Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Community Services Ymca topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Shasta Family YMCA tells Redding council it is expanding youth meals, swim and preschool programs
Summary
Kristen Lyons described growth at the Shasta Family YMCA, including after‑school teen services, summer meal expansion and a Montessori preschool planned for January; she asked the council to note the Y's community role and invited members to the 80th anniversary next year.
Kristen Lyons, who runs the Shasta Family YMCA, told the Redding City Council on Oct. 23 that the nonprofit has seen membership growth and is expanding services for youth and families.
Lyons said the Y now serves more than 9,000 members — “over 10% of the population” — and that its teen programs are heavily used. “We have teenagers coming every day after school. We have 300 teenagers registered and we get about 125 youth every day coming to the YMCA. There they get nutritious meals,” Lyons said.
She told the council many of the meals are the teens' last meal of the day, and described onsite laundry and case‑management partnerships for youth who lack stable homes. Lyons said the Y will add in‑house case managers to better connect participants to services.
Lyons also described the Y's summer feeding work and a plan to double daily summer meals with outside funding. She said the Y partners with 10 local schools to teach swimming as part of drowning‑prevention work and offers free swim lessons in May. “Formal lessons will reduce drowning by 88 percent,” she said.
On adult programming, Lyons emphasized social and mental‑health offerings — group exercise, support groups and new stress‑management classes — and noted the Y gives about $300,000 a year in financial assistance so people are not turned away because of inability to pay.
Lyons said the Shasta Family YMCA's campus covers roughly 6.5 acres and 65,000 square feet and that the organization is governed by a volunteer board. She invited council members to an 80th anniversary celebration planned for next September.
Council members toured the Y before the meeting and asked brief follow‑up questions about childcare and the planned Montessori preschool, which Lyons said will begin in January.
