2022 Annual Report

Philanthropy – Contributions – Generous Gifts

Helene Weir
President and CEO

We are truly grateful that in 2022 nearly 1,800 Metropolitan Detroiters generously contributed over a million dollars ($1,020,000) to the Make Every Day Better annual campaign. These funds allow the YMCA to provide scholarships to children and families to access Y services including swim lessons, childcare, summer camp, youth sports, academic enrichment and more.

Another 156 individuals invested in the future of the Y mission by contributing over 10.2 million dollars to the Revitalize and Thrive campaign to support facility improvements and our robust community initiatives concentrated in: high school completion, water safety, and arts education.

We are very thankful for a million dollar bequest from the estate of Susan Webb. Susan Webb was a dedicated advocate and supporter of the children of our Y for a quarter of a century. Susan Webb was a long time YMCA board member and served in emeritus status the remainder of her life.

Our flagship fund development event of the year is our Legacy Golf Classic. It raised $300,000 to serve children and families.

We are, also, very appreciative of the public support we garnered. We recognize it is a privilege to be selected as stewards of public money.

2022 Public Funding

The YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit is extraordinarily grateful to have been selected by local, state, and federal agencies and departments to steward public dollars that create significant community impact.

In 2022, our YMCA was awarded over $6,000,000 to provide health and wellness, child/youth development, and family/community programs to over 17,000 children and families.

Key impact areas include:

• Providing over 10,000 youth and seniors 114,000 meals
• Providing career training and summer youth employment to 225 youth.
• Providing over 4,000 children with access to before, after school, and summer learning opportunities.

Academic Enrichment and Employment

		Outcomes – how Y used funds	Impact – community served
	High school completion and career readiness – $296,606	Provided year round academic support, counseling and career and life planning services	115
	Summer youth employment – $61,250	Provided paid summer internships and job training experiences	225
	Arts Education – Y Media Works – $21,000	Hired teaching artists and purchased consumables to provide media arts education to Detroit youth and arts educators	(212 youth, 64 adult)

Childcare and Afterschool

		Outcomes – how Y used funds	Impact – community served
	Healthy Out-of-School Time – $41,362	Provided nutrition education, healthy food access, and physical activity lessons (CATCH) in afterschool program	2,433
	Before/afterschool and Summer Day Camp – $707,500	Hired childcare staff, behavior specialists, and purchased supplies and curriculum	2,930
	Afterschool childcare stabilization (at approximately 40 sites) – $1,858,763	Hired childcare staff and purchased supplies	1,430
	Early learning center child care stabilization – Boll Family YMCA – $643,083	Hired childcare staff and purchased supplies	127
	Early learning center child care tuition assistance for preschoolers – $113,374	Hired certified preschool teachers and purchased educational supplies	15
	Early learning center child care tuition assistance for infants and toddlers – $334,642	Hired childcare staff and purchased supplies	22

Nutrition

		Outcomes – how Y used funds	Impact – community served
	Summer youth feeding program – $219,929	Provided snacks and meals to summer food site programs, hired staff and purchased food	900
	School year youth feeding program – $229,433	Provided snacks and meals to afterschool programs, hired staff and purchased food	9,400

Thank you for trusting us to be stewards of public dollars.

Finance – Funding – Earned Income

Michelle Kotas
Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Revenue is a key component in the YMCA’s ability to serve Metropolitan Detroit. Serving 50,000 people requires significant financial resources. While our YMCA still is very focused on garnering revenue streams to sustain our work for another 170 years, we pause to recognize key wins on our journey to financial sustainability. Our first full year of operation post pandemic delivered strong revenue growth.

• Total revenue grew 52%, or more than $7,500,000
• Program fee revenue grew 56%, or nearly $3,000,000
• Grant revenue grew by 136%, or nearly $3,000,000 as well

We even generated positive net membership unit growth in the fourth quarter of 2022 for the first time in more than a decade; which helped lay the foundation for positive membership growth in 2023.

The YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit is still on a journey to reach our financial goals; however, the growth in programs, membership and philanthropic revenue is a step in the right direction. Our ultimate aim is to grow forward.

