Category: Uncategorised
The YMCA Canberra WHS Committee is up and running, with the first meeting held in March. The Committee is made up of representatives from each business unit who are passionate about improving health and safety at each of our locations. One of the key functions of the Committee is the coordination of quarterly safety campaigns, with initial topics to include ‘Identifying and acting on hazards’ and ‘Infection control’. The Committee is supported by our Chief Risk Officer, Quality Assurance and Compliance Manager and Human Resources Project Manager.
The Young CEO Movement, delivered across Australia, is an expression of the YMCA’s Belief in the power of inspired young people, and reflects our commitment to empowering and listening to our young staff and volunteers.
Danni Allport, a Coordinator at Weetangera Outside School Hours Care, was selected as YMCA Canberra’s “Young CEO 2019”, through a competitive application process available to all staff and volunteers aged 18 to 30. Danni inspired the selection committee with her selfless approach to leadership and her belief that large scale societal change is possible, writing:
Leadership is about living by your core values, accepting and loving others for who they are and being able to do the less favourable jobs with the same dedication you would the favourable ones…everyone says it is impossible to change the world but I don’t believe it.
Having completed training in Melbourne, Danni is now working alongside YMCA Canberra CEO, Torrien Lau, sharing her ideas for organisational change and community impact. Of working alongside the CEO, Danni found the experience, “slightly intimidating at first, but then I got to know Torrien and I realised we saw eye to eye on a lot of things.”
Danni and Torrien are now working together on a project that aims to amplify the voices of more young YMCA Canberra staff and volunteers. Watch this space!
Danni Allport (front row centre), YMCA Canberra Young CEO 2019, pictured with other “Young CEOs” from across the Movement
YMCA Canberra Youth Space @ Civic is open!
A collaboration between YMCA Canberra and Anglicare NSW South, NSW West & ACT, offers a drop-in service and individualised support to young people on two afternoons each week (currently Thursday and Friday from 2-3 for Case Management with a Youth Worker and then 3-7 for drop-in), and is a significant step in the expression of YMCA Canberra’s belief in the power of inspired young people.
Dedicated youth spaces are centrally, not incidentally, important to the lives of their participants. Young people need a place where they feel safe, where they can express themselves, where they feel a sense of belonging, and where an adult they trust will truly listen to them. At the Youth Space, we are committed to meeting these needs and creating opportunities for all of our young participants to thrive.
YMCA Youth Space @ Civic has been very successful at engaging and supporting young people.
Since its soft opening on 28 February, we have had several hundred visits and achieved profound impacts on individuals, including finding a young homeless woman emergency accommodation, when specialist agencies had failed her.
The successful first ten weeks of YMCA Youth Space @ Civic culminated in an Official Opening event on 8 May, which was attended by a cornucopia of guests, including local young people, YMCA staff and volunteers, politicians, police, philanthropic leaders, and even Senior Australian of the Year and prominent advocate for young people, Dr Sue Packer.
The intermingling of such a diverse range of guests was remarkable to witness and testament to the effectiveness of YMCA Youth Space @ Civic in bringing people together.
Central to the success of the Official Opening were the contributions of young people who undertook a variety of roles, including Master of Ceremonies, live music performances and facilitating our collaborative art project.
The YMCA Canberra team is grateful for the overwhelming support the YMCA Youth Space @ Civic has received, and dedicated to growing both the positive impact we have on individuals and the number of young people we support. Stay tuned!
YMCA Canberra Chifley Health and Wellness Centre is not like any other gym in Canberra, nor are its members. An inclusive gym that provides support and connects our community through a common interest in physical activity, many of the members join our gym to address chronic health issues or engage in rehabilitation services. One of the more popular members is Ben.
Ben is known as the gentle giant of the gym, at 6’’5 he’s hard to miss and once you do meet him you’ll realise he has one of the kindest souls. He loves spending time with his family having lunch and dinner on Sundays, mainly having a steak or burger, and going to see the Raiders whenever possible. Coming to Chifley Health and Wellness Centre is an important part of Ben’s weekly routine as it gets him out of the hospital and interacting with the community. His full of life smile and attitude gravitate people to him and he is always happy to postpone those harder exercises to meet the new person in the gym.
Ben attends Chifley Health and Wellness Centre twice a week for a one-on-one exercise physiology session with Chris and a personal training session with Louise. His sessions consist of dexterity movements with his fingers all the way up to pulling 30 kg on the cable row. Accessing NDIS support funding makes it possible for Ben to attend these session which are important to keep him enjoying the small things in life.
One of many of our diverse members at YMCA Canberra Chifley Health and Wellness Centre, Ben’s positive outlook on life is always great to see when he comes through the doors and adds to the fantastic community feel of our gym.
The YMCA Canberra Paddle Hub has sparked a new relationship this past year with the CREATE Foundation. The CREATE Foundation is a not-for-profit that represents the voices of children and young people with an out-of-home care experience. They run programs and services across all Australian states and territories for children and young people in foster care, kinship care, and residential care.
