Editing YMCA (section)

== Activities and services ==
[[File:Capital Bikeshare station at YMCA (9715671610).jpg|thumb|A YMCA in [[Washington, D.C.]]]]
[[File:Robert Baden-Powell in South Africa, 1896 (2).jpg|thumb|[[Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell|Baden Powell]]]]
[[File:The Young Men's Christian Association on the Western Front, 1914-1918 Q5405A.jpg|thumb|A YMCA at the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]]]]
[[File:YMCA Conference Centre, Mendalgief Road, Newport - geograph.org.uk - 1601185.jpg|thumb|A YMCA in [[Newport, Wales]]]]

=== Accommodation ===
[[File:YMCAHousing.jpg|thumb|A YMCA with residential housing in [[Downtown Columbus, Ohio|Downtown]] [[Columbus, Ohio]] in 2021]]
YMCAs around the world offer various types of accommodation. In some places, this takes the form of budget accommodation available to the public such as youth hostels, or hotels, which, in turn, generate income for other charitable activities. In [[England]] and [[Wales]], YMCAs offer supported accommodation for vulnerable and homeless young people.<ref name="Accommodation">{{cite web |title=Accommodation |url=https://www.ymca.org.uk/about/what-we-do/accommodation |access-date=2019-12-21 |website=YMCA England & Wales |language=en-GB}}</ref>

Until the late 1950s,<ref name="YMCAhistory" /> YMCAs in the United States were built with hotel-like rooms called residences or dormitories. These rooms were built with the young men in mind coming from rural America and many foreign-born young men arriving to the new cities. The rooms became a significant part of [[American culture]], known as an inexpensive and safe place for a visitor to stay in an unfamiliar city (as, for example, in the 1978 [[Village People]] song "[[Y.M.C.A. (song)|Y.M.C.A.]]"). In 1940, there were about 100,000 rooms at YMCAs, more than any hotel chain. By 2006, YMCAs with residences had become relatively rare in the US, but many still remain.<ref>{{cite web |title=Glendale, California YMCA |url=http://www.glendaleymca.org/residence.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927110236/http://www.glendaleymca.org/residence.htm |archive-date=27 September 2007 |access-date=4 April 2011}}, {{cite web|title=McGaw YMCA – Evanston, Illinois|url=http://www.mcgawymca.org|access-date=4 April 2011}}, {{cite web|title=Berkeley, California YMCA|url=http://www.baymca.org/index.php/d_hotel.html|access-date=4 April 2011}}</ref>

=== Arts and humanities ===
YMCAs offer classes in the [[visual arts]], including ceramics, drawing, painting, and photography, the [[performing arts]], including music, dance, and poetry, and [[literature]], including reading, storytelling, and public readings. These programs are not offered at each YMCA but the ones who have same to offer these programs give a benefit to their communities to give children a safe place to go to enjoy such activities.<ref name=":7">{{cite web|title=YMCA USA|url=https://www.ymca.int/member/ymca-usa/|access-date=2021-11-23|website=YMCA International - World Alliance of YMCAs|language=en-US}}</ref>

=== Camping ===
[[File:2013-05-06 17 29 22 Entrance for YMCA Camp Bernie.jpg|thumb|YMCA Camp Bernie]]
[[File:YMCA Maple Syrup.JPG|thumb|A YMCA camp in [[Huguenot, Orange County, New York|Huguenot, New York]]]]
YMCA camping began in 1885 when Camp Baldhead (later known as [[Camp Dudley]]) was established by G.A. Sanford and Sumner F. Dudley on Orange Lake in [[New Jersey]] as the first residential camp in [[North America]].<ref name=":4"/> The camp later moved to Lake Champlain near [[Westport, New York]].<ref name="100YrsCamping" />

Camping also had early origins in YMCA movement in [[Canada]] with the establishment in 1889 of [[Big Cove YMCA Camp]] in Merigomish, [[Nova Scotia]].<ref>{{cite web |title=YMCA Timeline : 1880–1899 |url=http://www.ymca.ca/html/tl_1880.htm |access-date=2012-07-01 |publisher=Ymca.ca |archive-date=3 April 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070403030238/http://www.ymca.ca/html/tl_1880.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Our History |url=http://www.ymcastorercamps.org/who-we-are/our-history/ |access-date=19 April 2015}}</ref>