2022 Financial Summary

January 1-December 31, 2022

Operating Activities

Operating Revenue

Contributions & Grants	$7,214,478
Membership & Program	14,239,297
Other	271,374
Total Operating Revenue	$21,725,149

Operating Expense

Youth Development	$8,998,239
Healthy Living	8,102,779
Social Responsibility	1,262,395
Management	5,389,205
Fundraising	862,690
Total Operating Expense	$24,615,308

Net Loss from Operating Activities ($2,890,159)

Non-Operating Activities

Capital and Other Contributions	$2,349,703
Restricted Grant Revenue	2,327,977
Investment Activity	(1,182,816)
Interest Expense	(444,572)
Depreciation Expense	(2,285,601)
Other	474,587
Net Income from Non-Operating Activities	$290,104

Net Loss ($2,600,055)

Communications – Awareness – Public Visibility

Latitia Thomas
Senior Vice President of Communications & Marketing

Sharing the YMCA story is about more than a 170-year-old community service organization; it is about sharing the stories of thousands of lives. This is best achieved by diversifying our message distribution, combining old school and new school tools from direct mail and special events to digital advertising across social, broadcast, and streaming platforms. Telling the story of the lives of incredible people committed to making every day better for themselves and others.

It is the story of:

Husband and wife, Miguel Aguirre and April Riker, and their children, Felix and Santiago, who have been members for over a decade, because they value the community they have found in the South Oakland Family YMCA. Their story is shared by thousands of Metropolitan Detroit families.

Brenda Franklin-Corbett, Aretha Franklin’s cousin and longtime background singer, who used her voice to help the YMCA celebrate its 170th anniversary. Brenda is one of thousands of YMCA partners and advocates who share their gifts and talents to help propel the YMCA mission.

You can learn more in this news clip for Michigan Matters, and check out a sample of her performance:

Human Resources – Teams – People Serving

Darcie West
Senior Vice President of Human Resources, Chief Human Resources Officer

People are the heart of the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit. Investing in our teams and creating optimal work environments is critical to offering the best possible experiences for the members and participants we serve every day. Our Human Resources team enhanced our employee recruitment and engagement initiatives to not only attract high quality candidates in a challenging recruiting environment, but retain top performers. Together, we worked to increase pay rates in a fiscally responsible manner, enabling the YMCA to be a more competitive employer. A core strategy is our commitment to “promote from within” and “grow our own,” creating new full-time, benefit-eligible positions for internal promotions. This allowed for newer, less experienced part-time employees to begin their full-time careers with the YMCA. In 2023, we ended the year with 680 employees; 154 full time and 526 part time. What is most impressive is that 203 of our team members have worked five or more years for our YMCA; this is absolutely incredible.

Key 2022 highlights include: being honored with the Crain’s Detroit Business Award for HR Excellence; Implementing new Diversity Inclusion Equity and Global (DIEG) initiatives that positively impacted staff, volunteers, and members. Collectively, these programs help build competent and engaging employees who genuinely are committed to delivering the Y mission.

And, finally, we rolled out new employee orientation and reinstituted our volunteer and college internship programs. In 2022, 587 volunteers supported YMCA programs, another 119 volunteers served as branch advisory board members, and 54 served as governance volunteers on our corporate board.

We are incredibly grateful for our staff and volunteers who make every day better.

Facilities – Spaces – Welcoming Places

Lorie Uranga
Senior Vice President of Properties and Purchasing

Two major YMCA renovations were completed in 2022 totaling over $1.1 million thanks to the generosity of MacKenzie Scott, John Boll, and a host of YMCA contributors. Several smaller renovations and facility maintenance projects were also executed valued at $600,000 for items including flooring, painting, lighting, and more.

The J.T. Mestdagh playground, located at the Boll Family YMCA, was completely renovated for the first time since it was originally constructed in 2005. In addition, Camp Ohiyesa’s dining hall is beaming with beautiful new energy efficient LED lighting to reflect off the gorgeous refinished hardwood flooring. The bath houses at camp were also renovated.

The signature renovation in 2022 was the extreme makeover of the South Oakland Family YMCA. Offices were relocated to the center of the building and Child Watch and group exercise classes were moved to the front end of the building. Now, South Oakland is a beacon on 11 Mile welcoming any passerby to join us. Beautiful birch wood is featured along the staircase handrails and stunning Y Logo located in the lobby. New flooring, fresh paint, new lighting, and walls throughout the building just scream…WELCOME, come JOIN the YMCA!

