The Henderson YMCA has received a $1 million gift to create a youth development services program in the building recently vacated by Vance County Department of Social Services.

Executive Director/CEO Paul Ross said the gift from Dr. Khanh Vu and his wife, Elmira Choopani, would hopefully be used to purchase the building – adjacent to the current Y campus – and to transform it into a space for summer day camps, after-school camps and perhaps even a licensed day care.

Ross spoke with John C. Rose about the Y’s vision to serve the community. “We are exceedingly grateful and we can’t thank them enough,” Ross said on Monday’s Town Talk about the gift from the Vus.

Listen to the full story here – TownTalk 08-22-22 $1M Gift to Henderson Family YMCA

“We are in process of trying to acquire the DSS property that adjoins the Y,” Ross said. Because the county has deemed it a surplus property and because the Y is a non-profit which plans to use it to benefit the community, the sale does not have to go out to public bid, Ross said.

Among the numerous offers the county received, theirs was selected “because of the work we’re going to do,” Ross noted.

The board of directors has been honing the vision for quite a while, he said, even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the emotional and physical strains brought about by pandemic restrictions has shone a spotlight on the need for specialized services and programs for young people who may be facing challenges.

The youth development services facility is part of the larger vision that the board has to try to offset or prevent negative health outcomes for children. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been proven to have lasting effects on adults, he said. Promoting good mental health among children is the “whole underlying target” for the overarching vision the Y has to serve the community.

“This community needs this kind of work in a desperate way,” he said.

There are strategies that can be implemented that counteract those ACEs, he said, and the Y is pursuing partnerships with Triangle North and Henderson Vance Health Care, among others, to make such programming possible. Providing young people, especially those ages 5-12, with coping mechanisms and strategies to prevent future problems is critical to maintaining good mental health.

“We’re trying to address it on the front end and prevent it from getting worse,” Ross said. “It’s a monumental task but it has to be addressed.”

Ross said the track behind the Y needs some attention, and he said renovating it and adding more amenities for the whole community to enjoy has been well-received by its geographical neighbors Boyd Chevrolet and Maria Parham Health.

By reorienting the track and pumping up the amenities there, the Y would create a larger campus for the whole community to enjoy, not just Y members.

“We are available to everybody,” Ross, who joined the Y in 2014, said. “Ever since I started here, we have made every effort to try to make our services available to the community.

The last two words of the Y’s mission statement, he said, are “for all.”

Click Play