=== Children's and family programs ===
YMCAs offer child care, including supervised space for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and school-age children to stay and play while parents enjoy a workout. YMCA staff members are trained to ensure the safety and well-being of the children in their care so that parents can confidently pursue their fitness goals or take part in the various YMCA programs.<ref name=":7" />

Family programs include family nights, parent-child classes, and different events put on by the YMCA.<ref name=":7" /> YMCA's parent/child programs, conducted under YMCA's Y-Guides program, provides structured opportunities for fellowship, camping, and community-building activities, including craft-making and community service, for several generations of parents and children from kindergarten through eighth grade.<ref name="townhall">{{cite web |last=Michelle Malkin |date=12 September 2003 |title=P.C. vs. the Indian Princesses |url=http://townhall.com/columnists/MichelleMalkin/2003/09/12/pc_vs_the_indian_princesses |access-date=2012-07-01 |publisher=Townhall.com}}</ref>

YMCA after-school programs are geared towards providing students with a variety of recreational, cultural, leadership, academic, and social skills for development.

=== Education and academia ===
Multiple colleges and universities have historically had connections to YMCA. [[Springfield College]], of Springfield, Massachusetts, was founded in 1885 as an international training school for YMCA Professionals, while one of the two schools that eventually became [[Concordia University (Montreal)|Concordia University]]—[[Sir George Williams University|Sir George Williams College]]—started from night courses offered at the [[Montreal]] YMCA. [[Northeastern University (Boston, Massachusetts)|Northeastern University]] began out of a [[Boston YMCA|YMCA in Boston]], and [[Franklin University]] began as YMCA School of Commerce. San Francisco's [[Golden Gate University]] traces its roots to the founding of YMCA Night School on 1 November 1881.

[[Detroit College of Law]], now the [[Michigan State University College of Law]], was founded with a strong connection to the [[Detroit]], Michigan YMCA. It had a 99-year lease on the site, and it was only when it expired that the college moved to [[East Lansing, Michigan]]. [[Youngstown State University]] traces its roots to the establishment of a law school by the local YMCA in 1908. The [[Nashville School of Law]] was YMCA Night Law School until November 1986, having offered law classes since 1911 and the degree of [[Juris Doctor]] since January 1927. YMCA pioneered the concept of [[wikt:night school|night school]], providing educational opportunities for people with full-time employment. Many YMCAs offer [[English as a second language|ESL]] programs, [[alternative high school]], [[day care]], and [[summer camp]] programs.

In [[India]], [[YMCA University of Science and Technology]] of [[Faridabad]] was founded in 1969. It offers various programs related to science and engineering. During the 1880s, the [https://www.clevelandymca.org/ Cleveland YMCA] began to [https://www.csuohio.edu/about-csu/history offer day and evening courses] to students who did not otherwise have access to higher education. The YMCA program was reorganized in 1906 as the Association Institute, and this in turn was established as Fenn College in 1929. In 1964, Fenn College became a state college named Cleveland State University.

American high school students have a chance to participate in [[YMCA Youth and Government]], wherein clubs of children representing each YMCA community convene annually in their respective [[State legislature (United States)|state legislatures]] to "take over the State Capitol for a day."

American students in [[Title One]] public schools are sometimes eligible to join a tutoring program through YMCA called Y Learning. This program is used to help low-income students who are struggling in school complete their homework with help from tutors and receive a snack as well as a safe place to be after school. Y Learning operates under the main mission of bridging achievements gaps and providing essential resources to help underprivileged students thrive in school.<ref>{{cite web |title=Y Learning, standardized tutorial program {{!}} YMCA of the Triangle |url=https://www.ymcatriangle.org/programs-services/tutoring/y-learning |access-date=2018-02-06 |website=www.ymcatriangle.org |language=en}}</ref>

The International Coalition of YMCA Universities<ref>{{cite web |title=Coalition YMCA Universities |url=http://ymcauniversitiescoalition.org/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180412155916/http://ymcauniversitiescoalition.org/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=12 April 2018 |access-date=21 December 2019}}</ref> brings together universities from all over the world, including Brazil, England, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, Uruguay, United States, and Venezuela. The universities offer a wide variety of courses on different levels.