Community Initiatives – Outreach – Impact

Lynette Simmons
Vice President of Operations – Community Initiatives

Y work moves beyond YMCA buildings and extends into community centers, schools, and parks to provide equitable, quality programs by overcoming the barriers of cost and access. This work is made possible through funding and partnerships with schools, municipalities, foundations, and public and private organizations. In 2022, community initiatives was a collective of five focus areas:

1. Detroit Swims – Water Safety and drowning prevention and progressive swim lessons
2. Health Living and Life Skills – Y Nourish nutrition education and healthy food distribution
3. Metro Youth YMCA – (Achievers) Focused on High School Completion/Educational Enrichment/Youth in Government practical civics education. The Unity Project and Changemakers that empower youth voice in advocacy and change in their communities.
4. Y Arts – Multidisciplinary arts exhibition, education, and creation support children and adults
5. YMCA Positive Play Initiative (YPPI – pronounced Yippee) – Youth sports sampling and supervised play. Part of Project Play Southeast Michigan.

We are incredibly grateful for these 2022 success highlights:

• Receiving $2,000,000 over 3 years from the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation to support a seven county collaborative effort to mobilize sports sampling and free play in partnership with four YMCAs across Southeast Michigan.
• Receiving $1,000,000 over three years from The Farner Family Foundation to provide water safety and progressive swim lessons to 3,000 children.
• Distributing over 100,000 quality healthy meals to 1,000 children and seniors.
• Providing 6,000+ children opportunities to experience supervised play, academic enrichment, and arts education with caring adults at over 20 sites across the tri-county area.
• Serving as managing Partner with the Community Education Commission on Mayor Duggan’s GOAL Line Detroit After School Program. Providing over 300 children with 36 weeks of fun academically enriched after school services.

Membership – Programs – Engaging Opportunities

Kyle Anderson
Vice President of Operations – Membership

People are the heart of the YMCA and our members are the beat and the rhythm as they have been for over 170 years. Members are our lifeline; the essential force that enables the YMCA to exist. Delivering an incredible value for membership is a key priority to support retention. Our aim is creating lifelong members. The YMCA offers programs and services from cradle to career through the retirement years. We are continuously learning to meet our members’ needs. Our program offerings are dynamic and change based upon member input and available resources.

In 2022, we invested in Les Mills to provide our members with enhanced group exercise classes. We provided customer service training to ALL frontline staff with an emphasis on providing optimal customer service. We are constantly evaluating our staffing models to meet the changing needs of the members and participants. Instituting quality family programming was a primary focus in 2022. Ensuring every branch had a full time Youth and Family Program director was key. Also, creating regional executive level positions to oversee summer camp and year round programming was critical. This allowed our YMCA to expand program offerings to increase the value of the YMCA membership. Arts activities, increased Child Watch hours and family friendly classes like Zumba were offered. Early bird pricing, extended hours, priority registration for members, and more were all important deliverables. Membership grew as a result, attracting 12,000+ new memberships. This work is ongoing; truly never ending. Continuous improvement is embedded as our aim to help make every day better for those who join the YMCA.

Risk Management – Safety – Safe Spaces

Lisa Mullin
Vice President of Finance & Risk Management/Controller

Safety is the ultimate aim of our YMCA’s Risk Management department. Our prime directive is to keep all members, participants, staff, volunteers, vendors, and partners safe with a special focus on child safety.

Keeping children in our care safe is our highest priority across all our YMCA programs including: childcare, day camp, sports, aquatics, and all other youth development activities. In 2022, we participated in the YMCA of the USA child safety peer review. This review provided our Y the unique opportunity to have third party child safety experts review our practices and make recommendations for improvements. We view child safety as an area we will forever monitor and assess for continuous improvement.

Lastly, we instituted Origami as our new incident reporting system and transitioned our Aquatics safety, training, and certification to American Red Cross. This transition will allow our YMCA to attract additional qualified lifeguards and expand our aquatics programming.

You can learn more about our commitment to safety here.

Birmingham Family YMCA

Kelly Stubbe, Executive Director

There are hundreds of meaningful stories that celebrate human resilience at our Birmingham YMCA, stories about active older adults, working moms, summer campers, and more. However, 2022 is definitely the year of the Blue Dolphins.

In 2022, our Birmingham Blue Dolphins broke 20 program records!

