The YMCA of Greater Kalamazoo is pleased to announce its adoption of new CORE VALUES Integrity, Diversity, Health, and Collaboration that function to articulate the Y’s vision as it positions itself for continued growth and community impact.
CEO Dave Morgan worked closely with the Y’s Board of Directors and staff focus groups to arrive at the new core values that better represent the Y and expand its mission.
“The Y embarked to renew its core values to better define who we are and to align ourselves with our evolving vision for the future. Based on our belief system, the new core values best capture our current organizational practices and behaviors, and convey our principle perspective. Ultimately, these new core values will guide our program and service planning, and organizational culture. These core values will help us to drive innovation and will guide how our organization operates across all levels and interactions.”
What these new core values mean to the Y:
The Y Believes in INTEGRITY, therefore, we will:
- Choose courage over comfort.
- Choose what is right over what is fun, fast, or easy.
- Choose to practice our values rather than simply professing them.
The Y Believes in HEALTH, therefore, we will:
- Create an environment that promotes positive physical and mental well-being for both the individual and the organization
The Y Believes in DIVERSITY, therefore, we will:
- Respect and appreciate differences (individuality).
- Empower individuals and trust them to make the decisions that are in the best interest of our Association.
- Be open to innovations and ideas to let the best ones come through and benefit the entire organization.
The Y Believes in COLLABORATION, therefore, we will:
- Strategically and equitably find partners whose values align with ours, to make every opportunity even greater.
- See every relationship as critical.
“Our former core values, Caring Honesty, Respect, and Responsibility”, says Dave, “aren’t going away; in fact, they are embedded within our definition of Integrity. But we felt that by themselves, as stand-alone words, the original core values were limiting and did not tell the full story of who we are and where want to go.”
