New Year Navel Gazing

January... it's sleeting outside and Christmas is a long-forgotten, lovely routine of food, drink and family.

So, back to work with a bang! It's really sinking in now, as we sign off on budgets for the year 2012/13, just how much less income there is due to the economic climate. Our local YMCAs felt the pinch before we did nationally but it clearly is our turn now.  Still, we move towards this new financial year with heads up and considerable determination, yet with some trepidation too.

Probably a clear sign of the climate we are working in is the strategic focus for YMCA Scotland over the coming year. It will focus all our resource and expertise on supporting local YMCAs in a difficult time. We always prioritise this end of our work but over the next year we will focus practically all we have to support staff and volunteers in local YMCAs to thrive. This simply reflects some of the challenges out there.

Great timing though that 150 of us gathered over the past weekend in London to celebrate our Christian Mission and the 'Why' for many of us in our work. The values underwriting YMCAs work become even more important during the hard times.

The other big motivator is the shared goal for so many of us across Scotland now to divert and prevent thousands of young people from making wrong choices and to achieve their fullest potential.

I'm detecting some swithering on the commitment from government to engaging local communities in prevention. We can't let this happen! We can do this and YMCA will be the first to step forward to say we will help to make it happen. In a tough financial  environment we need more than ever to prioritise the recruitment of an army of community volunteers to take ownership of this agenda.