The Granite Young Men's Christian Association

Youth Development - TGY recognizes and celebrates its role as a major service provider in childhood and youth development. TGY is committed to increasing opportunities for youth to deepen values and build positive assets. All youth programs reinforce TGY's core values of honesty, respect, caring and responsibility. These guided principles help children make positive choices in their lives and contribute to building strong families and communities. TGY also seeks to build positive assets in youth by providing opportunities for them to engage in lifelong healthy activities with strong role models to help guide their decisions. (Youth Development continued) It is proven that the more positive assets a child has, the less likely they are to engage in high-risk behavior that may lead to negative health habits and anti-social behaviors.With this as a backdrop, TGY is the largest provider of childcare programs in its area, serving over 1,840 children per day at 34 sites state-wide. TGY places a special emphasis on ensuring access to programs in low-income areas by providing financial assistance through grants, state aid and YMCA fundraising.TGY is also committed to providing healthy alternatives for youth during the high-risk after school hours, by providing an extensive variety of programs to serve a children's many interests. These programs include instructional and competitive swimming, gymnastics and dance programs, and a multitude of youth sports programs, including basketball, soccer, wrestling, t-ball, outdoor adventure, tennis, and general fitness. TGY encourages the use of volunteers and mentors to run its programs and includes family participation to bring families closer together.Due to TGY's long-standing involvement in aquatics and concern for keeping children safe around oceans, ponds, lakes, streams, rivers and swimming pools, we provide several free aquatic safety programs that serve children from the Manchester and Goffstown elementary school systems.During the summer months, when children are not in school, TGY offers day and resident camping programs at 6 major camping facilities for children 4 to 15 years old and serves over 1,780 children per day. We offer financial assistance programs to ensure our center-city and low-income children have the same opportunities to participate and interact with children from within and outside the state and country. A major emphasis of our camping programs is to provide opportunities for youth to gain leadership skills by progressing from a camper to a leader-in-training (l.i.t.), to a counselor-in-training (c.i.t.), to a junior counselor, and finally to a full counselor. Each year, TGY employs over 450 young adults and is one of the community's largest youth employers.Through our camping and youth programs, we can offer opportunities for youth development all year round. This provides consistent support to build a healthy spirit, mind, and body in our children, so they can grow and thrive.The Granite YMCA's ReGen Valley Tech Hub Project increases the number of qualified childcare professionals in New Hampshire. It does this by developing a structured apprenticeship program that combines hands-on training with academic coursework. As a result, families benefit from better access to reliable early education. Children receive higher-quality care. Communities experience greater economic stability. In partnership with local and state agencies, the project recruits and mentors new childcare workers. It supports current staff in advancing their credentials and provides leadership development and career pathways. These actions strengthen the workforce pipeline and support families throughout the state of New Hampshire.

Healthy living - we know that 90% of any one person's health is directly related to where they are born, live, learn, work, and grow old. The social determinants of health, such as economic stability, neighborhood and physical environment, education, health food, community and social integration, and quality health care, can either provide smooth pathways to health and success or be an insurmountable barriers, all depending on the environment one finds themselves in. TGY has always believed that a healthy spirit, mind, and body are crucial to helping an individual develop to their fullest potential. We have also been committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of ability to pay, has access to TGY and its programs and services that support a healthy lifestyle. (Healthy Living continued) What we now know, based on scientific evidence, is that if we can remove barriers to health for more people - such as poverty, hunger, education, and social integration - we will not only improve the potential for every individual, but our communities will, in turn, thrive.TGY offers a sliding fee scale and financial aid to remove financial barriers that may prevent participation. Last year, we provided financial aid and/or free services to over 12,937 people to ensure all who need help, receive help. Of this number, 4,356 received free or discounted memberships at TGY and 8,581 received financial assistance enabling them to participate in a TGY program. The value of assistance is over $1.6 million.As a part of this commitment, TGY provides free memberships to over 56 other non-profit agencies whose clients have special needs, such as foster homes, group homes for children with no parents, drug and alcohol treatment centers, mentoring programs and disabled individuals. Collaborating to support others in our community is a major focus for our organization. TGY's core values of honesty, caring, respect and responsibility are taught to help all people commit to individual and family wellness. TGY maintains a major focus on developing strong families and offers concurrent programming and childcare support through a program called family time. With this program, the entire family can come at one time to ensure everyone gets to participate in healthy activities. As a part of family time, TGY provides free care for children so parents can work out, knowing their children are well cared for. Over 70% of our memberships are youth and families, so this makes a big impact. In addition, we run special programs like: - Healthy Kids' Day, Brunch with Santa, and host family outings. - We offer special rates to families as well as to seniors to encourage membership. - We maintain a broad definition of families to ensure traditional and non-traditional families can participate. - Over 150 classes are offered each week for people of all walks of life with all kinds of interests.This broad scope of service ensures there is the opportunity for a lifetime of participation, which is the most powerful methodology for long term change. Providing these programs for all ages, levels and abilities offers a unique opportunity for youth to build lifelong relationships and friends, build self-confidence, spend quality time with their families and, of course, deepen values.