YMCA MEMORIES

YMCA Scotland has received £40,100 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) Young Roots programme for an innovative project to capture the oral history of  the YMCA one of Scotland’s oldest youth organisations. Sharing the Past to Shape the Future uses an inter-generational approach, led by our young people from YMCAs across Scotland, capturing oral histories from across the nation. Organisers are asking people who have worked with or enjoyed their time at the YMCA in the past to share their memories online or in person.

This project will engage 25 young people across six locations in exploring the heritage of our movement in Scotland and involve older volunteers in supporting the project. We will partner with the Living Memory Association to provide oral history training for the young participants and opportunities to carry out interviews with older YMCA members, giving young people the chance to see how YMCA has always responded to need, from our support during WW1 to holidaying at Bonskeid House, near Pitlochry, which was run by the YMCA as a youth hostel from 1951 to 2001.