese at the time were subject to violent racism, as evidenced by the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Law. The secretaries of this Chinese Y were native Chinese who had 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 black YMCA was founded in 1853 by Anthony Bowen, a freed slave, in Washington, D.C. founded. It was the first non-church black institution in America, a year before Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania. In 1888, William Hunton became the YMCA movement's first full-time black secretary, and in 1900 the first conference of black secretaries was held. In 1896 there were 60 active black Ys, 41 of whom were university Y students (the first black student YMCA was established in 1869 at Howard University, Washington, DC). In 1924 there were 160 black Ys with 28,000 members.

25 black YMCAs were built in 23 cities (there were three in New York City) as a result of a grant program announced by Julius Rosenwald in 1910. Rosenwald pledged $25,000 to build YMCAs in black communities if the community would raise $75,000 over a five-year period. Adjusted for inflation, Rosenwald's donations today total about $10 million. The impact of these Rosenwald Ys was felt deeply in the 1950s and 1960s: the YMCAs, as an integral part of the black community, played an important role in the struggle for civil rights.

YMCA and Y leaders also played an important role in the fight for civil rights. In 1932, student YMCAs voted not to hold meetings in states with Jim Crow laws. Eugene E. Barnett, leader of the national YMCA organization in the 1940s, was a strong supporter of YMCA integration and full of minority civil rights.

While the YMCAs initially took pride in racial issues in the 19th and early 20th centuries, they also later delivered some sad final years. In the 1960s, about 300 YMCAs were still racially segregated, and some left the movement rather than adhere to the national organization's integration policy.

The YMCA also played a role in creating modern black historiography. 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 in the 1910s, as segregation restricted blacks on some areas of the city. As a result, Wabash Area Y became an important institution serving the black neighborhood known as Bronzeville. There met Dr. Woodson and three friends in 1915 to found the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. The men thought that if whites learned more about blacks, race relations would improve. dr Woodson's membership and additional scholarship were important means of establishing the study of African American history as a recognized academic activity at all major colleges and universities. dr Woodson was also a practical and hardworking man: he knew that demonstrating the talents and achievements of black people in America would help increase white people's respect for black people. In 1926 he organized the first Black History Week in Washington, D.C. It became Black History Month in the 1960s and is now celebrated across the country.

In the 1970s, Bronzeville fell apart, the Wabash YMCA closed, and the building was nearly demolished. Now the neighborhood is improving and the building is listed 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 YMCA member joined in Brooklyn, NY in the late 1850s. This is based on an observer's testimony in 1869 that Brooklyn had half female members its existence. The Brooklyn YMCA was founded in 1853. By the 1860s, there were, unofficially at least, several female members. The Albany (New York) Convention of 1866 even went so far as to refuse to allocate a seat to several female delegates, and asserted that the YMCA representative convention should be based on male association. Ellen Brown, who was not only the first YMCA employee but also the movement's first male labor secretary, was hired in 1886. By 1946 women made up 12% of the membership.

This is not to say that women weren't active in YMCAs prior to the 1860s. Almost immediately after the YMCA's founding in the United States in 1851, women began teaching courses, raising funds, and functioning as an association to help women in a church. . . These women's committees were largely informal and official Ladies Helpers were not formed until the 1880s. Female members enroll in the YMCA high schools in 1881.

Where the Soldier Goes: YMCAs and the Military

George Stuart, founder of the Philadelphia YMCA and leader of the Y's civil war efforts, said there's a lot of religion in a sexy t-shirt and a good steak. YMCAs, to meet the needs of the military, responded with care, imagination, and skill. Here is an overview of the YMCA and the military.

YMCAs and the military had a relationship prior to the Civil War. YMCAs have always turned to young men for help, and the fact that the men went into the military simply means that the YMCA followed them there. Before the Civil War, the YMCA of Portsmouth, Virginia provided a library for a naval port in 1856 and later held meetings aboard a training ship. In 1859, the Boston YMCA undertook a similar effort.