=== Health and wellbeing ===
[[File:YMCA Association Men Cover June 1919.png|thumb|The June 1919 cover of ''Association Men'', a YMCA publication]]
[[File:War Relief - YMCA - Activities - Service of Interior (165-WW-572A-34) - DPLA - d519c56d87005699c867d5febfb6a03b.jpg|thumb|War Relief YMCA]]
[[File:YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. CAMP ACTIVITIES LCCN2016868875.tif|thumb|A YMCA library in [[Charleston, South Carolina]]]]
[[File:YMCA May Building in Huntington West Virginia late at night in February 2022.jpg|thumb|A YMCA in [[Huntington, West Virginia]] in 2022]]
In 1891, [[James Naismith]], a Canadian American, invented [[basketball]] while studying at YMCA International Training School in [[Springfield, Massachusetts]] (later to be named [[Springfield College]]). Naismith had been asked to invent a new game in an attempt to interest pupils in physical exercise. The game had to be interesting, easy to learn, and easy to play indoors in winter.

In 1895, [[William G. Morgan]] from YMCA of [[Holyoke, Massachusetts]], invented the sport of [[volleyball]] as a slower-paced alternative sport, in which the older YMCA members could participate.

In 1930, Juan Carlos Ceriani from YMCA of [[Montevideo]], Uruguay, invented the sport of [[futsal]], an indoor version of [[Association football|football]], having been created in synthesis with the rules of the three indoor sports of [[American handball|handball]], basketball and [[water polo]].

YMCA also organizes fitness, wellness, and help and awareness programs. One of the programs is the Diabetes Prevention Program, in which trained staff members help diabetics to make their lives healthier and more active.<ref>{{cite web |last=Rosenberg |first=Tina |date=2014-07-03 |title=At a YMCA Near You, a Course for a Diabetic Nation |url=https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/03/at-a-ymca-near-you-a-course-for-a-diabetic-nation/ |access-date=2019-06-06 |website=Opinionator |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== Publishing ===
{{Main|YMCA Press}}

YMCA founded YMCA Press [[publishing house]] in Russia in 1900. It moved to Paris after [[World War I]], where it focused on providing intellectual and educational works to Russian [[émigré]]s. YMCA Press published some of [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]]'s books while he was imprisoned by the Russian government.<ref name="Raeff1990">{{cite book |last=Marc Raeff |url=https://archive.org/details/russiaabroadcult00raef_0 |title=Russia Abroad: A Cultural History of the Russian Emigration, 1919-1939 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-19-505683-9 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/russiaabroadcult00raef_0/page/78 78] |url-access=registration}}</ref>

=== Religion ===
The first YMCA included [[Bible]] studies, although the organization has generally moved on to a more [[secular]] approach to youth work. Around six years after its birth, an international YMCA conference in Paris decided that the objective of the organization should become "[[Disciple (Christianity)|Christian discipleship]] developed through a program of religious, educational, social and physical activities" (Binfield 1973:265).

=== Sports ===
{{Further|YMCA Baseball Team}}

Sports offered at YMCAs include [[baseball]], [[basketball]], [[gymnastics]], [[American football|football]], [[karate]], [[racquetball]], [[soccer]], [[volleyball]], [[Scholastic wrestling|wrestling]], and others.<ref name=":7" />

==== Aquatics ====
Aquatics offered at YMCAs range from recreational classes to [[competitive swimming]]. Classes are offered for parent-child, preschool, youth, family, teen and adult, arthritics classes, and other water therapies. Certain YMCAs also offer a special Olympic swim class or swim team. [[CPR]] and first aid classes are offered to employees and the public. Away from swim classes, individuals can also take [[water polo]] lessons, water fitness lessons, or take part in the open swim times where families can swim in a lane to themselves.<ref name=":7" />

