Chief Financial Officer
YMCA Canada

YMCA Canada is a charity and the national office of the Canadian YMCA Federation, providing support to 40 YMCA Member Associations.

The YMCA is one of Canada’s longest standing and largest charities, with a presence in the country since 1851. Today, we serve more than 2.39 people annually across 1,700 program locations in almost every province.

For more information about YMCA Canada and the Canadian YMCA Federation, please visit ymca.ca. A copy of the YMCA Canada 2019 Annual Report can also be viewed at https://ymca.ca/National-Office/Annual-Reports.

Charitable Purpose

The YMCA in Canada is dedicated to the growth of all persons in spirit, mind and body, and to their sense of responsibility to each other and the global community.

While all YMCAs in Canada share this overarching purpose, each local YMCA is driven by their own mission statement to help them address the unique needs of their communities.

Why the Y Matters

As a charity, the YMCA provides vital community services that are having a positive impact on some of Canada’s most pressing social issues—from chronic disease to unemployment, social isolation, poverty, inequality and more.

Central to their success are:

• The people who unite behind their mission and bring their many talents to their work;

• The safe and welcoming places they provide—from health facilities to classrooms to newcomer centres—that foster a sense of community;

• The comprehensive community-based programs that provide the extra skills, opportunities and confidence that many individuals and families need to achieve their full potential.

• Their advocacy for health, promoting public policy that fosters a sense of belonging; and

• The philosophy that guides their actions, a holistic approach premised on the building blocks of the social determinants of health, harm reduction, the stages of change, and developmental-appropriateness

These three critical resources, people, places and programs, come together at the YMCA to create a sense of belonging to a supportive network that has proven time and time again to help their members and program participants achieve their personal development goals, be they physical, mental, social and/or emotional.

For some the impact can be truly transformational and can have an enormous ripple effect on those around them. While they celebrate each of these personal achievements—it is the scale at which this happens that makes Canada’s YMCAs truly unique. Last year they served 2.25 million Canadians in communities from coast to coast. This broad reach—and the fact that they’ve been doing this work for more than 160 years—are all part of the YMCA’s broader story of how they’re building healthy communities.