Ys first took part in the American Wars with the formation of the Army Committee in May 1861 by the New York Conference during the Civil War. Several YMCAs, notably the New York and Chicago formations, recruited troops, including the 176th Ironsides Regiment from New York. In Chicago, the Chicago YMCA is said to have fielded five troop companies and could have fielded five more.

The New York Conference Army Committee and similar efforts by several other Ys have been incorporated into the Christian Commission responsible for directing the relief efforts of the Union YMCAs. The Christian Commission ministered to approximately 4,850 volunteers, one of the most famous being poet Walt Whitman who served as a nurse. Through the Christian Commission, YMCAs supported hospitals and provided nurses and aid workers to tens of thousands of victims and prisoners of war during hostilities on both sides of the conflict. YMCAs were also active in distributing tracts and Bibles throughout the Union and Confederacy. The Chicago Y held devotional services for soldiers and later helped run a home for fugitives, sick and injured men.

Not only did YMCAs help form military units, but military units founded YMCAs. Southern units were more active in this regard than northern ones, and about 30 of these Y left records. The federal prisoner of war camp on Johnson's Island, Ohio, organized a YMCA whose primary functions were to service the prison hospital and give weekly lectures. In the winter of 1863-64, a Mississippi Brigade YMCA organized a one-day fast among its members and sent the saved rations to the poor in Richmond.

The Civil War generally devastated YMCA members in the north and south. However, the YMCA's wartime work endeared it to the troops and the movement quickly recovered.

During the period between the Civil War and the Spanish-American War, the YMCA's work with the military consisted primarily of providing the men with a regimental writing tent during the summer and conducting Bible studies. Annapolis had a working YMCA under the midshipmen in 1879, and West Point reported a cadet branch in 1885. A YMCA finally gained permanent headquarters in Fort Monroe, Virginia in 1889. Things became more official when the 1895 YMCA convention authorized further efforts. . Before the Spanish-American War, little was done to implement this policy.

The outbreak of war with Spain saw a repeat of the YMCA's efforts during the civil war. Ys raised military units and followed the flag to the Philippines and Cuba to meet the needs of military personnel, prisoners of war and non-combatants.

The experiences of the YMCA movement indicated that supporting military personnel would require full-time resources, and in September 1898 a branch of the Armed Forces was created. In 1902 Congress authorized the construction of permanent YMCA facilities on military bases, and by 1903 special training was available to Ys Secretaries of the Army and Navy.

By 1914 there were 31 military YMCAs and 180 traveling libraries. Almost a quarter of a million men stayed in their bedrooms. The YMCA had a large presence in the military in the pre-World War I era.

Nearly 26,000 YMCA employees and volunteers carried out the work of the YMCA during World War I, several years before the United States entered the war. American secretaries, under the auspices of the World Federation in Geneva, were sent to Europe early in the war to tend to prisoners on both sides. While no firm numbers are available, it is safe to say that the YMCA's efforts directly helped hundreds of thousands of POWs and indirectly most of the 4 million POWs of that war.

With more than 1,500 soup kitchens and post offices, the YMCA cared for and entertained more soldiers during World War I than any other charity, including the Knights of Columbus and the Salvation Army. It was common for Catholics and Jews to use Y buildings for worship. Overall, the YMCA did more than 90 percent of the welfare work at that time, mostly in the form of soup kitchens and post offices. The restaurants and bureaux de change operated by the YMCA in France were exempt from America's minimum fare laws because their history and reputation provided sufficient safeguards against abuse.

The Y's efforts during World War I even inspired the song. Irving Berlin, stationed at Fort Yaphank in 1918, wrote a song about the Y. Berlin wrote I Can Always Find A Little Sunshine at the YMCA, which appeared in a magazine he wrote called Yip, Yip, Yaphank. Another, The Meaning of YMCA (You Must Come Across), written by Ed Rose and Abe Olman in 1918, had the lyrics: They have done their part and more. To help us win the war... The Y is in the line of fire.

