YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee to Double its Community Impact Within Three Years

Compiled by Milwaukee Courier Staff

The YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee; a nonprofit, charitable organization that provides programming for the community at 70 companies, in more than 60 schools, and at four county parks; announced its new strategic plan and operating model. The Milwaukee Y’s new vision is to have a greater, deeper impact and reach in the community through programming and services. By 2021, the Milwaukee Y plans to double the number of people it positively impacts.

The Milwaukee Y has been stable for the last four years, and during this time developed a strategic plan and built processes and infrastructure. Its strategic planning process included research, interviews and work sessions. The leadership team identified key constituents to conduct a community needs assessment in order to understand how the Milwaukee Y can better serve the community’s needs. Over the course of several months, Milwaukee Y staff interviewed 475 diverse community stakeholders, including YMCA members, program members, staff, CEOs, non-profits, hospitals, businesses, donors, partners, elected officials, school district leaders and representatives from public and private sectors through electronic surveys, branch round tables, and one-on-one interviews. The results of this research led Milwaukee Y leadership to focus on strengthening the community through three focus areas: youth development (children and teens, character development), healthy living and social responsibility.

“Our strategic plan focuses on our neighbors and their needs,” said Carrie Wall, president and chief executive officer. “The Milwaukee YMCA is committed to tackling issues such as the achievement gap, nurturing the academic potential of young minds, preventing childhood drowning, teaching safe and healthy habits for a lifetime and more.”

For more than 30 years, Wall has advanced the mission of the Y. She returned to the Milwaukee Y on July 1 of last year after serving as president and chief executive officer of the YMCA of Dane County for eight years. Before that, Wall worked for four years as the vice president of operations for the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, and prior to that Wall worked at the Milwaukee Y for 20 years in various leadership positions.

The Milwaukee Y will no longer be defined by its facilities, which has previously limited how community members can gain access to its programs. The Milwaukee Y is evolving and transforming, just the like the communities it serves. Today, the Milwaukee Y is serving the whole family — from babies to great grandparents, and to do so, it’s collaborating like never before in areas such as housing, education and healthcare, to make sure it’s meeting the needs of the community.

The Milwaukee Y is committed to equality and inclusion by ensuring all community members have the opportunity to learn, grow and thrive. It is not just looking to be diverse, but inclusive and focused on equity. To do that, it looked at its lead volunteers and staff to assure it is fully engaged in the needs of Milwaukee. It set goals to abide by its policies, practices, and offer programming that is attuned to the needs of the community, and they are focused on partnering with other companies and organizations who have prioritized diversity and inclusion. The Milwaukee Y partnered with Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin to help form a diversity and inclusion taskforce.

“Lasting personal and social change happens in the places where our members live, work and play,” said Wall. “That’s why in addition to our center-based programming, we are committed to being vocal advocates for healthy families and partnering with others to improve the greater good in Milwaukee beyond our four walls.”

Youth development

Youth development is one of three focus areas for the Milwaukee Y since it knows that the early learning years – birth to school age – are a pivotal time in a child’s development and will allow the Milwaukee Y to give kids the best chance at success. The Milwaukee Y is already one of the largest childcare providers in the area and it partners with more than 40 schools, churches and other youth serving organizations to provide early learning, extended learning and safety around water, teaching youth drowning prevention. The Milwaukee Y also serves as a safe place for youth during out-of-school time and academic support. The Milwaukee Y staff have taken character development training so they can be professional role models focused on the social and emotional needs of the community’s youth.

Part of this involves its partnership with Next Door, an early childhood education organization in Milwaukee. The partnership allows the Y to increase community access to high-quality infant and toddler care. Children are served at two Y locations, where staff from Next Door support on site, as well as provide coaching to YMCA teachers.

“The Y is a natural fit for this partnership,” said Tracey Sparrow, president of Next Door. “They are really helping us to ensure we are offering the best infant and toddler care that we can in the city. I’d love to see us expand that partnership to thinking about health and wellness for our families so that they truly are thriving. We could just be at the beginning of what this partnership could look like, so that’s very exciting.”

Healthy living 

Under Wall’s leadership, the Milwaukee Y has focused more on preventive health and has partnered with healthcare providers so that it can affect the social determinant of health. The Milwaukee Y has healthy living programming at or with more than 70 companies in the greater Milwaukee area to improve the health of their employees.

The Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers began a pilot in conjunction with the Y to offer a Zumba class at one of the organization’s south side clinic. The partnership came to fruition because both organizations sought to improve the health of the community through increased physical activity.

