S1 Past, present and future Our Y Print for growth, development and - PDF document

S1 Past, present and future – Our Y Print for growth, development and impact Ron Mell Chief Executive Officer YMCA Australia S2 Our Shared Vision “ We are making a positive difference by providing each and every person with opportunity to be healthy, happy and connected. ” Andrew has given us a very clear picture of the strategic work that the National Board commenced in 2012 and is continuing this coming year and a glimpse of where we might be when he talked about his own vision and aspirations for the YMCA Movement. As part of the professional staff team - it’s a great privilege to be working with volunteers like Andrew and those that we have on the National Board and on all of our Boards around the country. The diversity of opinion, the diversity of knowledge and experience and common commitment and vision enriches this Movement. Andrew has outlined the four key strategic areas that YMCA Australia will focus on over this coming year and I will provide more context to that and I hope I will also challenge you in respect of where we need to go, particularly in relation to the Movement seriously addressing our Vision as Andrew explained so well. For over 160 years the Y in Australia as elsewhere in the world has continued to reinvent itself and both globally and nationally we are continuing to do this. At a global level under Johan Eltvik’s and Ken Colloton’s leadership and now under Peter Posner’s and Johan’s leadership, that ongoing change and re -inventiveness continues. S3 Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! 45 of you attended the World Council quadrennial meeting in Colorado in July and saw this first hand. You saw a sharp focus on youth empowerment and a framework to support this through the global Movement’s model of SPACE, TRANSFORMA TION and IMPACT. Here’s Ali (Alicia Crawford). S4 Joy! Joy! Joy! You would have also seen close to 200 change agents including our own Alicia Crawford become the face of this change, leading the change process and in so doing ensuring that the leadership provided by the World Council and World Alliance is deeply rooted in our young people.

At that meeting Alan Morton was elected to the World Council Executive Committee and he will build on our relationships with the World Alliance and other national YMCA Movements. Peter Malone is another who has built our international partnerships. He is a Vice President on APAY and has had a strong influence in supporting the development of APAY and its national YMCAs. But in this the global Movement, at its highest level, is leading change, leading innovation and reminding us of where our origins lie, in empowering young people. S5 WUN support for Ghana The other major global YMCA body, The world Urban Network, is also starting to take a strong leadership role, in a programmatic sense. And they are working with the World Alliance and taking on a number of big inspiring projects with international significance. For example working with the World Alliance they are starting to map out the assets of the Movement globally, and identify assets which are underutilised. Assets such as in Ghana where options are being considered for property which is being underutilised. S6 Global Digital Accelerator Project And this exciting Global digital accelerator project which YMCAs of Victoria, Perth and Australia are working with other YMCAs and the WUN The world is changing and the YMCA Movement is changing with it. Have a look at this! YMCA Imagine a Better World Online - YGDA - YouTube S9 Our five strategic priorities • Extending our reach • Inspiring our people • Strengthening our Movement • Increasing our Impact • Building our Brand In 2013 as Andrew discussed we started to focus on these five strategic priority areas and we’ve continued to do so. This has led us to think about our Movement strengthening as part of a longer term plan, We’ve started to move from short term 1 to 2 year horizons to 5, 10 and longer term ones.

Some years back we had a conversation called 2050 and we started to look beyond a 1 to 2 year plan. We need to continue that outlook. S10 2012 – 2015 Healthy Living Empowering Young People Social Impact And then through a number of influences, including the work of the World Alliance, the national brand leadership team and through more and more open discussions about our key areas of influence and impact, we bought the national focus to three key areas and I’ll go through these in a little more detail. S12 Inspiring Healthy living Contract management of recreation and aquatic centres is still important to us. That focus represented the last big programmatic change in the Movement’s history, when we moved away from the corner gym and basketball court to managing local government facilities. Now we are seeking new ways to provide opportunities for people – to live healthy, active and community involved lives and I think we are at the cusp of another great change in the way we deliver services and impact communities. The Virtual Y program and HeartMoves are just two national programs which are currently being developed and which will extend our reach and impact. You’ll hear more of these programs tomorrow when Michael Bailey and the national leadership team present on them and on promoting strategy and programs around Healthy Living. And beginning in the New Year, YMCA Australia will bring into its executive team, more resources focused on building our advocacy and national programming around preventative health, health promotion and healthy living strategies. S13 Inspiring Youth Empowerment • Change Agents There are many youth programs operating at a local level, meeting local community need. We need to bring a national profile to this and the appointment of Alicia Crawford as you’ve just heard, adds a tremendous resource to bringing a voice to our young people across Australia. There are more exciting projects underway:

YMCA Victoria is exploring a youth empowerment centre and is starting a conversation with YMCA Australia around this. YMCA Perth is discussing drawing on its young staff to provide an advisory group to the CEO as a means of empowerment The National Council of Youth Parliaments continues to develop. And you’ve heard from Alicia Crawford on her ideas and vision for a national youth voice. And early in the new year we plan to bring together staff and volunteers for workshop to provide their ideas to Alli and others around empowering young people. And if we truly want to empower and to lead change, we will invest in the new change agent process over the next four years. S14 Inspiring Impact • Local program initiatives • Social Impact Leadership team We’ve recognised that simply saying how big we’re getting is not the sole measure of our impact on communities and that we need to look beyond this. Communities and funders are demanding this and we now recognise that we need something else as well. The work YMCA Australia, through the leadership team, has commenced, on a national social impact measurement framework, is the catalyst for change in this area. On Tuesday, YMCA Australia facilitated a one day workshop in Melbourne in partnership with Good Beginnings and Family Life. It demonstrated to me that the work all of us within the Movement have started, goes way beyond simply measuring impact. Of the 40 who attended, over 9i0% were external and the vast majority represented national bodies. It provided a great opportunity for the Y to lift its profile with others within the national NFP sector. We have the opportunity to be a leader in facilitating change within the sector and we are beginning to be seen as such, not necessarily as an organisation which is leading the field, but as an organisation which is prepared to share, collaborate and take a leadership role for the benefit of the sector. S15 Where does YMCA fit within Australian community? So ….the challenging bit. Andrew has articulated clearly our strategies and our direction within our current mission and vision. But is this enough?- Remember our vision refers to us making a positive difference by providing each and every person with opportunity to be healthy, happy and connected Andrew talked about the expectation of a structural review and how the Terms of Reference for that review will be so important. One reason is that either within that review or separate to it, there needs to be an opportunity to reflect on what it is we want to achieve strategically and how we need to go about it. Tomorrow there is a session on child protection. We are at this point with child protection because our values have dictated our drive and urgency around child protection