YMCA Heritage

YMCA has a long heritage of repeatedly innovating to build the relevant social infrastructure of the age.

Education

First organisation to offer communal spaces through Bible Studies Group - as an alternative to pubs and gambling houses.

Inclusive Membership

First society to offer membership across social and racial classes.

Reaching Scale

Public lectures to large audiences with further reach through widely distributed printed copies. Invested in Exeter Hall, the Strand in 1880 to continue lecture series.

Physical Wellbeing

Encorporated physical fitness in programme to create the first gym, led to the invention of Basketball and Volleyball.

Welfare Services

Provided support to soldiers during the war (postal service and tea canteens to encourage story-telling) and after, setting up a post-war employment office in London

Vocational Training / Development

George Williams College, a leading institution for informal education and professional youth workers is set up