Leading from the front issuu

YMCA GISBORNE — A MODEL FOR NZ
by ceo leigh gibson
Pat reckons the YMCA Gisborne is a model of excellence
as to what YMCAs around the country could be and it
was recognised with a national award recently. “Like any
group that takes government funding though, there’s
the challenge of paying the piper. Six YMCAs around the
country are funded by TEC [Tertiary Education Commission].
The challenge is to remain honest to your own vision
while accepting funding to keep going. It’s always a
juggle”, he says. “Gisborne handles it well.”
YMCA GISBORNE CEO SHARES
WHAT’S WORKING WELL
YMCA Gisborne has seen strong governance under
your watch. What is your background and
what skills and strengths have you brought to the
role that have made a real difference?
My background with the YMCA started as an aerobics
instructor and I believed strongly in the purpose of the
YMCA to support community. While employed as a
legal executive I took on the role of governance at the
Gisborne YMCA for 15 years, eight years of which I was
president. We struggled to find the leadership to grow
and while I was on leave due to health issues, the board
moved to gift the assets of the Gisborne Y to the local
Council in payment of our debt of $50,000.
What is unique with Gisborne is that our constitution
has governing members, they are the members that are
eligible to be board members, but also keep the board
and their decision in alignment with the best interests of
the Gisborne YMCA. The governing members dismissed
our board and asked Maurie Rendle, ex Auckland YMCA
CEO to assist us. Maurie challenged the newly elected
board and myself, to put me into the CEO position to
grow the Y. At that time we employed 1.5 EFTs, generated
$100k turnover and operated no services. My first
task was to find the funding to pay my wage and to see
programmes and services implemented in the YMCA.
The start of our growth was being fortunate to be part of
the Open Polytechnic Lifeworks Education Programme.
At the end of that programme we were operating coaches
in-home for Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay, Bay of Plenty and
Waikato. We also operated Ministry of Social Development
Community Max Programmes assisting unemployed
young people into work experience, and operated
teams of six young people and a supervisor into
a free schools sport coaching service. At one stage we
had five teams operating into local schools every week.
Gisborne YMCA is known for achieving clarity
around programme creation and implementation.
What steps do you take to make sure you select
the right programmes and keep them on track?
We pride ourselves on listening to our community
around where there are gaps that impact significantly
on families, children and young people. For example,
we started supervised contact when Barnardos nationally
dropped the contract with Ministry of Justice. The
impact of family members not being able to have visits
with children and young people due to no providers being
able to deliver, was significant. Our board has people
that are working in community groups that assist us to
identify opportunities.
YMCA Gisborne introduced Lunches in Schools
just before Covid-19 broke out and you’re expanding
this service. What was involved and what do
you see as the future for this?
At the heart of the Gisborne YMCA is the belief that children
that are well fed, succeed in life. We commenced
providing all meals into our childcare centres 12 years
ago and included feeding children into our after school
and holiday programmes as well as our alternative education
students. As Gisborne is the highest deprived region
in NZ it was an easy decision to ensure children are
fed nutritional meals, as this could be their only healthy
meal of the day. When the school lunch service was trialled
in Gisborne at the beginning of 2020, we saw the
synergy of feeding healthy meals to students in schools.
The project involved employment of experienced qualified
chefs, kitchen hands and school lunch assistants,
the purchase of vehicles for the delivery of the lunches,
the development of two additional commercial kitchens
with chillers, bratt pans and capability to mass produce
healthy meals. The feedback has been significant from
the schools; they could see the change in behaviour of
the children within the first week, and that the children
were more settled in the afternoons and able to be engaged
in productive learning outcomes.
Napier YMCA transformed and the Downtown Y is born 87