The Allapattah YMCA: Saving lives one swim class at a time

Dear business associates, friends, family and the perpetually guilt-ridden:

Before you look at the pictures below to see if I am in any of them, let me assure you, that I am not. Sorry to disappoint! Summertime in Florida will soon be upon us in all its hot, sticky, tropical storm-like humid glory. That means kids will be in and around water.

As you know, I have a very special place in my heart for the Village of Allapattah YMCA Family Center & Preschool. And my heart strangely enough is close to my wallet (but that’s an anatomical story for another day). The Y is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to bettering the lives of children, families and older adults in our community. Personally, I have found the Allapattah Y to be a really cool place. Where else can octogenarians shake their moneymakers to the syncopated beats of Zumba in a silver sneakers program and diaper-clad, cute-as-a-button drooly preschoolers engage in breakneck speed-crawling races? That happens virtually nowhere, I mean not even at parties at my house. But there is one place where it does. 

Located in the center of the Allapattah neighborhood of Miami, an economically challenged community, the Allapattah Y serves young children to wisdom-laden adults. The Y is a positive force in this community because we believe everyone has the power to make their lives and community better, we open our doors to all-- no matter the ability to pay. As virtually the only community center for many miles, the Allapattah Y is an oasis – a safe haven in an area of Miami that isn’t always very safe.

According to published reports, Florida is among the leaders in the nation as the state with more drownings of children 15 and younger, with 80 percent involving children under the age of 5. Drowning is the leading cause of unintentional death in children ages 1-4 nationwide and Florida tends to lose more children to drowning than almost any other state. With pools, lakes, canals, the bay, and the ocean, combined with year-round swimming weather, Miami-Dade and Broward counties lead the state. The YMCA makes drowning prevention a top priority. While the Allapattah YMCA doesn’t have a pool, we have been providing swimming lessons during the past couple of years.  In the words of the immortal distance swimmer Diana Nyad, we simply “Find a Way."

By partnering with pools in the vicinity, we were able to teach over 100 children how to swim during 2018. While the kids had fun, by learning to swim, we may have saved the lives of over 100 children, and avoided tragedy for their families and friends. While the pools are provided for free, we have to pay for trained instructors, transportation to the pools, and swim suits for the kids – yes, many of the kids do not have swim suits.

It is that time of year when the Y and yours truly seek your support during its Annual Support Campaign. This campaign ensures no child, family or older adult is turned away based on an ability to pay through financial assistance.

If you would like to contribute this year and I know that you do, please click on this link: Richard Gibbs 2019 Annual Campaign. Every gift counts! No gift is too bigor too small.

Please contact me to learn more about the Village of Allapattah YMCA Family Center & Preschool, and if you would like a tour of the Allapattah Y.

Excelsior,

Richard

Leveraging the communications function to make organizational values come alive.

By Richard Gibbs

An annus horribilis. That’s the most accurate way to describe 2018’s cavalcade of stories of individuals and institutions whose questionable actions or blatant disregard for right and wrong vitiated organizational values.

As strategic communications counselors who need to understand the leadership perspective in times like this, it’s important that c-suite executives don’t send the message via communications channels that the only occasion to drive home the importance of organizational values is when a mistake or negative event occurs. Living your organization’s corporate values is a proactive 365-day-a-year job, not necessarily just a reactive one, and we as communicators have an outsized role to play in getting this message across the finish line.

Going back several years, I recall an anecdote involving an organization whose most senior executive resigned in a murky cloud of suspicion over charges that were to be brought against him for tax evasion.

The executive worked at an organization that insisted that candidates applying for jobs provide documented proof of their prior salary history before they completed an exhaustive hiring process. Care to speculate what type of documentation many would-be employees submitted as proof of their past earnings? Yes, (please, no prompting from the studio audience) you guessed correctly − their tax returns.

These are employees who saw an accomplished individual of immense wealth, power and prestige who, as the chief values officer, somehow conveniently forgot, spurned or ignored the corporate value of integrity. Then to top things off, embarked on an intricate web of deceit rivaling the tax haven shenanigans employed by shady “bad actors” detailed in the Panama Papers to evade millions of dollars in taxes.

No irony was lost here that integrity was constantly touted as one of the company’s most highly regarded corporate values. Integrity usually has a starring role as a foundational pillar of many an organizational values credo. At this particular company, the presumption was that if you did not have the integrity to be transparent and honest in recounting your wage history, how could the organization trust you as a future employee?

To me, the communications challenge that followed this chain of events revolved around how the company would move forward and ensure its stakeholder audiences that its corporate values were never “on holiday.” Customers, employees and investors were sure to question the corporate culture. How are everyday values made personal and relatable to this trifecta of audiences?

Here are a few suggestions or strategies for communicators to employ so that additional avenues are created to demonstrate to stakeholders − internally and externally − that your organization is serious about adhering and reinforcing the importance of core values every day.

•    Find settings or events that provide you the forum to deliver practical examples of how your organization lives its core values. Ditch the obligatory, jargon-laced corporate-speak and showcase real-life examples that are indicative of your organization’s values. For example, as a board member of the Village of Allapattah YMCA Family Center and Preschool in Miami, Florida, all of my board’s meetings begin by having someone share a “Y Mission Moment.” The Y Mission Moment is a forum to share a Y story about individuals who have benefited from the Y’s programs and services that allow them to live healthier, more productive lives. Anecdotes that communicate your organization’s values can be woven into speeches, presentations, employee recognition events or conversing with journalists on media conference calls or other informal settings.
•    Proactively communicate examples of organizational values via social media channels, e-newsletters, websites, etc., but demonstrate authenticity of voice when doing this. Be aware of timing and make sure the subject of your communication truly is the correct representative to uphold the values message.
•    Conduct a team project debrief following a communications project or event. Document opportunities missed to communicate organizational values that could be included in future projects. Proactively ask teammates to develop methods to take values-based “lessons learned” and apply them to projects.
•    Hold a strategic partner summit where key stakeholders are invited as part of an exercise to probe how corporate values resonate in real-life situations based on their engagement with your organization. Determine how the feedback from a values review session like this can better meet customer and stakeholder needs.

Whether your organization is a not-for-profit entity or a Fortune 500 company, workplace trends indicate that there are proven advantages to operating in an environment where continuous feedback is prioritized. Take steps now to ensure that you find ways to proactively and consistently communicate the importance of your organizational values as well. And here’s to wishing you an annus mirabilis.

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