Assignment 2: YMCA (Mike McBride)

The Young Men's Christian Association, known to most as the YMCA, is a non-profit organization that has facilities all throughout the country to provide a healthy, safe environment for leisure activities for people. It has rooms for people to stay in, as well as offering various activities for people to participate in, however, these activities vary in the different facilities. For the Leisure Delivery System project, I have chosen to visit the YMCA in Champaign, Illinois, to learn more about certain aspects of this particular facility.
As mentioned before, the YMCA is a non-profit organization that provides a healthy and safe environment for leisure activities. The YMCA in Champaign is one of the many quality facilities throughout the country, and it hosts events for the community, focusing on clubs or organizations that are interested in improving the community. The YMCA's main goal is to contribute to the bettermant of the community for which it serves and it's focus on reaching out to the community has helped Champaign for a long time and will hopefully continue to do so for years to come.

I found this to be a unique facility when learning about their employment situation. The Champaign YMCA for the most part employs only University of Illinois students. I thought that this was respectable because they hired students who needed the financial help for tuition. So as far as working there, I would qualify because I am a University of Illinois student, and in order to get my foot in the door I would have to state my case to them about why i needed help financing my education.
I also inquired about current trends and issues going on at the YMCA. I was informed that they are currently working to fund new equipment to help make the facility more accessible to people with disabilities, and one of the things mentioned was a ramp in the entrance for people with wheelchairs. I was not surprised to find out that they were striving to help those with disabilities because their main objective has always been to improve the community and this is an issue that should be addressed in more places, so it was encouraging to see that the YMCA is making strides to be part of the solution to this issue.

Based on what I saw and the information I gathered while visiting the facility, I would have to say that the YMCA is devoted to healthy activity for anyone who wants that option. They believe their main benefit to the community is being a facility for people who want to come together to plan and act in order to make our community a better place. Anyone who wants to meet with a group of people in order to make strides to improve the city of Champaign needs to look no further than the YMCA, their doors are always open for those working for the good of the community.

After visiting the YMCA and speaking with an employee, I was impressed with how much the facility contributes to the community. Being non-profit says enough in itself but everything that the agency did and provided was for the improvement of the community. It was also very determined to help students with financial needs by offering jobs to help with their tuition. They were very helpfule in answering my questions and helping me gather as much significant information as I could to find out exactly who they are and what they do to provide the community with a quality leisure facility. However I most likey would not pursue a career with this agency because of their lack of involvement with athletics. Sports are a big part of my life and unfortunately there is not much they have to offer in this field. But all in all this is a great facility that delivers leisure services to society and most importantly they are improving by working to make their facility accessible to more and more people.