• Ages 8 & Under broke 1 record [50 Breast]
• Ages 13-14 broke 3 records [100 Free, 1000 Free, and 200 Breast]
• Ages 15-18 broke 12 records [200 Free, 500 Free, 1000 Free, 1650 Free, 100 Fly, 100 Back, 100 Breast, 200 Breast, 400 IM, 200 Free Relay, 200 Medley Relay, 400 Medley Relay]
• Long Course Meters broke 4 records [200 Fly, 200 IM, 400 IM, 400 Free Relay]

The Birmingham Blue Dolphins swim program pushes every swimmer to work their hardest while instilling YMCA values along the way. BBD’s long-running history and success as a team is a testament to the hard work from coaches, athletes, and parents.

Boll Family YMCA

Rheanne Suszek, Executive Director

The Boll Family YMCA was a repast, in 2022, for many Detroiters returning back to work and visiting downtown post-COVID. Membership grew thanks to health seekers of all ages looking to connect with real people after months of isolation. You could see it in our group exercise classes and afternoons on our wellness center floor. It is evident by our waitlist for summer camp, swim lessons, and more.

Alisa Williams is a grandmother who was inspired to learn to swim by her 5-year-old granddaughter Reina Delois Pimental. Reina’s mom, Antoinette Willams, inspired by her mom Alisa, decided to learn to swim. So three generations of African American women learned to swim at the Boll Family YMCA! They are among many mothers and grandmothers who have taken the courageous step to learn to swim as adults.

Camping Services

Ryan Mertz, Executive Director

Sleep-away summer camps create lasting gains for kids in character values such as empathy, getting along with others, independence, and resilience. We believe that camp has the power to change the world; one child at a time. Every child, no matter who they are or where they are from, deserves the opportunity to reach their full potential.

Debbie Lesinski’s story captures the magic that is camp:

My son and daughter had their first overnight camping experience at Camp Ohiyesa last summer and both absolutely loved it! My 8 year old was very apprehensive about being away from home, but meeting the staff and touring the camp at the open house helped her relax tremendously. My 10 year old likely felt the same, but, being a boy, did not share that fact openly. We were moving and I became a single mom, so they were going through a lot of stressful changes. Camp, along with all the local YMCA activities that we are able to participate in, are a breath of fresh air! They have continued to fondly reflect on camp experiences and have been asking to go back to camp again and again. I remain grateful for the wonderful, upbeat staff and the safe, wholesome environments and activities they provide! Witnessing their smiles, excitement, increased confidence and restored wonder is priceless. Without the scholarship program, it would not have been possible for them both to participate.

Carls Family YMCA

Katie Kokko, Executive Director

The Carls Family YMCA celebrated 20 years serving the Milford community, in 2022, with a reception honoring the founders, volunteers, and donors. Another memorable highlight was relaunching the LIVESTRONG at the Y program. Eighteen (18) Cancer Warriors participated and graduated from LIVESTRONG at Carls. Lifelong friendships were made and all participants grew and progressed mentally and physically from the program; it was truly life changing.

Detroit Swims

In 2022, safety around water lessons were provided to over 460 children across Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties. Programs were offered at mobile home parks, schools, and community centers throughout the region from Huron Valley mobile home parks to Belle Isle.

Downriver Family YMCA

Jeff McIntyre, Executive Director

The Downriver YMCA is a unique partnership with the City of Southgate and the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit. Over 800 people a day visit the Downriver Family YMCA. People of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds use our wellness center, take group exercise classes, participate in youth sports, take swim lessons, attend summer camp, and so much more. In addition to all the health and wellness opportunities Downriver provides residents, one of the most rewarding programs is our food distribution program. In 2022, we gave 120 families a week’s worth of healthy meals.

Farmington Family YMCA

Douglas Edwards, Executive Director

In 2022, the Farmington Family YMCA provided many programs to serve our community. Highlights of the year include providing Swim Lessons, LIVESTRONG at the Y, and Summer Day Camp. Camp Riley is truly a special Y summer camp. This camp is a partnership between the YMCA and Farmington Public Schools. Camp Riley encourages fifty campers to maintain their educational levels in a fun, yet structured environment. The educational components of Camp Riley focus on math and literacy using fun, hands-on daily activities to enhance their camp experience.

Healthy Living

Melissa Opsahl, Operations Director

In 2022, Healthy Living distributed over 100,000 meals and one of the highlights was the 2022 Thanksgiving Fresh Basket program where over 21,150 pounds of food was given to 357 families. It was an incredible day of community members volunteering to pack and deliver a week’s worth of food to our neighbors.

