Program areas at Eastern Carolina Young Men's Christian Association
Youth development: nurturing the potential of children and teens. Children from low-income families often start school unprepared. Despite progressing at the same rates as their peers during the school years, gaps widen each summer and these children fall further behind. This is known as the "achievement gap." The y's achievement gap programs are designed to support the cognitive physical and social-emotional development of youth while improving their academic outcomes via summer learning, and afterschool learning. All this while building self-confidence, self-esteem, good sportsmanship, teamwork, and fair play. Through fundraising and dedicated staff support, we awarded $81,049 in financial assistance for out-of-school programs and summer day camp. Our afterschool program had 342 unduplicated participants for the year, while our summer day camps had 233 unduplicated participants.
Social responsibility: giving back and providing support to neighbors. The y responds to pressing social issues nationwide and worldwide by activating resources and uniting people from diverse backgrounds for individual and collective action. Through the y's volunteer program, thousands of volunteer hours as youth sports coaches, water safety volunteers, fundraising volunteers, and policy volunteers work to benefit our community. To strengthen our capacity to engage, advocate for, and serve all members of our changing community, particularly those who are most marginalized. We had (duplicated) 352 volunteers comprising 2,600 hours of service.
Healthy living: improving the nation's health and well-being. Our health and wellness activities are designed to promote healthy lifestyles which will improve our community's overall health and well-being and to achieve their personal health goals. We had 2,140 members that can participate in over 15 different group activity classes that are offered weekly. Through fundraising efforts, we provided $77,934 in financial assistance to our members, and 10% of all members received some financial assistance.