ED@Work: The YMCA Retreat
On Tuesday October 4th, Out of Hand hosted an Equitable Dinner for members of the YMCA Retreat at Zoo Atlanta to help the YMCA consider ways to expand their reach towards teens and young adults.
In attendance were over 150 guests from the YMCA representing their different departments and approximately 19 facilitators, including Adria Kitchens and Gerard Eglitis, to help facilitate the conversations between all the guests.
The dinner began with a play written by Gerard Eglitis titled Reflections, detailing the inner thoughts of an employee disgruntled with how kids are being mistreated by adults and how his organization can help with making kids feel welcome instead of adding to the continued mistreatment. After the play, the dinners launched into guided conversations centered around the overall theme:
What can the YMCA do differently to increase their outreach towards teenagers and young adults?
Guests shared their experiences with teens and young adults in order to establish a starting point in the conversation, referencing how the play made them think about their own experience of seeing and hearing about teens being mistreated by staff and other YMCA members. The conversation also revolved around the idea that teens and young adults are going to act their age and shouldn’t be judged for being themselves. Other factors were introduced in the conversation, including how the pandemic affected their developmental years, the increase in socio-political division, and how racism adds to the feeling of ostracization.
Understanding the issues facing young people today led to impactful solutions presented by guests, including highlighting the success stories of the YMCA and presenting a more welcoming atmosphere for young people in their facilities.
With the completion of this Equitable Dinner, Out of Hand successfully fostered constructive conversations that the YMCA administration can think about as the organization moves forward to make the YMCA more open for incoming teens and young adults.