YMCA BACKGROUND
The Young Men's Christian Association, commonly known as the YMCA or simply the Y, is a worldwide organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 2 billion beneficiaries from 125 national associations.
YMCA Ethiopia is a pioneer youth focused development organization in Ethiopia established in 1951 with envision for empowering young people for the renaissance of Africa. As YMCA Ethiopia is affiliated with the World Wide YMCA and African Alliance of YMCA, it shares the founding principles of Body – Mind – Sprit – which is symbolized by the time honored triangle and denotes holistic youth development approach.
STRATEGIC APPROACHES
YMCA Ethiopia Strategic Approaches
A) Holistic Approach
The YMCA brand is built on the timely honored philosophy, Body – Mind – Sprit that advocates for holistic youth development mission. This is what makes YMCA is different from many other movements. As most of our services target on specific one goal or objective, let say reduce HIV prevalence among the youth, there is a chance to miss other needs of the youth, be it educational need or economic need. Integrating life skill or character building into physical fitness services, integrate life skills in job readiness, or health promotion, is a typical example as to how YMCA address the holistic approach of body, mind sprit.
The Young Men's Christian Association, YMCA is a worldwide organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 2 billion beneficiaries from 125 national associations.