Paisley YMCA has seen in recent years a reduction in our membership to the extent that all our members are on the Board of Management, but this is changing for 2021 – we’re looking for new members to join us
At it’s heart, Paisley YMCA, like all YMCAs, is about fellowship of like-minded people who share the Christian values of:
- treating other people the way we’d like to be treated ourselves (‘do unto others as you would be done by’ is the Christian ‘Golden Rule’); and
- supporting other people regardless of their personal characteristics, be that race or ethnicity, religious belief or lack of it, sex or gender, sexuality, disability or age, or whatever spurious grounds for discrimination might be applied elsewhere (as exemplified by the ‘Good Samaritan’ parable in which a Philistine in trouble was helped by a Samaritan despite a situation of war between the two tribes).
And we recognise that these essential Christian values are shared by people with other religious beliefs and by people with no religious beliefs. Our fellowship is based on values not belief.
Our constitution commits us to other ways of expressing aspects of these values, like the Community Learning and Development values of:
- self-determination – respecting the individual and valuing the right of people to make their own choices.
- inclusion – valuing equality of both opportunity and outcome, and challenging discriminatory practice.
- empowerment – increasing the ability of individuals and groups to influence issues that affect them and their communities through individual and/ or collective action.
- working collaboratively – maximising collaborative working relationships in partnerships between the many agencies which contribute to CLD, including collaborative work with participants, learners and communities.
- promotion of learning as a lifelong activity – ensuring that individuals are aware of a range of learning opportunities and are able to access relevant options at any stage of their life.
Another way of expressing our values is that what we want for the young poeple we work with is for them to achieve Scotland’s National Youth Work Outcomes – that young people:
- are confident, resilient and optimistic for the future;
- manage personal, social and formal relationships;
- create, describe and apply their learning and skills;
- participate safely and effectively in groups;
- consider risk, make reasoned decisions and take control;
- express their voice and demonstrate social commitment; and
- broaden their perspectives through new experiences and thinking
If you share our values and you care about supporting young people to develop character and skills, we’d like you to think about joining us. It’ll cost you nothing but a little bit of time and interest 🙂