Since 1979, the YMCA Black & Latino Achievers Program has served over 5000 teens in grades 7 through 12, awarded more than $175,000 in scholarships and assisted students with access to $3 million in college scholarships, and engaged more than 4000 adult volunteers through a network of corporate and community partners. The Program includes college prep and leadership development activities focusing on study skills/time management, interviewing techniques, financial management, team-building field trips, community service-learning projects, and college tours and more.
“Being a participant requires a commitment from teens but the personal rewards they get back from the program are life changing,” said Darlene Murphy, YMCA Black & Latino Achievers teen program director.The YMCA of Greater Cincinnati has a long history of fostering resiliency, life skills and character values in young people. Now we are taking engagement a step further with our all new YMCA Mentoring Program different in how it supports volunteers, involves parents, and empowers youth. The Program makes Hamilton County one of six regions nationwide chosen to replicate the successful Building Futures program developed by the San Francisco YMCA.
With adult role models committed to teaching good decision making in young people, our site-based YMCA Mentoring Program will nurture students ages 6 to 18 and will focus on outcomes such as improving academic performance, an improved relationship with his/her primary caregiver, and more positive behavior. YMCA mentors will meet with their mentees weekly for a year either at their local YMCA branch (they will have free use of the branches during their visits together) or at the student’s school.
A key feature of the program is the inclusion of parents from involvement in the youth application process to communication with the adult volunteer. Unique to YMCA Mentoring, youth will be empowered by developing with assistance a ‘goal plan’ that includes age appropriate career exploration and giving back by participating with their mentor in service learning projects.
Important to the success of our Program is support for mentors. We will provide 15 hours of training over four weeks in understanding cultural/social development, youth culture, risk factors, and more; ongoing support by a YMCA mentoring coordinator and the YMCA Mentoring Resource Center; and optional monthly mentor support meetings.
Students served in our YMCA Mentoring Program attend a CincyAfterSchool site managed by the YMCA (for Westwood Elementary, Mt. Airy Elementary, Riverview East or the Skyline Community Center) or participate in our YMCA Black & Latino Achievers college readiness program at Hughes High School, Academy of Multilingual Immersion Studies or Withrow International.
Upcoming orientations on learning more about becoming a YMCA mentor will be at the Melrose YMCA (2840 Melrose Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio 45206) on:
Wednesdays – Sept. 1, 8 or 15 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Or
Saturdays – Sept. 11 or 18 from 9:30 a.m. until Noon
To register or to learn more, please call 513-246-3230.
YMCA Mentoring is funded by a federal grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Other regions also selected include Oakland, Phoenix, Nashville and Baltimore.
It’s a BRAND new day for the YMCA of Greater Cincinnati and its 16 branches. For the first time in 43 years the area’s largest nonprofit that engages more than 125,000 people in youth development, healthy living and social responsibility has an all new brand strategy aimed clarifying its benefits and furthering its capacity to impact.
All of the teams representing the Powel Crosley, Jr. YMCA returned from the World Double Dutch Invitational winning third place in their division.
(Bouncing Baby Blues Team - Janiyah Malone; Jayla Hines and Rachael Degaro)
(Exlusive I and II) - Taylor Lattimore; Courtney Hale; Jasmine Brown; Jyna Shipmon
Double dutch jump roping has developed into an important program offered through several branches of the YMCA of Greater Cincinnati as an opportunity to instill positive character values, strong work ethics, a sense of teamwork, and healthy bodies in young people. In addition to the Carl H. Lindner YMCA, Powel Crosley, Jr. YMCA, and Skyline Community Center, double dutch jump roping is also offered at the Melrose YMCA in Walnut Hills.
Kneeling - Mikaya Eubanks and Shakina Browner
Middle Row - Ariadne Ray, Keishawna Harris,
Coach Denise Bobo, and Mahkaylyn
Harden
(missing - Cache' Gardner)
Back Row - Kevin Chapman and Style Harper
The Awards luncheon
will be held at The Bell Event Center (444 Reading Road) on August 19.
For more information, the public can contact 513-241-2563 ext. 20 or
visit www.emanuelcenter.org.
Toni is a leader, a mentor, an educator, a mother, and a licensed minister. Impassioned with a will to help others fulfill their God given destiny, she practices what she teaches every day.
Under her direction the YMCA Black & Latino Achievers Program has grown from inspiring 25 to 675 students in the 2009 to 2010 school year. Two new pilot sites were started last year with Cincinnati Public Schools, and an additional site was added at Covington Holmes Junior Senior High School where nearly 60% of its students are eligible for free lunch.
Prior to the YMCA, Toni was a long time volunteer board member and volunteer for Dress for Success. Her skills eventually led to a job there where she created the infrastructure for its financial development department.
Toni’s passion runs deep for the community located blocks from her office. As a volunteer she has conducted workshops at the Emanuel Center and served on numerous boards. She is also an Alumnus of Leadership Cincinnati Class XVI and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
In 2008 Toni established The Esther Principle Ministries committed to spreading God’s word and teaching people life skills for pursuing personal success. She is a member of the International Institute of Mentoring’s Council of 12 governing committee and serves as one of its mentors. She is also an evangelist, a co-leader of the Bridge to Serve Ministry and leader of the Job Search Ministry at Solid Rock Church; and a founding member of the Harvest Ranch Cowboy Church in Middletown.
The past two years have also seen Toni’s faith transform lives at one of Ohio’s maximum security prisons, the Lebanon Correctional Institute. There, working for the Solid Rock Bible College, Toni is a theology professor teaching inmates but more importantly helping to equip them spiritually to positively move forward with their lives. Last year that group of men chose to raise $2500 toward the YMCA Teen Achievers Program because they didn’t want to see another generation following in the path they had taken. “It’s hard to put into words the blessing I receive every time I walk into the prison,” said Toni.
(Photo: Brian Kapcar and Yoav Marom, an international YMCA Camp Ernst counselor from Israel, taken last summer)
It’s summer. For Brian Kapcar, a recent graduate of Sycamore High School, that can only mean one thing. It’s YMCA Camp Ernst time.
Brian has been spending much of his months off school at the Burlington resident camp since about second grade. “I was the kid who was always clinging onto my counselor and doing what they did,” he said. “It seemed like they knew just about everything you could know in this world. I really looked up to them and wanted to be like them.”This is Brian’s fourth year as a YMCA Camp Ernst counselor. What is he most looking forward to? “Well dodge ball is one thing,” he said. “I like to make sure my cabin is good, or at least has a good time. Most of all I’m looking forward to helping campers to experience the same positive growth I did.”
YMCA Camp Ernst has been repeatedly voted Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky’s most popular overnight camping experience in Cincinnati Magazine. For more information or to register a child, the public can contact YMCA Camp Ernst at 859-586-6181 or visit www.myycamp.org.
The YMCA of Greater Cincinnati also offers a variety of traditional and specialty day camps at branches throughout the area. For a list of camps near you, please visit www.myy.org.

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