SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Together we are ensuring access and inclusion so that everyone has a chance to succeed and belong.
At the Y, we recognize that for our communities to succeed everyone must be given the opportunity to be healthy, confident, connected and secure. We provide a welcoming network of support, where everyone can find the encouragement and tools they need to be successful regardless of age, ethnicity, ability or income. With our doors open to all, we work every day to ensure that everyone has a place to belong at the Y.
Thanks to the generosity of our donors, these are just a few of the ways we ensure access and inclusion so that everyone has a chance to succeed and belong across the Kishwaukee Family YMCA's footprint:
CAMP POWER PARTNER
Camp Power is a free, collaborative summer program offered on-site to children and families living in the University Village housing development (DeKalb). This culturally relevant, multi-dimensional wellness program offers an academic academy, daily nutritious lunch service, structured physical activities, nutrition education, layered mentoring, life skills training, family engagement activities, employment opportunities to parents, walking field trips to nearby recreation sites, exposure to a range of community resources, and daily interaction with police officers.
LIVE HEALTHY DEKALB COUNTY
The Active Transportation Comittee of Live Healthy DeKalb County helped facilitate the completion of the 300' stretch of sidewalk on Bethany Road from the YMCA to Health Services Drive. This was the "missing link" to be able to ride off street all the way along Bethany Rd. & connecting to the trail system.
The Healthy Food and Beverage Committee of Live Healthy DeKalb County has focused their efforts on creating the Food Security Council, that brings local food pantries, senior service agencies and community members together to address food issues in DeKalb County. The main goal is to ensure that DeKalb County residents have access to the food they need.
FOOD PROGRAMS
The Y believes all children deserve the opportunity to learn, grow and thrive- and nothing is more fundamental to this opportunity than consistant access to healthy meals. That is why we collaborated with Wal-Mart Foundation and Voluntary Action Center (VAC) this past summer to serve 10,215 meals to 1,185 kids through the Summer Food Service Program.
This past fall we extended our Summer Food Service Program, with the help of the Northern Illinois Food Bank and USDA's Child Adult Care Food Program and began providing healthy meals to the participants in our afterschool program at School District CUSD #428. No child should have to worry where their next meal will come from.