Chapel Hill Y Merges With Triangle YMCA

The Chapel Hill Y has been voted to become a branch of the YMCA of the Triangle.

Associate Vice President of Communications for the YMCA of the Triangle, Jennifer Nelson, says that this merge will be greatly beneficial for members of the volunteer staff as well as the community members across the area.

“This relationship between YMCA of the Triangle and the Chapel Hill YMCA will mean great things for the entire region,” says Nelson. “Each Y is a reflection of the community where it’s located, and we think that this will provide the opportunity for staff to grow and be part of the formalized training that the YMCA of the Triangle has, but will allow the volunteer board to think about serving the community in more strategic ways. We anticipate a lot of benefits for people who are already members and for the broader community.”

Because of such a change, Nelson says the YMCA of the Triangle is considering new opportunities in the near future for those who wish to utilize the all of the facilities offered by all branches the Triangle YMCA. She also says that the merge will not result in any changes to member’s accessibility to the Chapel Hill Y.

“We do have, throughout the YMCA of the Triangle, an opportunity: it’s called a Triangle Membership,” says Nelson. “It’s a few dollars more a month, where you can access every branch in the region, and that will certainly be an opportunity, but there may be some other ones. As it is right now, if you are a Chapel Hill Y member, and you go to a Chapel Hill YMCA, it should be exactly the same.”

After working with the Chapel Hill Y in the past on different events and projects, particularly the annual support campaign “We Build People,” which added 19% more people to YMCA programs in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community, Nelson says this merge will be “phenomenal” and will make things better for the Triangle community.

“We’ve learned from each other,” says Nelson, “and worked really side-by-side through a number of efforts. We are looking forward to working with everyone more closely.”