Module 1 01 - historical journey

CHANGE AGENTS TRAINING A HISTORICAL JOURNEY

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E-LEARNING

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WHY IS YMCA HISTORY IMPORTANT FOR CHANGE AGENTS? Knowing our history helps us to better understand who we are and where we are today as a movement and as an organisation. History provides both the opportunity to learn from our successes as well as our mistakes, and should encourage us to reach new heights in our development. It gives us new perspectives on our responsibilities as leaders to move the YMCA forward into the future.

1. On June 6 1844, George Williams (21 years of age) created the YMCA as a way to respond to the needs of young men. 2. Young people faced many injustices, such as drug addiction, lack of decent jobs, health issues and others.

THE BEGINNING: QUICK FACTS!

3. George Williams empowered young people by organising Bible studies and reflection as a way to respond to these needs and reconnect them with their common identity: young people who migrated to London in hope of a better life.

4. It was not the London association’s original intention to expand around the world, but this happened spontaneously as more and more young people were touched by similar experiences as the group in London. 5. The History Book of the World YMCA mentions other organisations with similar principles and activities that existed before the first YMCA in London. 6. Some of these organisations were founded in Scotland and the Netherlands as far back as 1828, but they only formally became part of the YMCA in 1844, after they were influenced by the original London movement.


7. In 1855 the YMCA organised the first World Conference (World Council) and made two important actions that remain to this day:

a)  Creating the World Alliance of YMCAs (World YMCA) to coordinate the association at a global level;

b)  Adopting the “Paris Basis” – a declaration of mission for the YMCA movement.


“The Young Men's Christian Associations seek to unite those young men who, regarding Jesus Christ as their God and Saviour, according to the Holy Scriptures, desire to be his disciples in their faith and in their life, and to associate their efforts for the extension of his Kingdom amongst young men. Any differences of opinion on other subjects, however important in themselves, shall not interfere with the harmonious relations of the constituent members and associates of the World Alliance”

Paris Basis

Through the years the YMCA began to grow and diversify in its work but two things could always be identified as key themes;

a) A strong Christian and Ecumenical identity; b) A willingness to respond to the needs of young

people.

MORE THAN 170 YEARS… A CONSISTENT THEME

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These two broad universal components made it possible for the YMCA to become very diverse in addressing the different issues facing young people around the world. Ultimately this is what allowed the YMCA to grow to be the world’s largest youth organisation. We have served communities across the globe in many different and profound ways, and our service goes far beyond creating basketball and volleyball. Example: During the World Wars the YMCA provided invaluable humanitarian assistance, performed refugee work, and engaged millions of young people physically, mentally, and spiritually through camps and health-related programmes. This work resulted in a Nobel Peace Prize.

MORE THAN 170 YEARS… A CONSISTENT THEME

After a period of great growth and increased global recognition of our work, the world began to experience many changes after the World Wars and the YMCA had to respond to new issues and needs. Without World Wars the focus of our work became more and more local as we no longer had unified global causes to coordinate efforts for. Unfortunately, because of this, our global coordination grew weaker.

MORE THAN 170 YEARS… OF GLOBAL COORDINATION

The Kampala Principles In the 1970s the world movement met for the World Council in Kampala, Uganda and outlined key ‘principles’ in order to focus the movement on specific issues. These principles were intended to clarify what “Extension of God’s Kingdom” (the mission stated in the Paris Basis) truly meant. Read the Kampala Principles on our global website! www.ymca.int/who-we-are/mission/kampala-principles-1973/


Movement Review Process From the 1990s, the global movement started to get very concerned about the number of weak YMCAs that were suffering in a number of ways, most profoundly financially. It was time again to revisit our principles. The YMCA underwent a movement review process that ultimately produced three important statements:

a) Mission Review; b) Governance Agreement; c) Global Operating Plan for “Movement Strengthening”.


Movement Review Process: 1.Mission Review After a long process of consultation, debate and negotiation, a document entitled ‘Challenge 21’ was approved as the contemporary mission statement of the YMCA movement. This document clarified the purpose of the YMCA in the new millennium and focused on several issues afflicting the world’s population.


Challenge 21

“Affirming the Paris Basis adopted in 1855, as the ongoing foundation statement of the mission of the YMCA, at the threshold of the third millennium, we declare that the YMCA is a world-wide Christian, ecumenical, voluntary movement for women and men with special emphasis on and the genuine involvement of young people and that it seeks to share the Christian ideal of building a human community of justice with love, peace and reconciliation for the fullness of life for all creation. Each member YMCA is therefore called to focus on certain challenges which will be prioritised according to its own context. These challenges which are an evolution of the Kampala Principles adopted in 1973, include:

Challenge 21

•  Sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and striving for spiritual, intellectual and physical well-being of individuals and wholeness of communities.

•  Empowering all, especially young people and women to take increased

responsibilities and assume leadership at all levels and working towards an equitable society.

•  Advocating for and promoting the rights of women and upholding the

rights of children. •  Fostering dialogue and partnership between people of different faiths

and ideologies and recognising the cultural identities of people and promoting cultural renewal.

Challenge 21

•  Committing to work in solidarity with the poor, dispossessed, uprooted people and oppressed racial, religious and ethnic minorities.

•  Seeking to be mediators and reconcilers in situations of conflict and

working for meaningful participation and advancement of people for their own self-determination.

•  Defending God’s creation against all that would destroy it and

preserving and protecting the earth’s resources for coming generations.

To face these challenges, the YMCA will develop patterns of co-operation at all levels that enable self-sustenance and self-determination.

Movement Review Process: 2.Governance Agreement With growth came challenges and we experienced conflict because of the way the movement was structured. Many constituents felt that the hierarchy of responsibility was not responding to their needs. To solve this conflict, the Global Governance Agreement was adopted, which establishes the different levels of responsibility that each YMCA has to the global movement. This agreement introduced the principle of subsidiarity, which implies that decision making should be made as close as possible to the local realities and only when the situation requires should it be taken to next levels.


Movement Review Process: 3. Global Operating Plan for ‘Movement Strengthening’ With improved governance systems in place the YMCA began working to strengthen the weakened members through an effort to increase global coordination through organizational development. This effort was called the Global Operating Plan for movement strengthening. The plan is based on 3 pillars:

a) Mission Clarity; b) Social Relevance; c) Institutional Viability.

MORE THAN 170 YEARS… OF GLOBAL COORDINATIO N

More than 170 years in 18 slides: Not bad!!

The idea is to have a general overview of the YMCAs history and to not make it boring! We also know that you already have some knowledge on

this topic! Now it is up to your curiosity to go deeper in some of the elements you are interested in.

We recommend:

1)  Read the extra materials in the library, 2)  Attend the webinar sessions which will go deeper into some of the

elements of this presentation, 3)  Ask questions of the World YMCA team, 4)  Create your own presentation about YMCA history and present it to

someone who doesn’t know about it!, 5)  Look for information about the history of your local/national YMCA.

www.ymca.int

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Module 1 01 - historical journey