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YMCA presents Beacons after‑school program to Roanoke council, seeks city partnership
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Summary
The YMCA of Virginia's Blue Ridge described the Beacons Initiative — after‑school and summer programming for middle‑school students at James Madison and Lucy Addison (and potentially Fishwick), free to families and funded by grants and donations — and asked the city for partnership as funding wanes.
The YMCA of Virginia’s Blue Ridge briefed Roanoke City Council on June 17 about the Beacons Initiative, an after‑school and summer program targeted at middle‑school students. Jonathan Patch, branch executive director for the Gainsborough YMCA, said the program provides supervised after‑school care from about 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., workshops with partners (including Virginia Western and the Jefferson Music Lab), and summer camp with free YMCA membership for participating students.
Patch said the program began as a strategic initiative in 2019 and grew from a pilot at Addison to multiple sites; registrations rose from roughly 70 in the first year to 148 in the following year for the school‑year program, with 37 students already registered for the upcoming Beacon summer camp and a summer capacity of about 50. "When we first started in 2022, we had 70 registrations for regular school year… The following year, we had 148 registrations," Patch said.
Council members asked about eligibility, capacity and transportation. Patch said the YMCA works with Roanoke City Schools (providing teachers and using school counselors to identify students who would otherwise "fall through the cracks"), offers free registration and a free YMCA membership for participants, and provides transportation from RCPS summer sites to the Kirk Family YMCA for its summer program.
Several councilors praised the program’s role in youth engagement and violence prevention; Vice Mayor Cobb asked whether expansion to all middle schools was a long‑term goal, and Patch said the YMCA is in talks with district leaders and that wider expansion is contingent on funding. The YMCA requested that the city consider partnering or aligning initiatives to sustain and expand the program as outside funding declines.
The council thanked the YMCA for the presentation and asked staff to follow up on opportunities for partnership.