World War II saw a continuation of YMCA services to the military and displaced persons. The magnitude of the YMCA's efforts during World War II is evident not only in its USO work, but also in the number of POWs assisted by the YMCA's efforts. The YMCAs are believed to have worked with approximately 6 million POWs in more than 36 countries between 1939 and 1945, or provided the bulk of the funds to work with them.

YMCAs also worked with the 10 internment camps established in 1942 to house the 110,000 Japanese Americans imprisoned during the war. Most of the Y's work consisted of clubs and camps for children in the camps. In the words of David M. Tatsuno, an intern and former member of the Japanese Y in San Francisco: The Y never forgot us. Tatsuno smuggled an 8mm video camera into the Topaz Detention Center, Utah, where it captured some extremely rare footage of everyday life in the camp. Tatsuno's film was recently donated 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 about the assassination of President Kennedy.

See you at Y organizations that started at the YMCA

YMCAs have long been places where things happen. These are some of the organizations and events that took place in a YMCA for the first time.

Toastmasters International was invented in 1903 as a public speaking program for older youth by Ralph C. Smedley, director of education at the YMCA in Bloomington, Illinois. Smedley recognized that older children attending the Y needed training in communication skills. It got its name The Toastmasters Club because the meetings resembled a series of toasts at banquets. With each transfer from YMCA Smedley, he opened a new club. Considered a personal quirk of Smedley by other YMCA secretaries, the Toastmasters clubs he founded were unsuccessful until he began working at the YMCA in Santa Ana, California. After the Toastmasters Club first met there on October 22, 1924, the idea caught on and spread, and soon a Federation of Toastmasters Clubs was formed. The Federation of Clubs was formed in 1932 and by 1941 the Toastmasters needed Smedleys full attention so he resigned from the YMCA to pursue its founding.

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

Gideons International was founded on July 1, 1899 at the YMCA in Janesville, Wisconsin 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 business travelers sent to evangelize while traveling around the country on business. To this end, the Gideons left Bibles in the rooms where they stayed. Although their meeting was at the YMCA, they were not staff, volunteers, or members of the YMCA, nor did they participate in any YMCA program.

Jazzercise, a famous women's aerobics program, was started in 1969 in Evanston, Illinois by dancer Judi Missett. Missett began teaching Jazzercise® at the La Jolla, (Cal.) YMCA in 1972. Incidentally, Jacki Sorensen, who is often wrongly associated with Jazzercise®, has no connection to the YMCA. However, he did popularize aerobic exercise, and YMCAs benefited greatly from his efforts in the field.

Father's Day in its current form was created in 1909 by Louise Smart Dodd at a YMCA meeting in Spokane, Washington. The Y and the Spokane Alliance of Ministers quickly supported the idea and helped spread it by 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 President Nixon in 1971 and Congress issued proclamations and affirmations of Father's Day as a national tradition.

Some YMCA scoop lists claim that Warner Sallman painted the head of Christ in the reading room at YMCA Central in Chicago in 1940. Unfortunately, there is no evidence to support this claim. According to the art department of Valparaiso University, in 1924 Sallman made a charcoal drawing of Christ's head in his studio at 5412 North Spaulding, Chicago, for the cover of a magazine called The Covenant. In 1940 he was asked to create a colored version and created the oil painting which 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 in his studio.

The idea that Sallman originally painted the head of Christ at a YMCA probably arose as a result of Sallman's chalk talks. Sallman, a devout Christian, has given nearly 500 chalk talks, many at YMCAs, where he charcoal sketched the head of Christ while bearing his testimony of Jesus. At the end of your presentation, you would submit the outline to Y or another organization that sponsored the session. Sallman made other oil paintings of the Head of Christ, some of which may have been done during lectures or commissioned by the YMCA. At least one YMCA has confirmed that Sallman signed an oil copy of Head of Christ in 1949, which still resides at the YMCA. Sallman himself recounted making the original 1924 charcoal sketch in his studio one night.

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