Young Womens Christian Association

Aid to Victims of Violence (AVV) provides comprehensive victims services to include advocacy, crisis intervention, legal referrals, phone counseling, support groups, crime victims compensation assistance and prevention education and a 24/7 crisis hotline. This program offers both emergency and permanent supportive housing options for victims and survivors of Domestic Violence and their children. In 2022, the YWCA added 25 units of permanent supportive housing for women survivors and their children. The program was also awarded funding for another permanent supportive housing program of 30 units that will serve both men and women survivors of Domestic Violence and their children. This new housing project is currently paused until the developer can get issues with their funding resolved. This will most likely require the YWCA to resubmit our application with ESSHI. This is what we had to do with the completed supporting housing Grace Brown House project and the process went very smoothly. It is expected this program will open in 2-5 years.

Health and Fitness program includes specialized land and aquatics classes for all ages. This program participates in insurance programs to support seniors through a silver sneakers classic and silver sneakers stability with frequent attendance of 20 or more students. Other classes include Yoga, Group X Classes, Aquatic Classes, swim lessons, weight room and personal training. The YWCA has a co-ed and womens only weight room with personal trainers. Gym and recreation classes include pickleball, gymnastics for ages 1-12, basketball and specialty classes. Innovative and creative staff have added more wellness centered programming to include meditation classes and retreats, equine meditation, and sound healing. The aquatic program offers a variety of water exercise classes including a range of movement classes which follow the arthritis foundation guidelines. Swimming lessons are for children from 6 months to 12 years. Private swim lessons bring in all ages from preschool to seniors. A recently added program, Social Seniors continues to grow with more participants joining weekly for socializing, games, and specialized speakers.

Bridges for Kids (BFK) is an individual mentoring program that matches a trained adult volunteer with youth ages 5-12 experiencing stress by poverty, family violence, abuse, and neglect. The mentor meets with the child once a week. In addition, they offer enrichment activities designed to increase the childs self-confidence, resiliency skills. GEMS (Girls, Empowered, Motivated and Successful) is a support group offered in local schools during the scheduled lunch hour. In addition, an adult version of this program is offered at the recently opened Grace Brown House serving women who are survivors of Domestic Violence. Frequent recreational events are held for all children in program and/or on a waiting list. School supplies are distributed every season along with a Thanksgiving meal and holiday gifts. This program is heavily operated with one paid Program Director and over 300 volunteers, mostly SUNY Cortland students and interns.

Social Development Programs - Address Leadership skills, concerns of women, career education and life long learning.