A newly formed YMCA body comprising of the organisations from Ballarat and the Grampians will soon be providing services to almost the entirety of regional Victoria.
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As of the new financial year YMCA Ballarat and Grampians will merge under the Ballarat banner in an effort to streamline the organisation’s service delivery.
The new organisation will be headed up by existing YMCA Grampians chief executive Brooke LeSueur, with current YMCA Ballarat boss Kate Phillips to step down at the end of June.
While all regional outposts will remain open, the top job will be based out of the YMCA’s Lyons Street South head office.
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Ms Phillips said the decision was made to better use the resources of both organisations.
“We have an overlapping reach and we operate in very similar service industries, in fact they’re almost identical, so it made perfect sense for our future to have that unified, consolidated leadership,” Ms Phillips said.
“The existing structure and constitution really reflects the YMCA dynamic of 100 years ago, so this is about having a far more contemporary and effective structure without any change to the local communities.”
It made perfect sense for our future to have that unified, consolidated leadership.
- Kate Phillips - outgoing YMCA Ballarat chief executive
The move comes after a tumultuous period for the YMCA in Ballarat, who terminated a 10-year operating contract with the Ballarat Aquatic and Lifestyle Centre in 2015 after just three years in control.
The organisation also lost contracts to manage a host of outdoor pools across the City of Ballarat.
Since then the organisation has placed a greater emphasis on providing child and youth services.
Ms Phillips said while the organisation had lost all of its pool contracts in Ballarat, its youth services participation has more than doubled, with an increased presence in Wendouree West and Sebastopol.
The YMCA has also taken on a leading role at the Lucas Community Hub. “We service about 800 families through our outside school hours care and that’s also growing with the Bacchus March contract we’ve been successful in winning in the last couple of months,” Ms Phillips said.
All staff across the two organisations will keep their positions.
