About the YMCA
The YMCA was founded in London, England, in 1844 in response to unhealthy social conditions arising in big cities at the end of the Industrial Revolution. Growth of railroads and centralization of industry and commerce brought many rural young men who needed jobs into cities like London.
George Williams was one of these young men. He was born on a farm and moved to London 20 years later to work at a draper’s shop, a forerunner of today’s department store. He and a group of fellow drapers organized the first YMCA to substitute Bible study and prayer for life on the streets. The Y has always been nonsectarian and accepts all faiths.
The YMCA idea spread rapidly. In 1851, the first YMCA in this country was started in Boston. Two years later the St. Louis YMCA was founded in the Second Baptist Church, as noted by the Missouri Republic on October 20, 1853, “It is our privilege to record the beginnings of an enterprise, which contains in it the germs of more good to St. Louis than any undertaking which has ever been entered upon here.” In 2003, the YMCA will celebrate 150 years of service to the Greater St. Louis community.
YMCA Inventions
Two major sports, basketball and volleyball, were born at the YMCA. A Y instructor created the first group swimming lesson, and the Y was the first to establish certification programs for lifesaving, swimming and aquatic instruction. The YMCA also pioneered and greatly expanded summer camping, night school, vocational counseling, adult education, college student services, and junior college.
YMCA World Service workers were forerunners of Peace Corps volunteers. The YMCA assisted in the formation of other major voluntary groups such as Boy Scouts, Camp Fire, and the USO. Y Indian Guides, a parent/child program, was created in 1926 at St. Louis' very own South Side YMCA.
Scope of Today’s YMCA
The YMCA movement is now the largest not-for-profit provider in the United States, serving 16 million Americans. YMCAs are also at work in more than 130 countries. In St. Louis, the YMCA operates 21 branches, including a resident camp/retreat center, to meet the health and social service needs of men, women and children of all faiths, races, abilities, ages and incomes. No one is turned away for inability to pay. One of the YMCA's greatest strengths is in the people it brings together.
Eighty-two hundred volunteers support the YMCA of Greater St. Louis as program leaders and board members. Core programs include swimming lessons, wellness and fitness, child care, camping, sports, and teen leadership.
