CYMCA has always adapted to meet the changing needs of the communities we serve. Today that means recognising that as a charity, there are ways we can make a far greater impact in the communities we serve.
For a number of months, the trustees and senior leadership team at CYMCA have been conducting a strategic review to determine how best to deliver for our beneficiaries in light of the mounting challenges facing the charitable sector.
With demographic changes in the city centre; the ageing of the Club building and accessibility and spacing issues; changes to health & wellbeing practices, and soaring site maintenance costs, it has become clear that the cost of operations at the Club are now not being covered by the number of members the Club can sustain.
Therefore, after much consideration and with the best interests of the charity and our beneficiaries at heart, we have concluded the sale of the 112 Great Russell Street site.
This means that the Central YMCA Club at 112 Great Russell Street will cease trading on 7th February 2025. Our operations, including our education services and programmes across the country, will still continue and we still have CYMCA club sites at Kings Cross and Moorgate.
We want to continue to break down barriers to access and education, and to meet the needs of the less privileged and under-represented in ways that will prove most valuable to them. This sale will allow us to reinvest in more sustainable, impactful, and forward-looking ways of broadening our service provision, better serving both existing and new communities.
I am sincerely grateful to everyone who has contributed to the Club over the years. Our priority now is our Club members and staff, and we will continue to support them in any way we can.
How our Older Adults programme is making an impact
The programme started at Central YMCA over 20 years ago and now helps more than 900 people over the age of 60 to get healthy, active and socialise together
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This programme has helped more than 900 people over the age of 60 to get healthy, active and socialise together
We’re proud that our Older Adults programme offers people over the age of 60 the opportunity to improve their physical and mental health while combatting feelings of isolation or loneliness and maintaining independent living. During lockdown the programme has been a lifeline for many of our members, who have all eagerly returned.
Peter: “The exercise classes are brilliant!”
The programme includes 19 functional movement classes which run on a weekly basis and are specifically designed to help increase flexibility, stability and bone density. Classes include Zumba, Yoga, Tai Chi, Flamenco Dance, Swimming, Acquacise, Strength & Conditioning and Cardio.
Peter, who has been coming to the YMCA Club for over 10 years says:
“It’s a fantastic place. I look forward to coming every single time. The exercise classes are brilliant. I just can’t praise it highly enough.”
Trish: “If you want to meet people and enjoy life, this is the one place you can do it.”
The social aspect of our programme is also very important for this age group so we offer 3 weekly social events, enabling members to catch up and broaden their friendship circles – as well as the option of regular subsidised day and weekend trips away.
Trish, who has been a member for 12 years says:
“The first time I came in I was a bit nervous but they were so welcoming. The staff, everybody. Any class I wanted, they give you all the advice and I would recommend it to anybody. They are the top, they are caring people, everyone is friendly, nobody is left out. I love all the classes and come 3 to 4 times a week. If you want to meet people and just go and enjoy life, this is the one place you can do it.”
Lynn: “It’s the most inclusive gym that I’ve ever experienced in my whole gym life.”
We are grateful to receive fantastic support from a number of volunteers, some of whom have been working with us for over 20 years. Lynn, trained to be a Personal Trainer with YMCAfit 15 years ago at the age of 65 and has been a volunteer ever since, teaching many classes such as Zumba, strength and conditioning and cardio:
“I thoroughly enjoy it and I’m overhwelmed by the amount of activities that there are here for the older adults. It’s the most inclusive gym I have ever experienced in my whole gym life. Come along and join or have a look and see whether you want to swim, have a cup of tea and a chat or if you want to get down into the gym and have some execise. You won’t be disappointed.”
Lynn S: “During the pandemic we had absolutely wonderful YouTube videos.”
During the Covid-19 pandemic people over the age of 60 were particularly effected, whether it be by the virus itself or by isolation. Throughout the lockdown, our Older Adults team was dedicated to bringing health and fitness to people’s homes through a number of exercise videos on YouTube. The team went above and beyond to get our members connected and make sure that they were coming onto our classes and made a series of phonecalls each week to check on those living alone. Our YouTube videos had a great impact and reached a wide audience, having been watched across 3 continents and with the most popular reaching over 67,000 views and comments such as :
“WONDERFUL!!! I’m in NYC, 75 years old, and loving this! Thank you!” and “Wow – I am morbidly obese and have now done this 5 days in a row!!”.
