Over the years, however, the Y has changed. The religious focus on young men is gone, and now anyone can join. It's dropped its housing facilities and become deeply involved in trying to fulfill the needs of its various communities.

Each Y is independently operated and managed by local boards of directors, so each Y meets the specific needs of the community it serves.

The Willow Glen area is located between the Central YMCA branch on The Alameda and the South Valley branch on Santa Teresa Road.

The Central branch offers school-age child care at Booksin Elementary School in a structured environment, with a variety of plans to accommodate a parent's schedule.

"Our curriculum is based on components that the Y has strength in delivering, like health, physical activity, arts, theater, science, math and literacy,' says Vice President of Programs and Community Development Mary Hoshiko. "We are not baby sitting."

At Booksin, Child Care Director Valarie Junker's program is split into three rooms--Kinder­First, Kinder Second­ Third and Kinder Fourth­Fifth-- and all the rooms are stocked with manipulative blocks for building, art and craft supplies, games, reading areas, homework space and computers. The children at Booksin also help to design the room each month with designated themes.

Ys also offer adult education, physical fitness, and language classes, and the national organization as a whole has earned recognition as an outstanding resource for helping young people succeed.

For the second year in a row, YMCAs in the United States earned the No. 1 spot on "The Nonprofit Times' Top 100" list of nonprofits as the largest charitable, not-for-profit organization in the United States.

"We are so successful because of the very strong leadership of the volunteers who serve on YMCA boards and the dedication of our staffs who enthusiastically carry on the Y's mission of strengthening and enriching the development of individuals and families through quality programs and services that build a healthy spirit, mind and body for all," says Santa Clara County YMCA CEO Dave Thornton.

Nancy Grove, associate executive director of the South Valley YMCA, says that "there's an impression that the Y is just an adult workout gym, but we offer a full range of activities for the whole family."

Changing Times

The emphasis on family is a shift since The Young Men's Christian Association was founded in London on June 6, 1844. Its mission was to offer Bible study and prayer to help poor young men improve the quality of their lives at the time.

The founder, George Williams, enlisted a group of fellow dry goods salesmen to form the first YMCA at a time when the growth of railroads and centralization of commerce and industry were drawing many rural young men into big cities like London and Boston, where they lived in unhealthy conditions during the Industrial Revolution.

In 1866, the New York YMCA adopted a fourfold purpose: "The improvement of the spiritual, mental, social and physical condition of young men."

The YMCA's online "Brief History" notes that the idea of the Y, which began among evangelicals, was unusual because it crossed the rigid lines that separated the different churches and social classes. This openness was a trait that would lead eventually to the Y including all men, women and children, regardless of race, religion or nationality. Since then, the YMCA has spread to 119 countries around the world, from Albania to Vietnam.

The first Y in San Jose opened in 1867. Today, the YMCA of Santa Clara Valley has seven branches and serves more than 100,000 residents year-round in childcare, health, aquatics, fitness and teen centers. Programs are accessible to all, regardless of financial resources, because scholarships are available.

In 1983 the Y expanded its childcare services for working parents, an extension of what the Ys had done informally for years.

The Y's primary youth program is now called Adventure Guides, and for children between the ages of 5 and 9 there is the Explorers program. This was formerly known as Indian Guides and Indian Princess clubs. Trailblazers, an extension of Adventure Guides, is designed for fathers to work side by side with their preteens to encourage and empower them to do their best.

The YMCA of the USA recently announced a multiyear initiative called "Activate America," to create community solutions to obesity and chronic disease with a rigorous, 10-year improvement and community leadership project to fulfill their mission.

"America has unwittingly created an unhealthy society for our children. Lasting change that truly addresses the declining health of our nation needs to be led on the community level. YMCAs have the ability and reach to ignite the development of meaningful solutions that can alter the cycle of physical inactivity, obesity and chronic disease in our nation," says Kenneth L. Gladish, Ph.D., national executive director, YMCA of the USA.

In addition, South Valley Y has been awarded a share of a three-year, $1.3 million grant through the Carol M. White Physical Education Program that will be divided between Santa Clara Valley and Mid-Peninsula YMCAs.

These grants are designed to assist local educational agencies and nonprofit, community-based organizations in initiating, expanding, or improving physical education programs, including afterschool programs, for students in one or more grades from kindergarten through 12th grade in order to help students make progress toward meeting state standards for physical education.

For more information on the school-age child care program at Booksin Elementary School, 1590 Dry Creek Road, call 408. 265.3588.

The YMCA Central branch is located at 1717 The Alameda. For information, call 408.298.1717.