YMCA of BRISBANE CELEBRATES 146 YEARS OF SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY

Sunday 1st August 2010, marks the 146th year the YMCA of Brisbane has been active in the Brisbane community. Since 1864, the YMCA of Brisbane has provided opportunities for all people to grow in Body, Mind and Spirit.

The YMCA was originally founded by George Williams in England in 1844 and today is a worldwide organisation operating in 124 nations with a membership base of over 45 million people.

The YMCA of Brisbane is a values-driven organisation providing a broad range of community services such as child care, community fitness, sport and recreation, camping, youth services, accommodation and accredited training. Services are provided by 450 staff in over 50 locations throughout South East Queensland.

A key focus for the YMCA of Brisbane is to provide support to its benevolent arm (Y-Care) as it delivers resources and support to marginalised and at-risk youth. Services provide alternative training and education programs, meals for homeless youth and youth mentoring.

In conjunction with Foodbank, the YMCA also supplies over 180,000 free breakfasts per annum to children at 28 schools.

In July 2010 the YMCA, through its Y-Care benevolent arm, proudly opened the first YMCA Vocational School in Kingston. The YMCA Vocational School is to be named the Clem Jones Campus in honour of the late Dr Clem Jones and in recognition of his ongoing support of the YMCA’s proud history of youth development.

The YMCA Vocational School is the first school project for any YMCA in Australia and will specifically target marginalised and disadvantaged young people aged from 14 – 19 who have become disengaged with mainstream education. The emphasis of the school curriculum will be to either re-engage students in mainstream schooling or provide them with vocational qualifications in skills shortage areas, thus enabling immediate employment after leaving school. There is also a strong emphasis on language, maths and life skills.

The YMCA $3.2m Vocational School project was funded by a donation from the late Dr Clem Jones, a grant of $530,000 from the Independent Schools Queensland Block Grant Authority and an in-kind donation valued in excess of $110,000 from Logan City Council. The remaining funding was provided by the YMCA of Brisbane.

Chief Executive Officer, Alan Bray stated “The YMCA of Brisbane has a long and proud association with the communities of South East Queensland. We are particularly proud of the YMCA Vocational School project and wish to thank all those involved in enabling the concept to come to fruition. We look forward to the YMCA continuing its strong involvement in Queensland and and welcome the opportunity to work with both the public and private sectors in all areas of community service.”