The Boards of YMCA Queanbeyan and YMCA Canberra are delighted to announce they are joining forces to become one local Y to further strengthen the Y’s ability to respond to growing community needs for children’s activities and support for families in Queanbeyan and the ACT. This merger will be the most recent in a series of mergers that has taken place to strengthen the Y Movement in Australia in recent years.  In 2016, Kalgoorlie merged with YMCA WA, three Ys in the Northern Territory became one in 2017, Grampians and Ballarat also merged in 2017, Manningham merged with Victoria in 2018, and Bendigo merged with Victoria in 2019. This is also part of a larger trend for not-for-profits and the childcare sector as a whole with increasing compliance requirements.

“As a community organisation that has provided services for children and young people for over 160 years across Australia, the Y has a profound responsibility for the care and protection of the children and young people we serve and we have been in discussions with our colleagues in Queanbeyan for several months now, and are working really well together to ensure there is no disruption to services for parents or children across the region,” said Torrien Lau, CEO of YMCA Canberra.

This is a great opportunity for Canberran and Queanbeyan, that also provides services as far as Bungendore, to maintain and grow the Y’s footprint and impact in the region, for the long-term and it will be business as usual for staff in both locations as we continue to maintain the existing programs and services.