PEABODY — The YMCA of Metro North is stepping up its efforts to encourage tolerance and diversity.
This week marks the beginning of the Second Annual Welcoming Week at the Torigian Family YMCA, a week-long celebration of the many different cultures and traditions of people in the YMCA community.
In conjunction with Welcoming Week, Metro North has launched a new initiative, the Diversity, Inclusion and Global Engagement team (DIG). Eight staff members have been tapped as representatives for the DIG team, which will focus on increasing diversity in leadership positions, recruiting and retention of diverse staff, culturally competent member and staff engagement, and effective collaboration techniques with organizations serving vulnerable populations.
“Diversity and inclusion work is tremendously important to us here at the YMCA of Metro North and to all YMCAs around the nation,” said Andrea Pirela, Assistant Aquatics Director at Torigian. “The only way to come together as a community and as a team is to continue to have tough conversations about social injustices. Creating a safe space for all to be welcome is an essential key to success, and keeping in mind always that actions speak louder than words.”
Metro North President and CEO Kathleen Walsh said that DIG is Metro North’s opportunity “to draw a line in the sand and to add some muscle to our mission statement.
“We’re in very tough times,” Walsh said. “The Y is an organization that, by its mission, accepts everybody. We don’t exclude anyone for any reason, but we started to ask, ‘What can we do to back that up?’
“We have recruited an amazing group of people to be on this team, all ages and backgrounds and gender and color, people with great diversity and ethnicity. We need to make sure that there is never any opportunity or chance to misstep and need to make sure from the top of our organization to the bottom that we are all on the same page.”
Welcoming Week is celebrated by YMCA branches across the country. Its goal is to promote the YMCA as a place that welcomes everyone, including immigrants, refugees and other people who often are excluded from access to community-based spaces and resources.
Welcoming Week activities will take place through Sept. 20 at Metro North branches in Lynn, Melrose, Saugus and Peabody. Activities will include opportunities for people to share their backgrounds and experiences, a flag celebration with a variety of nationalities, sharing recipes across people with different ethnicities, and more. The DIG Team will continue its work throughout the year to provide more opportunities to celebrate diversity and inclusion and set diversity and leadership goals for the association to track its progress.
At the Torigian branch, white boards have been set up where people can share their family and cultural traditions. There is also a citizens’ board poster for members to share the dates they became American citizens.
“It’s really all about celebrating immigrants and other cultures,” said Torigian Senior Developer of Member Engagement Justin Cammarata. “In past years the emphasis has been on helping them feel good about themselves and their roles in the community, adding that this year’s focus is on guiding people through the voter-registration process.
“Once you become a citizen, the next step is to cast your vote, so we feel it’s important that these people know how to do that,” Cammarata said.
Going forward, DIG values and activities will become a part of everything the YMCA does from the Y Academy to summer camps to swim lessons, Walsh said.
“We need to make a difference and we need to start now,” she said. “Shame on us for taking so long, as it is a key part of our mission.”
Metro North Vice President of Human Resources Paul Mantell said that, with tensions on the rise in so many places, the Y needs “to be more accountable to our community for creating spaces where people feel a sense of inclusion, belonging and safety. The Y must continue to be a force that brings people from all races, backgrounds and life circumstances together for the better.”
