S1 Past, present and future Our Y Print for growth, development and - - PDF document

S1 Past, present and future – Our Y Print for growth, development and impact Ron Mell Chief Executive Officer YMCA Australia S2 Our Shared Vision “We are making a positive difference by providing each and every person with

• pportunity to be healthy, happy and connected.”

Andrew has given us a very clear picture of the strategic work that the National Board commenced in 2012 and is continuing this coming year and a glimpse of where we might be when he talked about his own vision and aspirations for the YMCA Movement. As part of the professional staff team - it’s a great privilege to be working with volunteers like Andrew and those that we have on the National Board and on all of

• ur Boards around the country. The diversity of opinion, the diversity of knowledge

and experience and common commitment and vision enriches this Movement. Andrew has outlined the four key strategic areas that YMCA Australia will focus on

• ver this coming year and I will provide more context to that and I hope I will also

challenge you in respect of where we need to go, particularly in relation to the Movement seriously addressing our Vision as Andrew explained so well. For over 160 years the Y in Australia as elsewhere in the world has continued to reinvent itself and both globally and nationally we are continuing to do this. At a global level under Johan Eltvik’s and Ken Colloton’s leadership and now under Peter Posner’s and Johan’s leadership, that ongoing change and re-inventiveness continues. S3 Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! 45 of you attended the World Council quadrennial meeting in Colorado in July and saw this first hand. You saw a sharp focus on youth empowerment and a framework to support this through the global Movement’s model of SPACE, TRANSFORMATION and IMPACT. Here’s Ali (Alicia Crawford). S4 Joy! Joy! Joy! You would have also seen close to 200 change agents including our own Alicia Crawford become the face of this change, leading the change process and in so doing ensuring that the leadership provided by the World Council and World Alliance is deeply rooted in our young people.

At that meeting Alan Morton was elected to the World Council Executive Committee and he will build on our relationships with the World Alliance and other national YMCA Movements. Peter Malone is another who has built our international

• partnerships. He is a Vice President on APAY and has had a strong influence in

supporting the development of APAY and its national YMCAs. But in this the global Movement, at its highest level, is leading change, leading innovation and reminding us of where our origins lie, in empowering young people. S5 WUN support for Ghana The other major global YMCA body, The world Urban Network, is also starting to take a strong leadership role, in a programmatic sense. And they are working with the World Alliance and taking on a number of big inspiring projects with international significance. For example working with the World Alliance they are starting to map out the assets

• f the Movement globally, and identify assets which are underutilised. Assets such

as in Ghana where options are being considered for property which is being underutilised. S6 Global Digital Accelerator Project And this exciting Global digital accelerator project which YMCAs of Victoria, Perth and Australia are working with other YMCAs and the WUN The world is changing and the YMCA Movement is changing with it. Have a look at this! YMCA Imagine a Better World Online - YGDA - YouTube S9 Our five strategic priorities

• Extending our reach
• Inspiring our people
• Strengthening our Movement
• Increasing our Impact
• Building our Brand

In 2013 as Andrew discussed we started to focus on these five strategic priority areas and we’ve continued to do so. This has led us to think about our Movement strengthening as part of a longer term plan, We’ve started to move from short term 1 to 2 year horizons to 5, 10 and longer term

• nes.

Some years back we had a conversation called 2050 and we started to look beyond a 1 to 2 year plan. We need to continue that outlook. S10 2012 – 2015 Healthy Living Empowering Young People Social Impact And then through a number of influences, including the work of the World Alliance, the national brand leadership team and through more and more open discussions about our key areas of influence and impact, we bought the national focus to three key areas and I’ll go through these in a little more detail. S12 Inspiring Healthy living Contract management of recreation and aquatic centres is still important to us. That focus represented the last big programmatic change in the Movement’s history, when we moved away from the corner gym and basketball court to managing local government facilities. Now we are seeking new ways to provide opportunities for people – to live healthy, active and community involved lives and I think we are at the cusp of another great change in the way we deliver services and impact communities. The Virtual Y program and HeartMoves are just two national programs which are currently being developed and which will extend our reach and impact. You’ll hear more of these programs tomorrow when Michael Bailey and the national leadership team present on them and on promoting strategy and programs around Healthy Living. And beginning in the New Year, YMCA Australia will bring into its executive team, more resources focused on building our advocacy and national programming around preventative health, health promotion and healthy living strategies. S13 Inspiring Youth Empowerment

• Change Agents

There are many youth programs operating at a local level, meeting local community

• need. We need to bring a national profile to this and the appointment of Alicia

Crawford as you’ve just heard, adds a tremendous resource to bringing a voice to

• ur young people across Australia.

