Team Member Al Providing a Safe Place For All

Al, a youth development leader at the Spears YMCA, shares why he loves to work at the Y and his personal mission to help older kids handle difficult situations. Learn more about his story below or watch the video.

“I work at the Y because I’ve been going to the Y since I was five years old and fun fact this is the YMCA I went to growing up. I moved away because my dad was a basketball coach so we had to go somewhere else and while I was in college I came to Greensboro UNCG and I need a job and I was like well I went to the YMCA so I came back and I’ve been since like 2018 I think. It’s been a long time. So, yeah that’s the reason why I’m here.

This place has always been so caring to me. They love my growth. So, I’ll have a new opportunity they’ll be wonderful to give me a reference and then they’d be like well we’re here whenever you come back and that’s how it is now. I just graduated and they’re like we’re here are here as long as you need to be here. I love being a safe place for some of these kids because I as a LGBT individual know that it’s kind of hard to be yourself sometimes. I work with the older kids so we get some of the bullying some of the, I wouldn’t say slurs never heard anyone say anything, but you what I mean. And I like to be there to educate them on how to handle situations the right way and to just to be more compassionate to other people overall.”

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