Community Programs

Building Strong Communities

The YMCA-YWCA of the Central Okanagan offers a wide range of programs designed to help build community and, at the same time, is always interested in working with other persons and groups in Kelowna whose goals and values are similar to ours.

Community Coach Approach (IHA Pilot Project)

Our YMCA-YWCA is proud to be working with our local Health Authority to bring Coach Approach® to those who need it most – Adults in early stages of chronic disease. Active living improves quality of life for everyone, but can have incredible impact for this population by actually preventing the progression of their disease. Click here for more information about this exciting project. Click here to view the menu of community programs.

Prenatal Wellness

Give you and your baby the best possible start to your new lives together by taking care of your health and fitness throughout your pregnancy. Endorsed by Interior Health and offered in partnership with the Okanagan Families Society, this program includes weekly exercise and educational sessions to give you all the tools you need to maintain ‘wellness’ during this exciting time. This is not a "birthing" class. Please note: Registration for classes held at Mount Boucherie Community Centre takes place at the Kelowna Family Y (phone-in registration accepted with Visa or Mastercard).

Nobody’s Perfect
This program is offered in partnership with Interior Health and offers parenting education and support for parents of children aged 0-5yrs who have limited resources. For more info, contact the Kelowna Health Unit at 868-7700.

Ready or Not...
A 6-week program for parents of pre-teens (ages 8-12 yrs). Learn effective communication skills and discipline strategies that will bring out the best in both parents and their children. Parents will also get the facts on alcohol and other drugs and learn ways to prevent high-risk behaviours by their children. Only 20 spaces available.

Canadian Tire Jump Start

Based on the mounting evidence of childhood obesity and the decline in physical activity of our young people, Canadian Tire has decided to focus their charitable activity in support of increased physical activity for young people living in Canada.

As a company, Canadian Tire has embraced this issue as their National Cause by focusing on access to sports and recreational activity for young people who lack the financial resources to participate in organized activities. They have created a National Signature Program that addresses this need, called Canadian Tire JumpStart.

YMCA Canada is one of the National Partners in this initiative. As such, the Kelowna Family Y participates as a member of our local Canadian Tire JumpStart Chapter. These Chapters are in communities across the country. At a local level, our Y has been able to use Jumpstart funding in our charitable work providing financial assistance for children ages 5-18 to participate in Y programs.

Our support of the Canadian Tire JumpStart program provides a unique opportunity for us all to work together on an exciting new initiative that will have a positive impact on the lives of thousands of children in Canada.

Active Living Toolkit
With some funding provided through Interior Health Action Funds, the YMCA-YWCA of Central Okanagan has begun work on creating and implementing an Active Living Tool Kit. The current phase of this project involves working with at least 15 local social service agencies to help them promote physical activity within their programs and services.

Funding provided until March, 2007 will allow us to create this tool kit and work with these 15 agencies to help them use these tools to help their clients become more physically active.

The agencies who have already provided input into the development of this tool kit and whom we’ll be working with to implement the tool kit include:
Okanagan Families Society (Pilot Site for the Active Living Tool Kit project)
Access to Employment
ARC – Youth Services Support for Independence
Arthritis Society
Canadian Diabetes Association
Canadian Mental Health Association
Interior Health Community Care
Kelowna Immigrant Society
Kelowna Community Food Bank
Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society
Living Positive
Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada
Okanagan College Campus Health & Wellness
Okanagan Prostate Resource Centre Society
UBC-O

This tool kit may also prove to be useful for other organizations wanting to improve the activity levels of the people they serve. Therefore, having these 15 agencies implement our Active Living Tool Kit may just be the beginning. We look forward to utilizing this project to help us reach people who may not otherwise access the Kelowna Family Y’s programs and services.

Kickstart Network
The YMCA-YWCA of Central Okanagan is proud to be an active member of the “KickStart Kelowna” Network. As part of our dedication to build strong kids, strong families, and strong communities, we are working with all other members of this network to provide Kelowna citizens with more opportunities to increase their physical activity levels.

This initiative is part of a 5-year “Active Communities” program that is focused on increasing physical activity levels of our community by 20% by 2010.

Thus far, our specific involvement in this initiative has included:
*   Providing staff expertise as a working committee member creating, implementing, and
    supporting the Passport to Activity program;
*   Free classes/programs offered as part of this Passport program
*   Providing guidance to the City of Kelowna through KickStart Network workshops
*   Active involvement as a committee member of the Steering Committee for the “Community
   Action for Health”

School and Community Group Rentals

Our Y provides a variety of recreation opportunities for many School and Community Groups throughout the Central Okanagan. You may already be aware that many schools come to the Y because of the high quality of our swim lessons. But did you know that we also work with schools such as Rutland Senior Secondary to provide students the chance to experience things like Yoga, BOSU classes, Fusion, Aquafit, Weight training orientations, and other fitness opportunities? Many sports teams and community groups also access our facilities and our expertise through many different types of swimming and fitness services.

In 2006, 4153 students from 21 schools used the Kelowna Family Y pool for swimming lessons and 18 schools participated in recreational swims.