Rochester YMCA working to expand operations

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Rochester’s YMCA is laying out its plans to keep up operations in the city even as it struggles and maybe expand them again down the road.

Thursday the "Y" announced its blueprint for serving the city.

The toughest is the end of operations at its Carlson Center but the organization insists it plans to stay devoted to the City of Rochester.

Y leadership unveiled the recommendations of its task force on serving the city, recommendations which its board has approved.

They include new leadership most notably bringing on Danielle Lyman Torres, formerly the city’s Commissioner of Recreation and Youth Services.

She’ll be the Y’s new Vice President of Urban Services.

President George Romell says the organization has been hammered by COVID, especially at suburban locations which it had used to subsidize services in the city.

Now its plan calls for finding partners to encourage health in the city, make the organization financially sustainable and develop an appropriate scale wellness center in the center city.

Romell also said, don’t worry, the Y’s locations at Lewis Street, Maplewood, and Southwest will not close.

"A Y is not a gym and a pool,” Romell said. “A Y is so much more. And with community partners, we are looking at how we can, down the road, and you can see it’s a 4 to 6-year time frame, of developing another, Full facility, neighborhood hub, Y.”

So the location has to be critical.

This Y sits on the west side of the river."

We may not have seen the last of the beloved Carlson Center.

Romell said the Y is trying to find a partner to make use of the building to serve the community.