“We hope this will lead to a larger partnership between the YMCA and Sixteenth Street,” said Chris Mambu Rasch, director of government and community relations at Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers. “We wanted to start with something that made sense for both organizations, and the goal is to grow this partnership. Zumba is something that’s culturally appropriate to the community, and something that resonates with the community.”

In addition, since seniors are one of the Milwaukee Y’s fastest growing populations who are seeking longer and healthier lives in a fun and caring environment, the Milwaukee Y is seeking partnerships with healthcare and insurance providers to make sure it focuses on preventive healthcare that is specifically helpful for these members. Retiring baby boomers who want to give back are looking for ways to volunteer, so the Milwaukee Y is ensuring it’s able to provide those opportunities as well.

Social responsibility

The Milwaukee Y is committed to equality and inclusion by ensuring all community members have the opportunity to learn, grow and thrive. It is not just looking to be diverse, but inclusive and focused on equity. To do that, it looked at its lead volunteers and staff to assure it is fully engaged in the needs of Milwaukee. It set goals to abide by its policies, practices, and offer programming that is attuned to the needs of the community, and they are focused on partnering with other companies and organizations who have prioritized diversity and inclusion. The Milwaukee Y partnered with Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin to help form a diversity and inclusion taskforce.

“The myriad of services they provide is extremely unique and I’m not sure that you will find another community-based organization that offers these vital services here,” said Andres Gonzalez, vice president and chief diversity officer for Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin.

The Milwaukee Y recognizes that it is important to not only reflect all dimensions of diversity (gender, class, sexual orientation, diverse abilities, faiths, etc.) within its staff and member base, but also the communities it is in. The Milwaukee Y has incorporated Y USA global leader certification cultural competence trainings for YMCA leadership staff in order to effectively meet the changing needs of the community, and be better positioned to build relationships, ensure inclusion and address some of the most pressing issues.

“The YMCA needs to be part of the solution in terms of identifying ways to bring this segregated community together, while becoming a bridge to help make improvements in these areas,” said Wall.

The Milwaukee Y is already making an impact on the community in a variety of ways. For example, last year,

• The Milwaukee Y served free meals to more than 65,000 community youth
• More than 6,000 older adults participated in fitness and chronic disease prevention, helping to reduce older adult isolation
• More than 3,500 kids and families learned basic lifesaving water safety instructions
• The Milwaukee Y provided 2,268 children a safe place to go before and after school where kids receive support in literacy, math and science
• More than 2,300 campers got the chance to unplug from technology and experience Camp Minikani
• More than 1,200 day campers practiced reading math and science every day through the YMCA’s summer learning loss remediation program
• More than 250 kids were provided a safe, nurturing environment to grow and learn in the YMCA’s five-star rated early childhood education

The rest of Wall’s senior leadership team is comprised of Henrik Clausen, chief financial officer and vice president, who has more than 25 years of financial and corporate banking experience; Tamroyal Yow, vice president of operations youth and family, who has worked for the Y more than 10 years;  Shanee’ Jenkins, vice president operations social responsibility, who has been with the Y more than 13 years and has extensive experience throughout the country within the YUSA network; Shana Piaskoski, vice president of mission advancement, who spent more than 12 years in leading roles with nonprofits such as the YWCA of Southeast Wisconsin; and Lisa Coombs-Gerou, vice president of operations healthy living, who helped expand and implement health prevention programs at the YMCA of Dane County.

“We will continue to evolve to address the community’s issues,” said Wall. “Our volunteer board, leadership and the 750 employees are the true champions that saved the Y for this community. My goal is to make sure it’s here for the next generation so that we can positively impact the community for many years to come.”

The Milwaukee Y has five branches — Downtown, Northside, Parklawn and Rite-Hite Family YMCA in Brown Deer — and Camp Minikani on the shores of Lake Amy Belle in Hubertus. Countywide, the YMCA has 750 employees, 150 of which are full-time, and more than 36,000 members. This year when people join the Milwaukee Y, the membership is good at YMCA’s all over the country.  

About the YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee

Comprised of multiple locations throughout the Milwaukee area, as well as YMCA Camp Minikani on the shores of Lake Amy Belle in Hubertus, Wis.; the YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee is a nonprofit, charitable organization that provides programming for the community at 70 companies, in more than 60 schools, and at four county parks. The YMCA has been a part of the lives of the greater Milwaukee area’s kids and families since 1858. The Milwaukee Y’s impact is widespread, from teaching thousands of kids to swim each year, to being one of the only safe spaces for children open seven days each week in the neighborhoods it serves. For more information, visit www.thrivewiththey.com.