The Central Connecticut Coast and Wallingford YMCA organizations are looking to collaborate with the Town of North Haven in assisting and delivering services in the fields of physical health, youth development, and social responsibility for residents.

The Coast and Wallingford YMCAs collectively created a ‘North Haven Community Needs Assessment’ survey, which is available on the town website

Through the survey, the two YMCA groups will find out what services residents in North Haven are looking for to be developmental and helping part of their community needs, according to Courtney Grimms, the Board Chair of the Wallingford YMCA and a North Haven resident.

“We’re looking to get some information on the residents on what they might need in the town that they might not currently have, as far as our services are concerned,” Grimms said. “We’re trying to get the word out, working together to see how we can kind of build strength.”

Since the collaborative effort between Coast and Wallingford YMCAs are currently still in the earliest stages, the ‘Community Needs Assessment’ will gauge the needs of town residents in its three key areas of physical health, youth development, and social responsibility, and look to construct and deliver new programs and services to address critical issues in those three areas.

The survey prompts respondents to rank their opinions on the importance and satisfaction of actions and services in North Haven that the YMCAs would try to address. Respondents young and older can answer statements regarding the availability of services in supporting family units and childhood development, volunteer opportunities, physical fitness and activity, senior citizen, and youth engagement.

“We will not necessarily go in blindly to serve, thinking that we know what community needs are. Our drive right now is to have folks respond to the survey. This way we can establish where our focus is and where we can allocate resources to address those most pending and pressing community needs,” Doherty said.

While the Coast and Wallingford groups are slightly different in their activities, the two YMCA facilities seek to demonstrate that both are more than just places for physical fitness and sports, but as caring members of their communities.

“We all share the same core values, and we’re all here to serve the communities. We’ve got two really great organizations that want to work together to help a group of people that may or may not know we exist in the way that we exist. That’s what I’m most excited about.”

David Stevenson, president and CEO of the Coast organization, concurred, saying programs extend beyond recreation and personal health.

“Most people under a Y go to be ‘gym and swim; camp and recreation'. But at our YMCA, one of our branches is solely dedicated to ending chronic homelessness in Bridgeport,” said Stevenson. “We have our 1,000-acre summer overnight camp in Massachusetts. Back in 1948, we wanted to get kids out of Bridgeport and into the country.”

Considering the differences between YMCA groups and the work they perform beyond providing a place for physical fitness and healthy lifestyles, Stevenson characterizes the network of facilities as “beautifully complicated.”

According to Stevenson, he and Sean Doherty, Executive Director and CEO of the Wallingford organization, independently approached First Selectman Michael Freda in the spring about possibly establishing programs for North Haven residents.

In the past, both YMCAs have been active in engaging with numerous demographics in the three points of interest through which they are looking to develop programs. At the Wallingford YMCA, Grimms has seen the facility be a positive influence through its Upward Bound program, a mental health program that is directed towards at-risk teenagers to grow in a safe and helpful environment. The facility also works with the Wallingford Public School system to identify teens experiencing mental health problems, including social workers at Dag Hammarskjold Middle School, according to Doherty.

Grimms, Stevenson, and Doherty have also seen mental health become a more prevalent issue in the area, having grown in its seriousness over the last two years, exacerbated by the pandemic.

“In the town of Wallingford, there have been situations where there have been problems with under-aged children that have some trouble with following the rules. Having programs like that, where there’s a place for kids, trying to keep them involved in things that are positive,” Grimms said.

At the Coast YMCA, alongside supporting efforts to alleviate poverty and homelessness, they have looked to close the achievement gap between low-income, ethnic minority, urban children, and suburban children in the state. Additionally, it shifted some of its services during the coronavirus pandemic to fight food insecurity, collecting and distributing food items, and hosting blood drives.

Both organizations continue to offer financial assistance through their scholarship fund is also offered to families facing financial difficulties who want to better their children’s lives

Overall, it's the essence of these types of programming that both organizations are looking to bring to North Haven residents who may think there are issues in their community that need to be addressed and to create an inclusive sense of community.

“It’s what I would call a family. It’s a place for people of all races, of all places on the map of where you are in life, young, old, in shape, out of shape, doesn’t matter. There usually is something for everyone at any YMCA,” Grimm said.