In March, the CREATE Foundation and the Paddle Hub team organised transportation and an hour and a half paddle session for 15 youths and their friends, this was part of a gift provided to participants at the annual Christmas Party hosted by the YMCA Canberra. For many youth involved in this program, they do not have the funding or opportunities to get involved in recreational leisure activities. This event provided the group with the access and the means to enjoy Lake Burley Griffin and make connections with other youth and families within the Canberra community.
Like our other group bookings provided during the Paddle Hub Season, the kids learned basic skills needed to paddle a kayak or Stand Up Paddle Board, gained valuable safety knowledge about the equipment and water hazards, and had a great time with our staff enjoying Lake Burley Griffin.
Below you can see the Mascot of the CREATE Foundation, a purple sloth, that was gifted to the YMCA Canberra Team, and lovingly named Lilac (for the colour of her fur) enjoying her first paddle at the YMCA Canberra Paddle Hub.
YMCA Canberra Sailing Club have ended their 2018-19 season on a high note as the recipients of the ACT Government Sport and Recreation 2019 Capital Assistance Program Grant. In February, at the Grant announcement, the club was represented by Rear Commodore of Marine, Eric Hines, and the Executive Manager – Health, Fitness and Recreation, Adam Horner. The match funding grant will allow the club to purchase a new ridged inflatable boat (RIB) to add to our current fleet of safety boats and assist in the growing demand at the YMCA Canberra Sailing Club and Paddle Hub.
With this additional safety vessel the YMCA Canberra Sailing Club will be able to continue providing excellent quality programs throughout the year. This will not only support the clubs learn to sail programs and training courses, which have continued to grow this year, but also assist us with the ever growing Paddle Hub which also makes use of the safety boats.
Below: Adam Horner and Eric Hines reading over the ACT Government Sports and Recreation Grant.
Bush Capital Lodge is Canberra’s Group Accommodation Specialist, catering exclusively to groups, offering a safe, friendly and welcoming environment.
School excursions, sporting groups, corporate events; groups of up to 230 people can be comfortably accommodated in our two lodges (Banksia Lodge and Wattle Lodge).
Set in a tranquil bushland setting on O’Connor Ridge, with quick and easy access to Canberra’s major attractions and sporting venues, Bush Capital Lodge is an ideal base from which to make the most of a visit to the Nation’s Capital.
In 2015 Bush Capital Lodge won the category of “Best Standard Accommodation” at the Canberra & Regional Tourism Awards.
To make sure we remain known as the Group Accommodation Specialists, we undertook a number of capital works improvements to the property over the Summer.
We were excited to introduce evaporative cooling across our dining hall and other common areas of the property; replacing all the Bunk beds frames while also reducing the number of bunks in the Banksia Lodge; as well as painting in our Kitchen and Dining Room, A level Hallway and Common Room, plus our Foyer.
The team at Bush Capital Lodge also partnered with Deloitte for their annual Impact Day with 10 of their staff taking a break from their desks and helping make our grounds look fabulous.
If you do have an enquiry for your next school excursion or sport group booking to Canberra then please email reservations.canberra@ymca.org.au who would be happy to assist.
It has been a lighting fast and exciting first 5 months of my time at YMCA Canberra.
My goals of meeting as many people as I can have yielded around 300 new friends and colleagues – only several hundred to go!
Although it sometimes may not feel like it, there have been many things happen in these first 5 months.
The Staff Uniform Policy has been successfully rolled out; the wheels of the new Enterprise Agreement have started to turn again; Leumeah Lodge won Bronze at the Qantas National Tourism Awards (a first for a YMCA Australia product or program); and we opened the amazing new YMCA Canberra Youth Space @ Civic.
There are also many other important business activities underway at the moment like strategic planning, reviewing of policies and procurement but I won’t bore you with the details despite how much they might excite me!
Essentially what’s happening is that we are looking how we run our business to identify how we may improve efficiency while retaining the quality standards that we are well known for. As some of you may have heard me say before, getting the right balance between our business needs and retention of our mission is absolutely key to ongoing success.
The official opening event of YMCA Youth Space @ Civic was a great example of YMCA Canberra meeting its mission. The engagement from staff, young people and a range of government, political and community representatives was outstanding – an activity YMCA Canberra can be truly proud of.
Another significant event that happened recently was the running of the 50th YMCA Canberra Half Marathon. Organised by YMCA Canberra Runners Club member volunteers and assisted by our Health, Fitness and Active Recreation team, 461 people participated (a 40% increase on the previous year) and the atmosphere and sense of community was something that had to be experienced to be understood. One of the highlights in my first few months was to see children as young as 6 years old completing their 1.6km Minijog the day prior to the Half Marathon with a sense of pride and achievement.
Helping people to grow in body, mind and spirit (Our Mission) was on show at both of these events.
Two very important projects that we have started working on which might be of interest; how do we measure whether we are delivering our purpose through a social impact framework; and looking at authentically being a youth organisation. Pete Burns, YMCA Canberra Manager – Program Innovation and Development, is being supported in the social impact space and we are currently working on establishing a type of Youth Council that will collect and action ideas from our staff. This will be a “doing and getting things done” group, so it will be interesting to see what the final makeup will look like.
There is a great deal of reviewing and planning going on at YMCA Canberra at the moment and I look forward to keeping everyone informed as to our progress.