==== Basketball ====
{{Further|History of basketball}}

In 1891, [[basketball]] was invented at the YMCA in [[Springfield, Massachusetts]], by [[James Naismith]], a clergyman, educator, and physician.<ref>{{cite web |last=Smith |first=Daniel |date=30 January 2018 |title=History Lesson: Early basketball at YMCA |url=https://eu.courierpress.com/story/life/2018/01/30/history-lesson-early-basketball-ymca/1077521001/ |access-date=2 January 2018 |website=Courier & Press}}</ref> Naismith was asked to create an indoor "athletic distraction" to keep rowdy youth busy in the cold [[New England]] winter months. [[Luther Gulick (physician)]], the head of Springfield YMCA gave Naismith two weeks to come up with a game to occupy a particularly incorrigible group. Naismith decided the game had to be physically active, simple to understand and would have minimal physical roughness.

The first contest was played at the International YMCA Training School in December 1891.<ref name=":4">{{Cite news |title=How The YMCA Helped Shape America |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/06/02/410532977/how-the-ymca-helped-shape-america |access-date=2020-04-16 |newspaper=NPR |date=2 June 2015 |language=en|last1=Weeks |first1=Linton }}</ref> During those earliest games the school's custodian, "whose antipathy to the students was well known," retrieved successful shots from the baskets – using a ladder.<ref name=":5">{{cite journal |date=7 February 1931 |title=Article |journal=The Statesman of Salem, Oregon}}</ref> The original game was played with a soccer ball and two peach baskets nailed to the balcony of Springfield YMCA. The game was an immediate hit, although originally the baskets still had their bottoms, and the ball had to be manually retrieved after each score, considerably slowing play. It was mostly a passing game, and dribbling did not become a major part of the game until much later, when the ball was improved to its present form.

Gulick worked with Naismith to spread the sport, chairing the Basketball Committee of the [[Amateur Athletic Union]] (1895–1905) and representing the [[United States Olympic Committee]] during the [[1908 Olympic Games]]. Naismith and his wife attended the [[1936 Summer Olympics]] when basketball was included for the first time as an Olympic event.<ref>{{cite book |last=Loucky, Wallechinsky |first=David and Jamie |title=The Complete Book of the Olympics |publisher=Aurum Press Limited |year=2008 |location=London |pages=399–400}}</ref> For his efforts to increase the popularity of basketball and of [[physical fitness]] in general, Gulick was inducted into the [[Basketball Hall of Fame]] as a contributor in 1959.

==== Futsal ====
{{Further|Futsal}}

"Futsal" started in 1930 when Juan Carlos Ceriani [fr], a teacher in [[Montevideo]], Uruguay, created a version of indoor football (football is called "soccer" in the United States) for recreation in YMCAs.<ref>{{cite web|title=Futsal History|url=https://www.usyouthfutsal.com/futsal-history|access-date=2020-12-29|website=www.usyouthfutsal.com}}</ref> This new sport was originally developed for playing on basketball courts, and a rule book was published in September 1933.{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}} Football was already highly popular in the country and after Uruguay won the 1930 World Cup and gold medals in the 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics, it attracted even more practitioners. Ceriani's goal was to create a team game that could be played indoor or outdoor but that was similar to football.

The YMCA spread the game immediately throughout South America. It was easily played by everyone, everywhere, and in any weather condition, without any difficulty, helping players to stay in shape all year round. These reasons convinced João Lotufo, a Brazilian, to bring this game to his country and adapt it to the needs of physical education.{{Citation needed|date=August 2020}}

==== Gymnastics ====
[[Gymnastics]] came to be at the YMCA in 1869. Three YMCAs, those in [[Boston]], [[San Francisco]], and the 23rd Street Branch in [[New York City]], each constructed buildings with gyms inside. These gyms then allowed men to train on the sport of gymnastics. Most of the men who knew gymnastics, however, were circus performers and did not fit the ideas and values of the YMCA. [[Robert J. Roberts]] was one of the original circus performers at the Boston YMCA in the 1870s and 1880s, but he was hurt in a fall and could not perform or teach gymnastics. This led him to start the group exercises that exist currently at YMCAs.<ref>{{cite web|title=YMCA and Early Gymnastics|url=http://ynationals.weebly.com/ymca-and-early-gymnastics.html|access-date=2021-11-15|website=History of YMCA National Gymnastics Championships|language=en}}</ref> Even though Robert stopped teaching gymnastics in Boston, the YMCA in [[Salem, Massachusetts]] was creating the sport of gymnastics, holding boy/men classes as far back as 1895, where they learned [[Parallel bars|parallel]] and horizontal bars, [[Pommel horse|German horse]], mat exercises, [[juggling]], and [[Weight training|weight lifting]]. They would then train to perform for an audience.

