The Santa Monica Family YMCA has been around since the 1920s, and has remained a premier spot for youth and adults alike to improve their physical fitness regimen. However, physical health is just one part of the YMCA package, as the space at 1332 6th Street has expanded throughout the years to include flexing intellectual and community-building muscles, along with the ones in your body.
Community involvement and encouraging locals to experience a wide range of YMCA programs is the vision of the Santa Monica location’s CEO, Hodge Patterson, who took the position six months ago after spending time with the organization in San Diego. Experienced primarily in sports marketing, Patterson was initially invested in the YMCA due to its wellness and fitness programs, but quickly fell in love with everything outside of the “swim and gym” parameters.
Calling his position an “impactful career path,” the nonprofit end of the location that allows for partnerships, expanded access and opportunities has kept Patterson enthusiastic each day. The local support for the YMCA has echoed Patteron’s feelings, as participation at the spot is back to 92% of pre-pandemic levels.
“We’re blessed that the community has supported us,” Patterson said. “We had members that stayed with us during COVID … that’s the strength of the community, that’s a really healthy number for [the YMCA] … we’re excited that the community has come back and shows our recovery.”
Part of the healthy recovery period has been showcasing what else the location has to offer, particularly in youth development. The YMCA currently has over 60 children partaking in a fully-licensed preschool on the premises, and other children’s programs are strengthening as well, such as child drop-off services while adults are working out, and after-school programs where kids are taken via bus from their school sites to the YMCA.
The location also has a designed parent-child playroom on the first floor that works for events like “parents’ night out,” a series that included a recent Halloween event where the room was transformed into a spooky obstacle course.
“We turned it into a maze … kids were able to walk right here in kind of a haunted house,” Patterson noted. “This is one of our best-kept secret spaces for parent-child classes.”
The location’s third floor holds a Youth Development Department with several classrooms for children’s learning and fun activities, with Youth Enrichment Coordinator Yuliana Gomez noting that the rooms have been used for things like ballet, yoga, painting and other arts projects.
“They just tell me ‘we want this, we want that,’ and I say … alright, let’s see what we can do,” Gomez said.
Of course, physical activity still plays a crucial role in the YMCA’s past legacy and future goals, with staff saying that many kids from Santa Monica High School come in groups to support each other’s workout plans. The location holds several weight rooms, cardio spaces and basketball courts for a steady mix of training.
“Making sure they’re having fun, that’s the most important thing,” said Healthy Living Coordinator Maurkice Palmore. “Just engaging with the youth, [letting] them know that we’re here to support them if they need us.”
Palmore stated that training varies from member to member, and that working with youth can sometimes be difficult because “everyone wants to be Hercules,” necessitating advice in tailoring age-appropriate workouts.
“You got to kind of adapt to their age, and you kind of gradually progress things to a certain point, because they’re so young … teaching them the basics are very important, safety is our number one thing,” Palmore said.
Another piece of Patterson’s vision is increased partnership with community groups, welcoming in board meetings, youth civic engagement teams and more into a second-floor community room. The room also acted as a destination for Beverly Hills-based nonprofit Ping Pong for Good, which supports seniors experiencing Parkinson’s Disease, as well as a homestead for group Safe Space for Youth, which raises awareness for youth homelessness.
For Patterson, welcoming community meetings helps “tell our story about our history,” and shows visitors what “we can do in here … and where we’re going.” Becoming a host for good, he said, aligns with the YMCA’s core values.
“We want to make sure everybody has access and opportunity to come in, but when you’re here, we’re really focused more on building skills and confidence … in everybody at all levels,” Patterson said. “We can program so many different classes, but as long as it’s developing a skill or building somebody’s confidence, that’s the role of the [YMCA] … our areas of focus are youth development, healthy living and social responsibility.”
thomas@smdp.com
