Heaving lifting for the Niagara YMCAs
Niagara’s YMCAs are up and moving again — and a familiar face is helping lead the charge.
Suzanne Johnston, who retired as president of Niagara Health midway through 2019, returned to the fray and is serving as co-CEO of the YMCAs of Niagara with Steve Boone. They make a good team, Johnston said. Boone’s specialty is operations. Her skill set in health care and administration is a valuable asset as the organization navigates its way through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I was called in by the Y board for support and help with the reopening,” Johnston said. “We struck a new leadership model, and I am serving as a kind of a strategic adviser to the board, which is also trying to find their permanent CEO. Things are going better than I would have ever imagined. The Ys were all closed in March — it was sort of grim. People were nervous. People were unsure.”
The doors are open again in Grimsby, St. Catharines, and Port Colborne. Johnston said the Welland branch will reopen next. Discussions about the reopening in Niagara Falls are also underway.
Countless hours went into getting the buildings physically ready, and the staff trained on all the health protocols, Johnston said. Provincial public health guidelines and knowledge gleaned from YMCAs across the country provided the backbone necessary to keep everyone safe.
They are screening and taking temporal temperatures at the entrance. Users still swipe their membership cards, but the Region’s public health department can access the data on who was in the building should contact tracing be required.
Johnston is in a good position to provide advice. She came to Niagara in June 2014 from the Northern Health Authority of British Columbia, where she was vice-president of clinical programs and chief nursing officer. She earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees in nursing from University of New Brunswick and completed her doctoral studies at University of Arizona.
Johnston said YMCA administration and staff know they can’t eliminate all the risks, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t going to do all they can. Plans are checked and rechecked. Building public confidence is critical, and there isn’t much room for error.
The budget is tight.
“Our membership gives us the ability to support families and programs, and the Y has always been so much more than a fitness club,” Johnston said. “We were able to get some extra funding from the United Way for things like the summer camps.
“We have been tapping into as much funding as we can, but it is the member’s fees that pay the freight. The more members we have, the better it is. We are a charity. We rely heavily on donations, and that’s difficult for people right now.
“We are walking a very fine line, and it has made for some hard choices. We had to lay off some staff and terminate some others. It’s not where we want to be. It’s so said. We want to bring everybody back. At the same time, we are facing significant issues and pressures that we haven’t faced before.”
The measures are informed by public health requirements, Niagara conditions, and best practices gleaned from YMCAs across the country.
Johnston said she likes the Y’s culture and can-do attitude in difficult circumstances.
“I’m a member of the Y as well,” Johnston said. “When I went back to my fitness class, everybody had their spot on the floor. We couldn’t run around. That is not a best practice, but it was good to see everybody again. I hadn’t seen many of them since March. It was like a reunion.
“That experience speaks to the heart of the mission of the Y. It’s about the community. It’s about helping people. It’s about supporting people as they reach for their goals, whatever they may be.”