Beyond our Walls, Building Community

We’re making an impact far beyond the bricks and mortar of our facilities. Our programs reach out into the community to help it grow stronger and more connected.

FITastic (ages 8 to 14)

The YMCA’s FITastic program offers a personalized 12-week healthy lifestyle program to kids ages 8 to 14  for free. It is focused on increasing physical activity and good nutrition practices to establish and maintain a healthy lifestyle. A “coach” guides each participant as they achieve their health goals. FITastic offers flexible scheduling for each family to begin at any time. A 12-week YMCA membership is included when participating in this program.

The FITastic originated in Massachusetts as the Physical Activity Club, a collaborative effort between the Mass. Department of Public Health, University of Massachusetts Boston and the Mass. Alliance of YMCAs. The Rye YMCA was the first to develop a partnership with a local community hospital as part of the Activate America Initiative. In 2009, the YMCA of the North Shore partnered with Northeast Health Systems (Beverly Hospital, Addison Gilbert Hospital) to offer the program at our Greater Beverly, Ipswich and Cape Ann YMCAs. It is now available at all six YMCA of the North Shore locations.
 

Pioneering Healthier Communities (PHC)

PHC which launched in 2004, is the signature initiative of Activate America that focuses on policy and environmental change in communities to promote healthy lifestyles. With support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and corporate and foundation donors, Y-USA has provided seed funding to 117 Ys across the country and their communities to take on this work.

Here on the North Shore, the Greater Beverly Y has been selected to participate in Pioneering Healthier Communities– an initiative that empowers community leaders with strategies to ensure that healthy eating and physical activity options are within reach for everyone who lives, works, or visits Beverly, Hamilton, Manchester, and Wenham. 

Pioneering Healthier Communities is part of the YMCA’s Healthier Communities Initiatives, which focus on making policy and environmental changes that support healthy lifestyles. The objectives for our program include:

• Enhancing the importance of a healthy lifestyle 
• Building relationships within communities by focusing on the leading health issues facing communities 
• Strengthening the capacity for coalition building in communities 
• Attracting a new set of volunteers to the effort to build a healthy community 
• Increasing the community’s ability to promote policy and environmental changes that encourage and support sustainable healthy living