Girls On the Run (GOTR) and STRIDE

Kate Lynch, Director

In 2022, the Girls on the Run and STRIDE program served 2,022 children across Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties, providing kids with impactful lessons on standing up for themselves, ending negative self-talk, and choosing friends. Each participant had over 20 hours of physical activity in the program and we served 35,490 healthy snacks.

The highlight of 2022 was bringing back the in-person 5K run. Seeing thousands of children and parents working together to achieve one goal–to finish the 5K run–was a beautiful sight. It did not matter who was first or last. The ultimate aim was for every participant to give their personal best.

Macomb Family YMCA

Tricia Hamzik, District Executive Director

The greatest impact that the Macomb Y had in the community was the swim partnership with the Huron Clinton Metropolitan Authority. The grant-funded partnership allowed the YMCA to provide 165 children safety around water lessons. It was truly a life-changing experience for children in the community. The program was free to participants so cost was not a barrier.

Metro Youth YMCA

LaRon Evans, Executive Director

Helping 200 teens achieve by providing them support and resources to graduate high school and pursue post-secondary education is the fuel that drives our Achiever’s program. The highlight of every year is always celebrating our high school graduates and awarding them with college scholarships.

Other highlights include:

• In 2022, graduating seniors in the Achievers program received an average of $1,000 to support their post secondary education goals.
• Providing real world paid summer work experiences for 225 teens ages 14 -24 as a lead Grow Detroit’s Young Talent (GDYT) partner.
• Two teams of four students competed in Michigan Youth in Government (YIG). These young people created policy and advocated for their bills to become law.
• Celebrating the achievements of our local Changemakers team for competing in Washington DC at YMCA of the USA’s Changemakers competition. The team won third place for their mental health and financial literacy project and were awarded $5,000 to implement their project as Cass Technical High School.

Plymouth Family YMCA

Marit Olsen, Branch Operations Director

The Plymouth Y is housed inside the PARC (Plymouth Arts and Recreational Center), and is not a traditional YMCA wellness facility. Our Y is focused on providing youth programming, serving approximately 300 children annually in youth sports like soccer, floor hockey, and basketball. One of our most robust programs is Summer Day Camp.

Ten-year-old Aria was so excited about all our 2022 camp field trips, but one trip in particular sparked unspeakable joy. It was a trip to the library. Aria had never visited a library. She was thrilled to find out that they had a ton of books. She loved to read and now she discovered she could read hundreds of books for FREE! As a result, she asked her counselor to leave a note for her mom asking if she could get her very own library card. Her mom took her to the library the following week and she came back to show us her card.

South Oakland Family YMCA

Tricia Hamzik, District Executive Director

The year of the family is the best way to describe 2022 at the South Oakland YMCA. A massive renovation, numerous new family programs, and expansion of key leadership staff allowed our YMCA to serve hundreds more residents. We are proud to have been a leading partner with our Healthy Living Initiative in the Good Food For All fresh produce program. We distributed over 165 boxes of locally grown produce to families throughout winter 2022.

Y Arts

Margaret Edwartowski, Executive Director

We are delighted to share that, in 2022, we were able to expand our Y Arts Media Works program to give more youth an opportunity to create and share their stories. A key component to achieving this was Donald Walker. Y Arts was connected with Donald Walker in 2020; through a mutual acquaintance. Because of Donald’s work as the Director of Multimedia for Detroit School of Arts, he was a great community connection and someone to compare notes with on youth media education.

In 2021, Donald invited Y Arts as a partner in a program he developed to serve seven DPSCD middle schools to develop media arts skills in area youth earlier than high school. Since the start of the partnership, Y Arts has been able to serve over 220 youth with quality media arts programming. After having recently left DPSCD, Donald was so pleased with the partnership outcome, and believed in Y Arts’ work so deeply, that he joined the advisory board and now will help further Y Arts’ work in the community.

YMCA Positive Play Initiative (YPPI)

Tom Bender, Executive Director of Community Sports

Providing over 6,500 children with free opportunities to participate in organized play and sports sampling in over 50 locations in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties was extraordinarily rewarding. We serve so many children from varying backgrounds and in 2022 were proud to include refugee children supported through a partnership with Samaritas. Another 2022 highlight was the Ferndale Field Day at Palmer Park. Over 200 elementary school children enjoyed a fun-filled day at the beautiful public park.