A few years later, gymnastics began to filter out of the YMCA as other group sports, such as [[basketball]] and [[volleyball]], became more popular. Gymnastics as we know it today started at the Marblehead/Swampscott YMCA in [[Massachusetts]]. Compared to the other YMCAs who were stopping the sport of gymnastics held group classes in their basketball gym. They had to break down their equipment each day until their program was moved to the [[Salem State College]] in 1990. Salem State had recently dropped their college team, and the youth director at the YMCA went to see about expanding their program by renting the colleges space. Since then, two of the Marblehead/Swampscott gymnasts have gone on to be named all-American gymnasts and placed in the top five at the National Championships. The team has also placed in the top 10 at several National Championships.<ref name=":6">{{cite web|last=Lyons|first=Stephanie|title=Gymnastics, an Olympic favorite, evolves with YMCA|url=https://www.salemnews.com/archives/gymnastics-an-olympic-favorite-evolves-with-ymca/article_559adf31-652c-5034-a828-e30deaad14c6.html|access-date=2021-11-15|website=Salem News|date=18 July 2008 |language=en}}</ref>

YMCAs around the world now offer gymnastics to boys and girls of a variety of ages. Equipment now ranges from the men's events of pommel horses, parallel bars and the men's high rail to the [[uneven bars]], [[balance beam]]s, [[vault (gymnastics)|vault systems]] and [[trampoline]]s. These YMCAs now offer camps, lessons and teams in gymnastics and [[cheerleading]] and [[tumbling (gymnastics)|tumbling]].<ref name=":6" />

==== Racquetball ====
[[Racquetball]] is another YMCA-invented sport. [[Joseph Sobek]] a tennis, handball and squash player who worked in a rubber manufacturing factory, was dissatisfied with the options for indoor sports in [[Greenwich, Connecticut]]. He could not find squash players of his caliber and he did not care particularly for handball, so in 1950 he designed a short, stringed racquet, used a children's toy rubber ball, and created rules for a new game using the handball courts. He called his new sport "paddle rackets". The sport really took off in the 1970s and there are an estimated 15&nbsp;million players worldwide today.<ref>"Popular sports invented at YMCA" by Jill Fandrich, 25 May 2009</ref>

==== Volleyball ====
{{Further|Volleyball}}

Four years after James Naismith invented basketball in [[Springfield, Massachusetts]], in 1891, [[William G. Morgan]], an instructor at YMCA in [[Holyoke, Massachusetts]], wanted to create a game for older gentlemen which had less physical contact. He borrowed a tennis net, raised it 6 feet, 6 inches above the floor, and invented the game of "mintonette", which could be played by a group of any number and involved volleying a large ball over the net. An observer suggested that a better name for the new sport would be "volleyball".{{citation needed|date=July 2023}} In 1912, [[J. Howard Crocker]] introduced volleyball to schools and YMCA locations in China.{{efn|name=fn2|The [[Fédération Internationale de Volleyball]] credits Crocker for introducing volleyball to China via the YMCA.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fivb.com/en/volleyball/thegame_glossary/history|title=History – Volleyball|year=2022|website=[[Fédération Internationale de Volleyball]]|access-date=January 28, 2023|archive-date=December 4, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221204142733/https://www.fivb.com/en/volleyball/thegame_glossary/history|url-status=live}}</ref> Crocker wrote in a letter than the introduction of volleyball to China occurred in 1912.<ref>{{cite news|title=Another Letter From J. H. Crocker|date=June 25, 1912|newspaper=[[Brantford Expositor]]|location=Brantford, Ontario|page=10|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-brantford-daily-expositor-crocker-19/123388791/|access-date=May 28, 2023|archive-date=April 28, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230428081517/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-brantford-daily-expositor-crocker-19/123388791/|url-status=live}}</ref>}}