There are more exciting projects underway:

YMCA Victoria is exploring a youth empowerment centre and is starting a conversation with YMCA Australia around this. YMCA Perth is discussing drawing on its young staff to provide an advisory group to the CEO as a means of empowerment The National Council of Youth Parliaments continues to develop. And you’ve heard from Alicia Crawford on her ideas and vision for a national youth

• voice. And early in the new year we plan to bring together staff and volunteers for

workshop to provide their ideas to Alli and others around empowering young people. And if we truly want to empower and to lead change, we will invest in the new change agent process over the next four years. S14 Inspiring Impact

• Local program initiatives
• Social Impact Leadership team

We’ve recognised that simply saying how big we’re getting is not the sole measure of

• ur impact on communities and that we need to look beyond this.

Communities and funders are demanding this and we now recognise that we need something else as well. The work YMCA Australia, through the leadership team, has commenced, on a national social impact measurement framework, is the catalyst for change in this area. On Tuesday, YMCA Australia facilitated a one day workshop in Melbourne in partnership with Good Beginnings and Family Life. It demonstrated to me that the work all of us within the Movement have started, goes way beyond simply measuring impact. Of the 40 who attended, over 9i0% were external and the vast majority represented national bodies. It provided a great

• pportunity for the Y to lift its profile with others within the national NFP sector.

We have the opportunity to be a leader in facilitating change within the sector and we are beginning to be seen as such, not necessarily as an organisation which is leading the field, but as an organisation which is prepared to share, collaborate and take a leadership role for the benefit of the sector. S15 Where does YMCA fit within Australian community? So ….the challenging bit. Andrew has articulated clearly our strategies and our direction within our current mission and vision. But is this enough?- Remember our vision refers to us making a positive difference by providing each and every person with opportunity to be healthy, happy and connected Andrew talked about the expectation of a structural review and how the Terms of Reference for that review will be so important. One reason is that either within that review or separate to it, there needs to be an opportunity to reflect on what it is we want to achieve strategically and how we need to go about it. Tomorrow there is a session on child protection. We are at this point with child protection because our values have dictated our drive and urgency around child protection

and so it is perhaps our values that we should start with when we ask…where are we going, how do we get there and are we doing enough? S16 Our values Our values stand out as a way forward in further defining our future and our vision. These values shout out the obvious answer. They do not just talk about your YMCA! They do not just talk about the YMCA Movement. These values refer us to others, to the people we serve. These values talk about:

• The whole person, consisting of a body, a mind and a spirit each of which is of

equal importance.

• The Dignity and intrinsic worth of all people regardless of age, gender, ethnicity,

belief or other difference.

• Diversity Of people, communities and nations.
• Equality Of opportunity and justice for all people.
• Healthy communities based on relationships between people which are

characterised by love, understanding and mutual respect.

• Acceptance Of personal responsibility.

S17 Why empathy matters “I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I Myself become the wounded person.” ― Walt Whitman, Song Of Myself “Empathy Foreshadows reform.” ― Derrick A. Bell, Faces At The Bottom Of The Well: The Permanence Of Racism So when considering our vision and what we want this Movement to be in 5, 10 or 20 years’ time a start might be to stand in the shoes of the people that our values ask us to put first. For example, can you put yourself into the shoes of : Perhaps a child living in a remote community The unemployed Those with mental health issues Those with modern day health issues Those who are just sick Older people Families Good looking people Refugees People with disabilities Even other YMCA people S20 Summary:

Andrew talked about the growing rate of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental health issues etc. The point is that these people are people who are a part of our vision! Our values say that they are. Our vision and our mission say they are a part of who we are. So to take up the message that Andrew gave, the work that has to be done is not so much about understanding our communities but in building ways in which to extend

• ur reach…so that all are included.