Lynn, one of our members who has been coming to the YMCA Club for over 30 years, watched our YouTube exercise videos said:
“The YMCA is a refuge, but during the pandemic it was tricky. But we had absolutely wonderful YouTube videos and I Zumba’ed my way around my bedroom, down the stairs and up again and I don’t know what I would have done. Being able to tune into the YMCA was great fun and to see Declan was really encouraging and helped me keep going. I had a nasty accident and Declan was on the phone checking I was alright, which was great. It kept contact up the whole time and the minute we could come back we rushed.”
“I think it’s really important, especially in the later stages in life, that people are still building new friendships and connecting.”
-Declan Duncan, Community Programmes Manager
YMCA Club now has over 900 members over the age of 60 with the Older Adults programme providing an ideal space to improve your wellbeing and forge meaningful friendships in the process.
Declan Duncan, Community Programmes Manager at YMCA Club, said: “Members often initially join to use the pool or the gym, but they are also able to meet new people and crucially learn new ways to improve their health and wellbeing. Since I started in this role ten years ago, it’s been gratifying to see new friendships being forged and members’ confidence improving through our social events.
“I think it’s really important, especially in the later stages in life, that people are still building new friendships and connecting. That’s why I’m so proud that this programme is able to bring together the mind, body and spirit which encompasses YMCA Club and the charity as a whole.”
Our members can also broaden their cultural and intellectual horizons by taking part in weekends away (recent destinations include Hayling Island), or joining one of our free, informative history walks through the City of London.
It’s a time to celebrate all the accomplishments and contributions women have made throughout history. Today, Friday 8 March, is one of the highlights of the month – International Women’s Day. While we’re taking this day to shine a special light on the women of Central YMCA, we make strides all year long to encourage gender equality in the workplace.
Central YMCA couldn’t be the organisation it is without the women we are lucky enough to have as stakeholders. We know just how valuable their contributions are to the Charity, and we actively invest in the professional development of the women in our workforce.
Our workforce currently consists of 56% women and an impressive 62% at management level – 32 of our 51 line managers across the Charity are women! Our pay gap for women across the organisation is also 2.41% lower than the national average, based on ONS data from 2023.
Over recent years, we have launched several initiatives aimed at women and girls, including one of our most recent projects, Y’s Girls, a mentorship programme for young girls in London to help them grow into confident and resilient women.
While we work hard to promote equity amongst the Central YMCA team, we recognise that there is still a way to go until the world is free of gender discrimination and bias. Until we get there, we will keep advocating for gender equity both in and out of the workplace!
The Potential of Apprenticeships for Lifelong Skills Development
Special Feature Article
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– Andrew Erwich, Director of Business Development and Marketing at Central YMCA.
It’s great to see the news of apprenticeship starts numbers beginning to rise in the news recently, and hugely positive to see the outpouring of support during this National Apprenticeship Week highlighting the impact that these programmes have had on individuals from all walks of life, and for the organisations they work for. In fact, when I was asked to write this piece, part of the brief was to do exactly that, to celebrate the success of our learners, across the broad range of subjects that we offer – but, you can read all about that here: Apprenticeships | Central YMCA
Reading through stories of learner success and provider case studies over the last couple of days I find myself in awe. Irrespective of the programmes themselves, or the standards being delivered against, there is so much more to an apprenticeship than ‘earning whilst learning’…
There is something unique to apprenticeships that teaches individuals how to question themselves, how to fail, and how to adapt to a different setting than they have previously experienced, in a way that isn’t developed in a purely educational setting – both in terms of mainstream education or full-time short-courses where time is taken away from work to complete. It’s an obvious point, but equally often overlooked, the immersive design of apprenticeship programmes teach a learner how to juggle multiple priorities, to split their focus, and to manage several stakeholder groups concurrently. Skills that can otherwise take much longer for an individual in a purely work setting to master.
By default, apprentices have to broaden their awareness and become adept at perceptual positioning and are encouraged to develop their curiosity. In a nutshell, they learn how they learn, and at same time gain an understanding of how others learn – again, invaluable skills that serve long after an individuals’ time on programme. In many cases this is also true for those individuals who were not able to complete their programme for whatever reason.
In this regard, apprenticeships, no matter what academic level someone joins at, are foundational. They create a new beginning for the learner.
