Remembrance and Goals for the New Year

We are just fresh off of the 2016 Summer Olympics. The Olympics represent many different things for different people: pride, celebration, hard work, and success. Winning medals is not just all about an individual athlete’s solo performance during the Olympics itself, but about the time and effort spent training for that performance, and about the goals set, met, and surpassed.

Like the world’s Olympians who now have the opportunity to step back and evaluate their time in Rio, Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, encourages us to reflect on the goals we set for ourselves last year to see if we met them, and to see where we can improve. The High Holiday is also akin to training for the Olympics. It is a time to think deeply and introspect, and see where we want to go from here. Establishing goals to work towards is the first step to getting where we want to go, both on an individual level and on a communal level.

SYEP Program Grows Nearly 20%

We successfully closed out the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) for 2016! We enrolled an additional 100 youths this summer bringing our enrollment allocation to 650 participants.

Bubbie's Kitchen on the Go

While technically they never leave the grounds, the campers taking the Bubbie’s Kitchen activity at Camp Twelve Trails are transported across the globe as they discover new foods and cultures. Over the weeks they’ve jetted off to Israel to mix up Israeli salad (students took home the ingredients and recipe so they could make this with their families at home!), visited Morocco to taste cumin scented carrot salad with golden raisins (recipe at the end of this article), and explored Russia as they made apple and beet slaw -- you may be surprised to learn that Twelve Trails campers don’t have an aversion to beets, they loved the slaw!

Introducing the Y at WHEELS!

The YM&YWHA of Washington Heights & Inwood is proud to present its newest addition to the Youth and Family Department: the Y at WHEELS! 

Honoring the Hands That Help us Serve

In June the Center for Adults Living Well @ the Y held its annual Volunteer Recognition Ceremony.

The Y's Centennial Celebrations Have Begun

In 1917 the Y opened its doors and nearly 100 years later the Y is thriving as it serves the local community. July 1 marks the beginning of our new fiscal year, so as we enter FY17 we’re entering celebration mode. And we have so much to celebrate and be proud of!

Shavuot at the Y

On June 12 and 13 the Y will observe the Jewish Holiday, Shavuot, the holiday that celebrates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, also known as Hag Matan Torateinu (the Festival of the Giving of Our Torah).

Around the World with Bubbie and The Covenant Foundation

Smearing rounds of floured dough with onion-laced mashed potatoes was the easy part. Folding the dough over to pinch and seal the ends was a messier challenge.

The Y and the Sports for Youth Initiative

Every year the UJA-Federation of New York hosts an event for their Sports for Youth initiative and the Y was excited to accept an invitation to this year’s luncheon honoring Howard Katz, COO of NFL Films and SVP of NFL Broadcasting.

Reflections from a Social Work Intern

As part of the UJA fellowship that pays a portion of my tuition for the Graduate school of Social Work at Touro College, I was required to attend monthly learning seminars at the UJA headquarters. At those morning workshops I would often overhear my peers in the UJA fellowship complain about their respective field placement sites. Grievances ranged from a supervisor suddenly leaving, to not having anything to do all day, to being forced to work with uncooperative clients. Over a cup of coffee and a hardboiled egg that’s included in the UJA’s breakfast, I would think to myself how lucky I was to have been granted a placement at the Y. Even if I fished around deep enough, I couldn’t find one honest complaint to compare.