YMCA of MV
In 2023 the Y has continued to grow and adapt to the needs of our Island Community, increasing our youth program capacities and collaborating with an expanding number of organizations. This summer in our MVYouth classroom we started a new kindergarten preparedness initiative. With this designated classroom for our youngest campers, 20 campers each week, for 8 weeks, focused on skills that would help them as they enter school. The curriculum was created with recommendations from teachers that were noticing a gap in skills, especially for incoming students. Campers participated in activities to strengthen fine motor skills, increase letter recognition, and sound knowledge, and grow overall classroom readiness. With the addition of a mini library in the MVYouth classroom this summer, we implemented a “Buddy Read” program where older campers read to younger campers. In this classroom we also ran our Curiosity Science program, where every camper participated weekly in a fun science experiment honing hypothesizing, observation, and reporting skills. For the school year, we continued our mini-library in the classroom for daily reading circle and “Buddy Read” and exchange books monthly in collaboration with the Oak Bluffs Library. This classroom is designated for Kindergarteners to help them acclimatize to the Y After School Program. It also serves as our location for our collaboration with Island Grown Initiative, where they provide Y families with healthy premade meals. We are grateful for the support from MVYouth and our Island Community!
YMCA of MV
In 2022 the Y has continued to grow and thrive with our Island community, increasing our youth program capacities and collaborating with an expanding number of organizations.
We hosted the 2nd annual All Kids Thrive: Island Camp Summit. This is an event dedicated to the inclusion of all campers and is a training day for camp staff from across the Island to learn, grow, and come together as a community of practice. Participating camps and organizations included King Inclusion, Children’s Cove, The Y, MVCC, Felix Neck, The Farm Institute, Sense of Wonder, and CCC. Our classrooms, including the one funded by MVYouth, make the Y a great community gathering place.
The MVYouth classroom was used as a home base for our youngest campers this summer. In 2022 we served our largest number of campers yet, running at full capacity for all 8 weeks with 120 campers per week. This room was the perfect landing spot for our little ones - a clean, organized space with easy access to the outdoor gated play area and a bathroom in the classroom (every camp counselor’s dream!).
In the MVYouth classroom this fall, our Afterschool Program Kindergarteners now have their very own space! Children and families love how the space has been organized and decorated specifically for this age group. This has allowed us to increase the overall number of students in our ASP where enrollment is at an all-time high. An additional enhancement for our ASP children added into the MVYouth classroom is Lego Club! Students love this space to play, build, and create! We are so thankful to MVYouth and our Island community for their continued support! The Y is a true community center for all.
YMCA of MV
Now more then ever, the youth of Martha’s Vineyard are in need of a safe and secure space, apart from home, where they can engage with peers and in enrichment. The Y is grateful that we have been able to give Island youth that space and a dose of normalcy this year, while supporting the childcare needs of parents. Pre-pandemic, the additional dedicated youth programming space was needed to meet the demand of participants. No one would have predicted that without this newly expanded space supported by MVYouth, our program would have not been able to run safely and successfully as we make our way through the pandemic.
The emphasis in our youth programs has always been character building, and this is specifically important when it comes to social and emotional learning. A primary element of our youth development program is giving kids an engaging and rich experience that allows them to exercise some of their other faculties that might not be as active during the conventional school day. With many kids having experienced social isolation during this time, the Y has been a space to safely gather and build on the important social and emotional experiences each kid deserves.
With the newly expanded youth classroom space, we have been able to keep cohorts smaller in size and separated to accommodate for social distance. Thankfully we are also able to meet the community need for after school childcare and we are finishing the year serving pre-pandemic numbers of participants. The additional classroom space also allowed for us to expand our summer camp to include another group of 15 children. This was critical this year as the demand for summer camp childcare was at an all-time high on the Island.
Thanks to the support and generosity of MVYouth, the YMCA of Martha’s Vineyard has been able to navigate through this challenging time as an organization that has returned to serving Island youth in-person safely.
YMCA of MV
On March 13, in response to Covid-19 crisis, we temporary closed our doors to protect our community. Doing so was one of the hardest things we have had to do, but we remained as dedicated as ever to provide vital resources to the community during this uncertain time. In order to keep the community active and healthy, we completely changed the way we have operated and began utilizing technology to deliver many of our services virtually to all ages, free of charge and engaging hundreds of participants weekly. This summer, we created Camp Kindness to address the critical need for childcare on the Island. With many summer programs unable to run under state restrictions, Camp Kindness offered a safe, 8-week program for 50 kids, a majority of whom were identified as critically needing to be at camp and required significant financial assistance. Mindful that advancing our mission during these challenging times requires financial support, we collaborated with another island nonprofit, The Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival, to create the Vineyard’s first pay-what-you-can Summer Drive-In. During a summer of social distancing, the drive-in provided a vital resource by allowing families to feel safely connected. In August we were grateful restrictions allowed us to reopen the Ice Arena to youth hockey and figure skating groups. In October, we began offering Kindness Academy and After School Programs. Kindness Academy is designed to assist parents and the school system with full-day virtual learning support. With many students physically in the classroom only part of the week, and some learning exclusively online, these programs support academic success, healthy movement and social emotional development. We completed the renovation of the admininstrative office into a functional youth program room. One challenge and limitation we faced was a dearth of parents seeking after school care due to fears associated with COVID. We took this as an opportunity to partner with MVYPS who needed a classroom space, and we are now a temporary home for Project Headway Preschool.
YMCA of MV
PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT: With the goal of strengthening community, the YMCA of Martha's Vineyard serves over 12,000 people annually and nearly 30% of our year-round population. We offer affordable and free programs accessible to all abilities from birth to end of life, and give financial assistance to those in need. We help people build and maintain healthy habits, rehabilitate, and commune in their everyday lives through over 50 unique programs. To have the greatest community impact, we strive to: be operationally sustainable while keeping quality programs affordable to meet the evolving needs of the Island community; be an Island community center serving people of all ages, creating a greater sense of connection to each other and the community; reach out proactively into underserved populations, ensuring inclusion of multiple diverse groups; continue collaborating with other organizations and individuals to best serve our Vineyard community; be a leader on critical issues related to promoting healthy living.
We are addressing the need for high quality safe after school and summer child care, as well as engaging year-round community spaces for youth of all ages. Each year, our youth programs continue to grow but our spaces are at maximum capacity and we are no longer able to add additional licensed spaces to accommodate more children in our programs. Enhanced spaces are necessary to serve the whole child by prioritizing the social-emotional, physical, and cognitive development of all youth.
Repurposing our indoor spaces will increase access to and enhance the quality of child care and youth activities on the Island. This will add licensed space for After School and Summer Camp programs. This project will help us fulfill our mission by improving the quality of life for youth and families. Our increased and enhanced program space will allow us to meet this same goal for our program participants and demonstrate our dedication to growth and advancement in youth development.