Our reach is not far. Our reach is generally dependant on minimal government funding, minimal philanthropy and fundraising and is often subject to whether there is anything left in our budget after complying with our contractual obligations to Council. And what we do with what we have now is simply amazing! But if we are to truly meet our values, if we are to truly meet our mission and vision, we must find other ways to resource and structure ourselves so that we truly will be accessible to all and can reach all. I believe that this next decade will see this as being the main challenge we face…extending our reach and our impact and being accessible to all. S21 – 28 various maps showing obesity rates via Medicare Local data You can overlay YMCA locations across a whole range of these sort of maps and you will find the same reality. We need to do more. This isn’t about showing up YMCAs, this is simply demonstrating that the way we currently provide services isn’t enough if we are to truly have an impact on society. We need to find different avenues and ways of accessing those communities. The YMCA data by the way has been drawn from our insurance data. Of course we draw on people from outside our geographical areas but I think the point remains, we need to consider, bearing in mind our vision, whether we need to find new ways to extend our reach, especially beyond physical locations. S29 Governance & Structural change To So how are we shaping up on this journey? We now have a new subscription and voting model, we have sharpened the focus of the national office and we have commenced a governance and structural change, firstly through the amendments that are being proposed at the AGM and secondly through the work that we started in 2012 and which we will continue over the coming two years including a review of the constitution, a new IP and License agreement and further development of the Movement Plan. As Andrew said there is also an

expectation we will commence a review of structure in the context of understanding

• ur strategic direction and goals and being in a position to achieve those goals.

We have to ask ourselves though how these changes support YMCAs impacting communities in better ways and in reaching the broader demographics that I talked about earlier. There are obvious ones such as stronger brand recognition, consistent standards. But it goes further than that in that the changes we are making also allow for greater national impact. If we can retain the diversity the creativity, the local connection that we have now while being able to deliver nationally, we will have much greater impact and much greater reach…..this is one piece of the puzzle in finding new ways to extend our reach. Strategically we will build on the work started in 2012 in our strategic areas of focus and: Continue to build national programs and seek Commonwealth and national partners for their implementation. Finally commence a national advocacy program to provide greater access to our programs Continue to build our social impact measurement framework so that we and our stakeholders understand the impact and can improve on the impact we have on communities and people. Continue to shine the light on our collective story through our national brand framework Continue to draw on the amazing expertise and resources of the Movement through

• ur national leadership working groups.

And most importantly, look at our strategies in the light of our values and our vision. S30 Impact strategies Just as the World Alliance is delivering major strategic change, so must we continue to, so as to remain relevant and impactful. We are at an exciting time, - we cannot afford to work in isolation, - we must respond to the challenges facing our society in a holistic way and as one Movement. We must maintain the elements of the federation and the creativity and responsiveness that that brings, while being able to capitalise on our strength as one Movement. We must place ourselves in the shoes of those we wish to serve. By doing that we, as our forefathers did from the very beginning, will remain attuned to the needs of

• ur communities and relevant.

S32 Our Convention I hope that you will find these next two days will inspire you to think about the challenges, the potential the opportunities that this YMCA Movement has before us and some of the themes that Andrew and I have discussed this morning. Your convention has 3 main themes, building on Alli’s presentation this morning - and the challenges that we have put before you.

They are Values & Vision - Building on our existing strategic priorities and - structure and Governance. You’ll hear from Tris Lumley, Jacki Whitwell and the National Leadership Team on Social Impact and you’ll see how our work on impact is absolutely tied to our values, vision and strategy. You’ll hear from Peter Posner on values and governance, some of the learnings from YMCA England and again a challenge to you about who we are. Continuing from the 2012 convention and 2013 AGM we’ll also have the opportunity to revisit our developing national Brand framework. We’ve already heard from Alli and we’ll hear more from others including Ang Cuy and Purdy Eades on youth empowerment. And Michael Bailey will facilitate a session on our other key priority area of focus, Health and wellness. Alongside of this we’ll also listen to Howard Bath, Commissioner for Children in the NT and the national leadership teams work in bringing the national child protection policy to this point. And finally we’ll check in on the work being done around the standards and licensing with Melinda Crole and Peter Malone.