In almost every instance that I have seen apprenticeship programmes are formative by design… and they are transformative in nature. Perhaps more so now than ever, given the changes to delivery models that we have seen over the last few years.
Another thing that strikes me this week is that we all too often focus on the enrichment of the apprentice themselves, and whilst this should not be in question (at all, ever!), it often goes unsaid that the impact of apprenticeship delivery is much further reaching – especially in terms of line manager’s development, more often than not in regards peer development as social learning and in some cases manager’s managers and organisational development as well.
These are all ‘peripheral’ and very real benefits of an apprenticeship that occur naturally outside and beyond the parameters of the programme itself, and each, in their own right create a viable business case to justify the costs and guarantee a return on investment.
Add to this the well-documented and ever-expanding literature that makes the case for training more generally – staff retention, emotional wellbeing, organisational efficiencies, diversity of thought etc and so on – all of which suggest that training will not just keep getting the job done but that it will get it done faster and better. It simply belies comprehension that the pervading myth of the 20% off-the-job-training requirement being cost-prohibitive is just so… pervasive!
In short, apprenticeships create skills for life, for life.
The Education & Training Awards 2024 are coming up soon!
UN Sustainable Development Goals
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We’re getting ready to celebrate our Education & Training Awards 2024. Previously called the Apprenticeship Awards, the annual ceremony celebrates the outstanding achievements of our learners and tutors. We will also be joined by a number of MPs, employers, and industry professionals.
The Education & Training Awards 2024 will be hosted by Rt Hon Caroline Nokes MP on behalf of Central YMCA. The event will be held at the House of Commons on Monday 4 March 2024.
The award ceremony, which follows the theme “Supporting the Pathways to Success,” will be presented in partnership with Aptem and St Giles London. Aptem is one of the UK’s leading digital apprenticeship platforms. They are equally excited about the upcoming awards. “We are very proud to sponsor these awards and celebrate the amazing learning and development achievements of these learners and apprentices”, said Richard Alberg, CEO, Aptem. St Giles London is part of St Giles Hotels Ltd. The hotel is located in the heart of London’s West End, and they pride themselves on their warm hospitality.
We are proud to be one of the country’s leading education, health, and wellbeing charities, and our Education and Training division has been an important part of the Central YMCA mission since the late 1970s. Since their inception, our educational and apprenticeship programmes have had a positive impact on the lives of many young people, including more than 700 last year. Our programmes help learners gain qualifications and hands-on experience in their chosen field while offering an alternative to traditional classroom education.
We are looking forward to the upcoming Education & Training Awards 2024, and we would like to extend our best wishes to all the nominees!
Click here to learn more about our educational and apprenticeship programmes.
We’re opening doors to encourage a more inclusive workplace
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It’s time to announce our most recent partnership… we’ve signed up to Business in the Community’s Opening Doors campaign. And we’re in good company! We’re joining dozens of other UK companies in the campaign, and that number is steadily growing. Together, we’re changing the way the recruitment and hiring process works.
The current labour market is a tough one to navigate. Although there are a record number of job vacancies available, a huge portion of the potential market – around three million people – faces barriers to employment. This includes, but isn’t limited to, individuals who are disabled, ex-military, those with previous convictions, people who have experienced homelessness, older workers, and refugees. Alongside Opening Doors, we’re committed to adopting a more inclusive recruitment process and hiring diverse and untapped talent.
Some of the commitments we’ve made as part of the Opening Doors campaign include:
Advertising our vacancies through a range of channels and recruitment partners that target diverse groups
Training our hiring managers on inclusive recruitment and ensuring our employees understand this commitment
Using inclusive language in all our job listings – that means no jargon and including all the essential information like salary, working hours, location, and day-to-day job activities
Including diverse colleagues on interview panels where possible
Ensuring our candidates feel comfortable throughout the interview process and asking if they need any adjustments
Collecting diversity data at the application stage to ensure we can identify any potential barriers for diverse candidates
An inclusive and equitable world won’t happen overnight, but we’re deeply committed to getting closer over the next few years. Business in the Community’s Opening Doors campaign plans to make 2 million jobs more inclusive by 2025, and we’re so honoured and proud to be a part of it!
