Loss of Smith YMCA not a total loss to East Side, CEO says

The closure of the Smith Family YMCA takes away a building and a swimming pool that will be missed, but the organization points to programs that stay in the community as signs the Y is not leaving the East Side of Joliet.

Greater Joliet Area YMCA President and CEO Jim Watts said the YMCA’s “most impactful” programs already were taking place in neighborhood settings and through partnerships with other community organizations.

Other programs, such as the Safety Around Water (formerly known as Project SOAR) were transitioned to the Galowich YMCA on Houbolt Road in Joliet when the Smith Y closed March 27. Memberships and employees were transitioned, too.

It’s important to remember that in offering programs, the YMCA is not a “one size fits all” organization, Watts said.

“We respond to community needs appropriately,” Watts said.

The needs of the community were different when the Smith Family YMCA was built 43 years ago, Watts said. At the time, only one YMCA building existed, which was on Ottawa Street, he said.

But then “the community requested a Y on the West Side and on the East Side,” Watts said.

The Ottawa Street location, which opened in 1928, was sold around 1978 and the money was used toward the construction of the Galowich YMCA and the Smith YMCA, he said.

The expectation at the time was that the area around Briggs Street would grow – but that didn’t happen, Watts said. Consequently, the Smith Family YMCA is located in an area without many residents to support it.

The Smith Family YMCA also doesn’t have access to public transportation, making it difficult for people on the East Side to access the building, Watts said.

Galowich, on the other hand, is accessible by public transportation and not much farther to travel to even despite being located on the West Side, Watts said.

The Smith Family YMCA also has a “pent-up need for maintenance and capital,” but “COVID has necessitated we get more efficient” in terms of resources, Watts said.

Currently, the main community need of the East Side is care for and development of its children, Watts said. Programs that do well are the YMCA’s before- and after-school programs, summer camp and Teen Achievers mentoring program, Watts said.

Last year, the Greater Joliet Area YMCA expanded its 20-year-old before- and after-school school program – Kid Zone PLUS – to accommodate families with children in kindergarten through eighth grades who needed additional care with remote learning.

One of those sites was Salvation Army Community Center in Joliet, one of the Y’s community partners, along with several school districts and churches.

Watts said the YMCA is looking forward to forming other community partnerships to offer STEM programs, leadership programs and youth baseball and basketball programs.

By contrast, when the YMCA did a community needs assessment with the village of Shorewood, residents mostly expressed an interest in fitness programs, Watts said. However, fitness programs did not do well at the Smith Family YMCA – but they might work in a neighborhood setting, he said.

“I don’t think fitness is a huge demand,” Watts said. “What we’re focusing on now is caring for the children.”

COVID-19 has shown that a central location isn’t always necessary – if one considers ghost kitchens and remote working, Watts said.

“I think the paradigm has shifted from the belief that you need a building to do all this mission work,” Watts said. “That’s just not true anymore.”

However Joliet City Council member Bettye Gavin said she knew seniors who exercised at the Smith Y. Gavin herself liked to swim there and feels the loss of the actual building “leaves a hole in the East Side in terms of services and programs.”

But Gavin said Watts was “absolutely right” about the value of the YMCA’s community-based programs.

“I know when I had one youth facility on Briggs Street, they would send a couple of volunteers in the afternoon for my after-school program,” Gavin said. “They would give the kids all sorts of different games to play.”

But with the loss of the Smith Family YMCA comes the loss of a building with a pool.

“I had a great partnership with the Y,” said Gavin, who also is executive director of the Forest Park Community Center. “The kids were able do to their swimming lessons, as a family and as individuals. ... The Y has been such a staple in the community for a long time. And we’re all going to feel that void.”

However, the fact that services on the East Side of Joliet keep decreasing while the need keeps increasing concerns Kahlil Diab, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club in Joliet.

Diab said the YMCA provided summer swimming lessons for a few years at the club’s pool, which is only open in the summer, through a grant partner.

He said he understands the need for swimming programs for kids, which are a challenge to provide on the East Side, where “pools are in short supply,” he said.

But right now, The Boys and Girls Club’s main concern is how to reopen safely with reduced capacity, he said. The Boys and Girls Club lost 75% of its revenue last year, Diab said. Pre-pandemic, about 700 kids signed up for the club’s summer program. Now, that number might be reduced to 400, he said.

“If we had a million dollars, we’d just open up two more facilities,” Diab said. “But that’s not an option.”