Planning for the New YMCA Global Strategy

Preparing for the YMCA Global Strategic Plan

Between the 31^st October and 4^th November 2016 some forty people from across the YMCA Global Family gathered in the YMCA Europe Training Centre In a little place called Litomysl in Eastern Bohemia, Czech Republic to begin to formulate the drafting a new strategic plan.

This new plan will build on the two previous plans and will cover the period from 2018 to 2022.

There were six participants from England. Jason Stacey, Richard Hughes and Ken Montgomery from YMCA England, Dave Ball from Thames Gateway in his role as Chair of the World Urban Network Terry Radcliffe from Blackburn YMCA in his role as Chair of the John R Mott Fund in Geneva and Gerald Chifamba, formerly of Coventry & Warwickshire YMCA. Gerald, who is a YMCA Youth Ambassador, is the joint lead globally on the YMCA Resource Group on Health.

The participants divided into groups to cover various areas of the draft plan.

These area included, The overall strategy, the element which covered, engagement, the development of buildings on major Cities across the world, the second phase of ‘One Million Voices’ Research, Communication and Fundraising.

I will not go into detail at this time but some of the highlights will include.

Key Focus of the future plan to be on ‘Youth Empowerment’.

Internally we will concentrate on ‘Movement Unity & Sustainability’.

Externally we will concentrate on ‘Collective Global Impact’.

There is some really exciting elements in the details such as the next period of the research concentrating on qualitative research, the possibility of the Harlem Globe Trotters getting involved the next World Challenge and recruiting the next cohort of the Global Change Agents.

The plan time scale is to go out to consultation across global movements during the next few months with the final strategy going to the World Council in 2018 in Chiang Mai Thailand.