My Y – My Barrie Y

As the YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka continues the journey of our strategic plan, “My Y For Good,” we near the end of our second year of the plan. As many of you know one of our key objectives in the 2012-2017 plan is to focus on the redevelopment of a new YMCA to serve the Barrie Community.

Often, as I walk through the Barrie YMCA and as I travel throughout the community, I get asked about the progress we are making on the Barrie renewal, and would like to share some updates.

Barrie YMCA renewal strategy

Your YMCA has been working through a Barrie renewal strategy that is based on 4 fundamental principles:

1. Maximize the value of our Grove Street property

2. Explore ALL opportunities available for the site

3. Work with partners to build a “Centre of Community”

4. Ensure the viability of the YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka

Over the last 2 years, these principles have led us to thoroughly review 2 options: our current Grove Street site as well as the ongoing development discussions around a site in downtown Barrie.

With either of these options, we believe our vision of a 75-80,000 square foot state of the art “Centre of Community” YMCA is alive and well. We are making headway on sourcing the $30+ million dollars required for this project and are currently establishing a workable time frame for development.

Over the next several weeks, we anticipate sharing more updates and will be inviting members to participate in an open forum discussion as our direction becomes clearer.

Our commitment to you and to our community is to listen, and to partner with our community to bring the YMCA to the best site, with the most affordable plan, to ultimately create the Community you told us you want, with the YMCA you told us we need, all to build healthy communities… Together!