YMCA urban work and Urban Group records

The YMCA movement in North America was organized initially in the city of Boston and almost simultaneously in Montreal, Canada in late 1851. Early on it was decided that city associations required unique structure and programs in order to assist their populations in a manner that best suited their unique needs. The North American YMCA began this urban-focused work as early as 1885 with studies and reports attempting to classify problems common to highly populated areas.

The New York City Association revised its constitution in 1887, giving its board of directors oversight of all seven branches of the organization within the city. This concept of the metropolitan organizational scheme was adopted by many of the associations in larger American cities, including Philadelphia, Brooklyn, St. Louis, and Chicago. By 1901 there were ten Metropolitan YMCAs, carrying one-seventh of the work of the entire movement and owning one-third of its property. They employed more than 200 professional workers and their executives were among the most influential leaders.

The 1910 Convention granted metropolitan boards two delegates each for convention representation. The next year metropolitan general secretaries organized their own professional society, the Department of City Associations. The group, which was directed towards all associations in cities above five thousand in population, met monthly to vote on the reorganization of sub committees and to consolidate regional department offices and an enlarged executive committee.

The end of the first world war prompted a period of reflection and self-examination with the YMCA. A bureau of surveys was established and a commission on African American work was formed. The City General Secretaries’ Association was created in February 1920 to unite urban secretaries to protect their city-specific interests. Their aim was to coordinate and better utilize preexisting YMCA departments and to develop programs specializing in administrative and business solutions tailored to help city associations handle their tasks.

In the 1940s many associations developed long-range studies, held laymen’s retreats, conferences and workshops to decipher the needs of their communities. Assistance was also available from city planning commissions, research departments of community councils, the United States Census Bureau, the Chamber of Commerce, and from local industry and universities. By the late 1960s major metropolitan YMCAs were experiencing tremendous growth and were providing increased services to people. Many business practices and systems that were in place to handle these services were not able to keep pace with the increased volume. Changing roles were required of the clerical and professional personnel. The YMCA needed to centralize and standardize supportive systems while decentralizing decisions, procedures and policies. The Urban Action and Program Division (UAPD) developed a committee design which assured the decentralization of organizational power and responsibility through better utilization of human resources. They also supported the development and implementation of YMCA resource centers and Management Service Centers throughout North American regions. The UAPD, as a whole, shared in financial development and reinforced a total program impact through advocacy and interpretation.

The Civil Rights movement of the United States or the “urban crisis,” as it was termed throughout the North American YMCA, required the YMCA to rethink certain policies and redefine its stance in many areas. In 1967, racial discrimination was banned in all YMCAs. A conference of the Black and Non-White YMCA Secretaries (BAN-WYS) took place in Atlanta Georgia, in 1968, in order to confront YMCA leaders of all levels about the YMCAs practices with its non-white staff members. A racial integration plan was developed by the National Board of YMCAs in 1968, to accommodate interracial staffing and program development towards a fuller achievement of racial equality in the YMCA. The Urban decision making bodies were restructured in composition to be more representative in age, race, sex and community influence. The YMCA Urban Action and Program Division also collated a process of program and priority development in the 1970s with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The North American YMCAs Urban Group was designed to make societal changes through the YMCA’s city associations financial development, administration and fiscal management, and manpower development. They began an Inter-City Consultant Program in the early 1970s to make use of the YMCA staffs variety of skills while maintaining a fair approach to the sharing of cost for resources between city YMCAs. The Urban Group also developed hub cities, links in national and regional support systems that worked at upgrading services and provided additional services where needed.

Urban YMCAs in the mid-1980s assisted with fundraising campaigns and the dissemination of information for the African Crisis program, an assistance effort begun by the International Division of YMCAs, and governmental and non-governmental relief agencies. A gender and opportunity task force was also created to address issues like salary differences between Caucasian men and minorities, primarily women and Hispanic people, working in the YMCA. Youth employment was also a major issue in the 1980s and 1990s including a youth employment program focusing on unemployed high school dropouts named JOBSTART. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the YMCA continued to work to adapt with the ever changing urban communities.

Historical Information largely adapted and quoted from History of the YMCA in North America(Association Press, 1951) by C. Howard Hopkins, and from the collection.