Central YMCA learner wins at Premiership Rugby HITZ Awards 2023
Training delivery
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We are proud to be the official education provider for Premiership Rugby’s award-winning HITZ programme, and we love celebrating the achievements of our learners. Today, we’re celebrating one of our learners, Skye from Northampton Saints Foundation, who was recently presented with the Academic Achievement Award, one of the top awards at the HITZ Awards 2023 ceremony!
Premiership Rugby held the awards at Twickenham Stadium, hosted by Topsy Ojo and attended by Premiership players, including Harlequins winger Cadan Murley, Saracens prop Ollie Hoskins, and Northampton Saints prop Emmanuel Iyogun.
Skye was rewarded for her can-do attitude at HITZ despite her heartbreaking story, having faced significant challenges from birth including a disrupted home life and entering the care system at just 12 years old. Arriving at HITZ in September 2022, her eagerness to learn was quickly recognised, motivating Skye to gain qualifications after previous struggles with mainstream schooling. Although she found forming positive relationships with peers difficult, Skye felt HITZ was the first programme not to give up on her, breaking a cycle of instability that has proven life changing. Her renewed sense of purpose has seen Skye become persistent in achieving academic success, whilst forming positive relationships with both HITZ staff and her peers.
The HITZ family have been truly inspired by Skye’s determination along her journey of adversity and admire the commitment she displays to her educational and personal development.
Skye said of her award win, “Winning this award is the best thing ever because the last year has been hard, especially the last month, so winning this award has made my year. I will feel amazing going into HITZ now after winning this.”
And Skye wasn’t the only one from Northampton Saints to come away with an award! Education Officer Shirley Lynch was presented with the Champion Award.
Shirley’s dedication to education, career development, and the wellbeing of learners was recognised at this year’s HITZ Awards. Being described as “the heart of Northampton Saints Foundation,” the unwavering support Shirley continues to provide learners, has directly contributed to Northampton Saints Foundation being one of the top foundations delivering HITZ nationally. After leaving home at 15, Shirley has used her personal experience to connect with young people and bridge the support gap often lacking at home.
She has a unique ability to work with young people of a similar background, utilising her journey to give meaningful guidance in a supportive environment whereby learners feel a sense of purpose and belonging, creating a safe space to thrive and grow.
After receiving her award Shirley said, “I’m absolutely honored to win this award. It was an honor to be shortlisted so for me it wasn’t about winning. This means so much that’s why I keep crying, I started helping at HITZ eight years ago as a volunteer and wanted to stay on because HITZ is a programme that works.”
On the evening’s wins, Wayne Morris, Community & CSR Director at Premiership Rugby said: “Congratulations to Skye and Shirley on their much-deserved award wins and indeed to all those shortlisted in this season’s HITZ Awards. Over the last 15 years, the success rate of the programme speaks for itself; HITZ has helped over 80% of the learners move on positively. The HITZ Awards are an annual celebration of just how much rugby can change lives with the help of people like Shirley and the difference HITZ makes to young people like Skye. Everyone involved in the programme should feel proud of the impact that they have made, we are delighted for Northampton Saints on their double award win here tonight.”
Well done to Skye and all of the other winners at the HITZ Awards 2023! Are you interested in learning more about the HITZ programme? Click here to read more about the benefits that span multiple areas, including education, physical health, mental health, and employability.
Raising an SDG Flag in Support of UN Sustainable Development Goals
UN Sustainable Development Goals
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Yesterday, Central YMCA, along with hundreds of UK organisations raised an SDG flag to show their support for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This September will mark eight years since the world embraced the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and achieving them is more important than ever.
The SDGs, also known as the Global Goals, reflect a shared objective and ambition across all countries to end poverty and hunger everywhere, to combat inequalities within and among countries, to build peaceful, just, and inclusive societies, to protect human rights and promote gender equality of women and girls, and to ensure the lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources by 2030. Their importance cannot be underestimated.
The 17 Goals are supported by 169 targets and 232 indicators, enabling progress to be prioritised and tracked.
Central YMCA proudly join hundreds of businesses, government departments, and civil society organisations in a global movement to fly an SDG flag to spread awareness of the SDGs and mobilise stakeholders for the 2030 agenda.
We are committed to actively supporting all the SDGs, with a strong focus on delivering Good Health & Wellbeing, Quality Education, Decent Work, Reduced Inequalities and Gender Equality. Over the coming months we’ll be sharing more information on how we’re working to achieve these, the difference they make and how you can get involved!
