YMCA & CAF share commitment to fitness and improving lives of others and making a difference in the community

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

YMCA Leading Americans To A Healthier Lifestyle

Hi, my name is Max Goodman and I am a Public Relations professional looking at one of the biggest, healthiest, and most empowering companies for health and fitness in the USA. Did you know that more than one third of adults in the US are obese? Luckily, there are various solutions to this issue and one of the best companies to address this growing epidemic is the YMCA. The YMCA is one of the most famous leading, non-profit organizations in the USA. They offer a friendly and community oriented environment that brings people together. The Y provides financial assistance to support more than 25,000 youth, teens and families. They also offer different programs that serve kids, adults, and families at all stages of life.

YMCA Increases Online Presence

As the Y’s Public Relations person, I will be setting up several strategies to help create and manage highly engaging content. These strategies are to reach the Y’s targeted audiences, increase followers, and to increase engagement on multiple social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Snapchat. One of the main things we will be focusing on is to know the companies’ audiences and to pay attention to different trends. Each of our social media platforms that we will be using will allow us to uncover our demographics of our followers. By knowing our audience well, we can tailor our messages to our customers wants and needs.

Another strategy I’ll be using is to build up expectations. I will be posting a regular schedule of plans and events which could establish consistency with our customers. By looking at our page analytics, we will be able to indicate the times when our followers are most active. Posting regularly during most active periods will help our content reach the top of our audiences feeds and will also increase their chances of engagement.

Another strategy that I will be using is to have myself and my team go out into the community and talk to members personally to find out their story of what brought them into the Y in the first place. By doing this, we can uncover the different reasons and motivations and put our marketing and advertising efforts towards those reasons.

My last strategy is to come up with an effective method of rewarding our followers for engaging with us. Some examples might include holding a photo contest, sharing and retweeting follower created content and hosting public fundraising events on social media platforms with fun challenges for every milestone. When we validate the engagement of others, they become stronger ambassadors of your brand. Plus, this increases your presence on the news feeds of their own followers. Coming out with a social media plan as a regular working part of your everyday business operations will help us see where our company is going and evolving over time. The best way in my opinion to grow and improve our social media strategies is to be constantly analyzing our engagement data with our customers.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

The YMCA And CAF Help Create A Culture Of Inclusion

Established in 1997, (CAF) Challenged Athletes Foundation grew out of a desire to assist one athlete paralyzed in a triathlon. Their mission is to make sure people with physical challenges have the same freedom to enjoy sports as everyone else. CAF with the YMCA has a shared commitment to improving the lives of others and making a difference in our community. CAF and various YMCA’s around the country are partnering together to help create a culture of inclusion. With a shared commitment to transforming lives through sports, developing youth, strengthening communities, and being socially responsible, the YMCA and CAF are together creating a culture where all feel welcome and have access to a supportive fitness and community environment.

Since February 2013, more than 1,200 Massachusetts-based physically challenged athletes and their immediate families have received a complimentary lifetime Y membership. They are encouraged to visit their local Y branch to sign up for their FREE, life-long, family membership. CAF’s Access for Athletes program provides grants for adaptive sports equipment, training and competition expenses to people with physical challenges around the world. As an integral part of this grant program, the YMCA of Stoughton provides challenged CAF athletes to train in a supportive environment with the latest equipment. This year,the YMCA provided 455 annual membership grants to people in Massachusetts.

With able-bodied and challenged athletes training side by side, stereotypes are broken down and replaced with a strong community of support and connection. Belonging to the Y means challenged athletes will be able to find a safe and encouraging environment to participate in sports and physical activities. It will provide a positive atmosphere for their children to learn values, social skills and behaviors, where their family can come together to have fun and spend quality time with each other, connect with friends, pursue interests and learn how to live healthier.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

YMCA and CAF Work Closely With Disabled Community To Create An Environment For All To Feel Welcome

Hi Jannet, I know you’re busy, so I’ll make this quick.

The YMCA and CAF (Challenged Athletes Foundation) are partnering together to help create a culture of inclusion.

Since the Disabled News Magazine has been a leader in the Disabled Community, and is noted for bringing up to the moment news and information to the disabled population and its family members, I’d like to introduce our organizations partnership between CAF and the YMCA.

Since both our communities have a shared commitment in helping to create a culture of inclusion,for being socially responsible, and for creating an environment for all to feel welcome, I have a few ideas on how we can incorporate our partnership to help your audience gain access to a supportive fitness and community environment. This will help better serve your readership from your publication. I also have some great ideas on how we could introduce some new and interesting content to your podcast members.

Is this something you would be interested in? We would love to partner up with you in helping to serve the disabled community.

Thank you for taking out the time to read this. Please keep us in mind as you work on your present as well as your future issues.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

-Max Goodman