SCR Regional Highlight: New YMCA and Library in San Antonio Team Up to Provide Wellness and Knowledge

Posted by nnlmscr on April 17th, 2017 Posted in: Community Engagement, Fitness, SCR Regional Highlight, Texas

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Photo provided by San Antonio Public Library

Together, the San Antonio Public Library System and the YMCA of Greater San Antonio opened a new facility in the quickly growing northwest San Antonio last November. The new facility has a shared lobby making it easy to learn how to improve your health in the Potranco Branch Library on one side of the facility, and then put that knowledge into action on the other side at the Mays Family YMCA at Potranco.

“Obviously a lot of our goals are the same,” said Cheryl Sheehan, San Antonio Public Library branch coordinator, in a Rivard Report article. “(We want) to change people’s live with health and information.”

The area where the new facility is located is a perfect spot, populated with many young professionals and families, but was underserved by these major institutions previously.

The YMCA branch will have extended hours to cater to the lives of the individuals it serves, and the library branch is considering something similar. The library has already installed after-hours hold lockers accessible in the shared lobby for YMCA patrons to pick up books they requested. And there is a Redbox-like machine where library patrons can browse books to checkout after hours, similar to how someone can rent movies through a Redbox.

The new YMCA branch also isn’t limited to just exercise equipment and summer camps–they’ve adapted to fit the needs of the community and promote overall wellness by building a test kitchen, while also hiring a registered dietician (in conjunction, the library will have healthy cookbooks), a peaceful outdoor area, a teen corner that will provide more independence, and a children’s area that will allow kids to learn through playtime.

Overall, the facility is able to combine two important components for a person’s well being and bring them together in a cohesive unit.

To read more about the new facility, please visit “YMCA and SAPL United to Bring Wellness to Northwest San Antonio.”

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