Mick Johnson papers

Michael “Mick” Johnson was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1944. He began working at the Des Moines YMCA as a Youth Director in 1966. At the Des Moines YMCA, he was involved with several programs and initiatives including a YMCA Summer project, an Inter City Youth Club, and also Community Organization measures. In 1969, he was hired by the Metropolitan Minneapolis YMCA as a Young Adult Director. In that role, he created programs for community teens and young adults and developed the Anomie Center, a drop-in and referral center for young adults, in the basement of the downtown Minneapolis YMCA.

Johnson resigned as a YMCA staff member in the early 1970s to attend graduate school. He became an adjunct professor. Due to his academic and YMCA background, in the mid-1970s Johnson was asked to participate in the Akron Project alongside Jerry Glashagel and Bob Phipp at the Akron YMCA. The Akron Project was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The project’s purpose was to develop a curriculum around values education. One of the outcomes of the project was the publication of the “Digging In” series of books about values education for youth workers.

After the Akron Project, Johnson consulted on the Kellogg Family Project at the Miami YMCA. Johnson's collaborators on the project were Jerry Glashagel and John Ireland. The project was similar to the Akron Project but focused on family values. One of the outcomes of the Kellogg Family Project was a “Digging In” book about values education for families published in English and Spanish.

Johnson was then asked to consult on the Values Project for the national YMCA. As part of that project, the YMCA used the “Digging In” books as tools for educating camp directors and youth directors as well as for board development. Johnson and others created books, workbooks, and other material related to values and management, faith, families, and sports that were distributed by the YMCA. Additionally, Johnson traveled around the United States to provide multi-day workshops developed as part of the Values Project to local YMCA staff through the YMCA’s Career Development Program.

In addition to doing consulting work for the YMCA and other organizations, Johnson was the President of the Park Nicollet Foundation and the Vice President at Mercy and United Hospitals for more than 20 years. He continued to be an adjunct professor in the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development and Medical School. He has also maintained positions on the boards or advisory councils of the YMCA, Search Institute, Children First, St. Mary's Clinics, CommonBond, University of St. Thomas and Seeing Things Whole.



Information is taken from: 1. Mick Johnson, phone call with Alex Bentley, December 6, 2022 2. “Mick Johnson: Senior Fellow”, accessed December 6, 2022 https://csh.umn.edu/bio/center-for-spirituality-and-he/mick-johnson 3. Materials in the collection