In the UK, there have been some significant milestones towards the SDGs. In 2022, the UN Global Compact Network UK released Measuring Up 2.0, a multi-stakeholder report assessing the UK’s performance against the SDGs and their Targets to understand how and where businesses, government, and other organisations should focus efforts for the remainder of this decade of action.
The report found of the 132 Targets relevant to the domestic delivery of the SDGs, the UK is only performing well on 17% of them. It highlighted how persistent inequalities within and between communities in the UK mean that we continue to leave people and places behind. It is because of this that the 2030 Agenda is more important than ever, and worldwide collaboration between governments, businesses, and civil society organisations are essential.
With only 1 in 10 people in Britain familiar with the SDGs, raising the SDG flag this September is key to raising awareness and mobilising stakeholders for action. Join the global movement in championing the SDGs so together the 2030 Agenda can be achieved!
We believe that collaboration and shared vision will be key to achieving the sustainable development goals and effecting meaningful change towards a sustainable future. Get in touch today to find out more about how we can work together to create a better future for all.
Central YMCA CEO Ryan Palmer responds to the cut in PE hours
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Following the recent success of the England women’s world cup team, reaching the finals in Australia & New Zealand this summer, comes mainstream attention and the ripple effect that this has inspiring the next generation of children and young people to be active and engage in sport and physical activity.
It is therefore essential that we see continued investments into PE and school sport to continue this narrative and provide safe and professional education that has a long term effect on both our happiness and the development of future talent within the sporting ecosystem.
Undoubtedly the world has changed in recent times, the impact of Covid and summary cost of living crisis caused by it, and other world events, have irrevocably changed the horizon. Yet, there are still some fundamental truths that stand the test of time, and we must pay attention to, if we are to create a healthy future. One such truth is the need for PE in our schools.
It has been undisputedly proven that physical activity directly translates to better mental wellbeing. It has also been undisputedly proven that better mental wellbeing leads to greater productivity and individual satisfaction. It is a simple truth that exercise, in any shape or form, improves quality of life and personal prosperity.
Psychologically speaking we know that habits form at an early stage of life, as such we have a responsibility at every level, from Government to Community, to create and enable extensive access to physical activity in our primary and secondary schools… This cannot be negotiable.
The current mandated hours of PE are not sufficient. The Chief Medical Officers for UK recommend 1 hour of daily physical activity at primary school, with half of that taking place during the school day; the DfE recommends at least 90-minutes per week.
At best this means our children are receiving at least 1 hour less than the recommended levels of physical activity per week than is good for them at primary school.
The bottom line is we must make room for more physical activity at every level of education, from primary school up; at a minimum 30 minutes per day. However, this is not just a question of providing more PE hours. Physical activity will not become habitual until we build it into routine, and that demands providing more PE options, and creating accessibility and universal participation.
Central YMCA appoints Ryan Palmer as new interim Chief Executive
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Central YMCA, a leading education, health and wellbeing charity, is pleased to announce that Ryan Palmer has been appointed as the new interim Chief Executive.
Ryan will guide the Charity in its mission to create improved access to life-changing opportunities.
Ryan succeeds Arvinda Gohil OBE, who announced in October 2022 her intention to step down from Central YMCA. Arvinda steered the charity through a challenging tenure, with the impact of a pandemic, energy and cost of living crisis, and has helped this historic charity continue to find creative and meaningful ways to support its communities.
Ryan first joined the charity almost a decade ago and has extensive experience in the education sector as well as a wealth of knowledge of the fitness and wellbeing landscape. Ryan was most recently Chief Revenue Officer at Central YMCA, leading the charity’s income generation strategy and responsible for growing and diversifying the provision on offer.
“The Board is delighted to appoint Ryan as its new interim CEO. His extensive experience and knowledge of the charity will serve him well in his new role. We are confident that he will work hard with the team to continue developing Central YMCA’s services and we wish him every success. With the near term leadership of the charity secured, the board will look to appoint a permanent CEO over the next few months.”
– Andrew Beal, Chair of Central YMCA
“I am thrilled and honoured to lead Central YMCA at such an exciting time. Upholding Central YMCA’s history of breaking down barriers to allow all to reach their full potential, I look forward to working with our key partners to help grow our reach and impact, alongside continuing to deliver our programming and provision in our communities and beyond.”
