page_title: YMCA
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: YMCA / North America / United States
caption_attribution_description: English: YMCA logo (international and USA)
context_page_description: YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by Sir George Williams in London, originally as the Young Men's Christian Association, and aims to put Christian principles into practice by developing a healthy "body, mind, and spirit".
  From its inception, it grew rapidly and ultimately became a worldwide movement founded on the principles of muscular Christianity. Local YMCAs deliver projects and services focused on youth development through a wide variety of youth activities, including providing athletic facilities, holding classes for a wide variety of skills, promoting Christianity, and humanitarian work.
  YMCA is a non-governmental federation, with each independent local YMCA affiliated with its national organization. The national organizations, in turn, are part of both an Area Alliance and the World Alliance of YMCAs. Subsequently, all YMCAs are unique, while following certain shared aims, such as the Paris Basis.
context_section_description: In the United States, YMCA is more commonly known as 'The Y' with its national office headquartered in Chicago. It has 2,700 separate organisational entities affiliated to its national office, based in 10,000 locations, working with 21 million people, to "strengthen communities through youth development, healthy living and social responsibility." It has about 19,000 staff and 600,000 volunteers.
  Its major programs include after-school activities, day care, youth work and physical fitness. A large number of its service locations have gyms, weight rooms, swimming pools, and sports courts where basketball and other sports are played. 
  The first YMCA in the United States opened on December 29, 1851, in Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1851 by Captain Thomas Valentine Sullivan (1800–59), an American seaman and missionary. In 1853 the Reverend Anthony Bowen founded the first YMCA for Colored Men in Washington, D.C. The renamed Anthony Bowen YMCA is still serving the U Street area of Washington. It became a part of YMCA of the city of Washington in 1947. Through the middle part of the 20th century it was associated with homosexual subculture, with the athletic facilities providing cover for closeted individuals. 
  
  YMCAs in the USA have been one of the largest charitable nonprofits in the United States, in terms of donations received from the general public, as listed by Forbes magazine. YMCA in the USA is one of the many organizations that espouses muscular Christianity.
  Its national archives are located at the Kautz Family YMCA, a unit of the University of Minnesota Libraries Department of Archives and Special Collections.
caption: International (above) and American (below) logos
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