Updated 7:30 a.m. Tuesday
Roll out at Brentwood, Maryland Farms Ys early next month
Brentwood Home Page news reports
The Brentwood, Cool Springs and Maryland Farms YMCAs will be getting a new look early next month – along with every other Y in the nation.

On Monday, the YMCA of Middle Tennessee began local implementation of a national YMCA brand strategy designed to increase understanding of the YMCA’s impact on communities. The roll out began at the Putnam County Y Monday.

The Cool Springs Y is scheduled to be rebranded on Nov. 30, followed by the Brentwood Family Y Dec. 1 and 2, and the Maryland Farms Y on Dec. 5-7. The area's newest Y, at Christ Church on Old Hickory Boulevard will be rebranded on Dec. 8.

"The Y is implementing a national YMCA brand strategy designed to better engage people with our mission. We expect this strategy to increase the understanding of the impact that YMCAs make. All the YMCAs across the country are coming together with one voice," Bob Kniestrick, group vice president at the Maryland Farms Y, said. "Our YMCA has significant impact in our local community. The YMCA is for youth development, healthy living, and social responsibility."

The new brand strategy – originally unveiled by the YMCA of the USA in 2010 and the result of more than two years of analysis and research – was introduced Monday at a press conference at the YMCA Urban Services Youth Development Center in Nashville. As part of the event, the YMCA unveiled:

• The adoption of a new forward-looking logo. The YMCA‘s first new national identity mark in 43 years, the new logo reflects the organization‘s diversity and vibrancy.  
• The embracing of a revitalized, impact-focused messaging platform.  This platform will highlight the Y‘s unique capacity to address many of the changes facing our state and nation today
• A strategic framework that focuses the YMCA‘s resources in three core areas: youth development, healthy living and social responsibility

‘Exciting’ new chapter

As the nation‘s seventh-largest YMCA association, the YMCA of Middle Tennessee nurtures the potential of more than 300,000 people each year who call this region home. President and CEO Journey Johnson says the Y has been focused on changing lives for the better for 160 years.

Through its new brand strategy and framework, the nonprofit will further extend its reach into communities to nurture the potential of youth and teens, improve the community‘s health and well-being and provide opportunities to support its neighbors.

Local Y leaders also believe the revitalized brand will further efforts to raise awareness and understanding of the organization‘s historic and ongoing commitment to strengthening community. Research conducted last year by the YMCA of Middle Tennessee showed that while the organization is well-liked in the community, the full scope of its work is not well-known.

More than four out of five residents continue to see the Y as primarily a “swim and gym.”

“While people know and love us, they don‘t fully understand the positive difference we make in the community,” said Maria Wolfe, senior vice president of brand strategy. “This shift in the way we present ourselves will help to bridge the gap that exists between what we really do in our community and what people think we do.

“It will not only help people recognize the impact our YMCA has, it will also encourage even more people to take advantage of all that we have to offer.”

Year-long process

Once the national strategy was unveiled in 2010, local YMCA associations were given up to five years to make the switch. While many Y‘s quickly adopted the new visual identity, the YMCA of Middle Tennessee‘s staff and volunteer leadership decided to take a more deliberate approach to its transition. Work began with internal education and training to help key stakeholders understand the reason for the new brand strategy and the shared responsibility that comes with the changes.

On a national level, the new brand strategy also embraces the nickname used for the organization for decades: “the Y.” However, neither the national organization nor the local association nor any local Y is changing its name.

“The decision to refer to our national movement collectively as ‘the Y’ simply means we‘re saying it‘s OK to talk about ourselves the same way others already do,” vice president of communications Jessica Fain said Monday. “Despite what some national news outlets concluded last year, it doesn‘t mean we‘re changing our name or our Christian mission.”

Fain further noted that this is the first time in 43 years that the trademarked national identity mark has included the organization‘s full acronym, YMCA, giving the “C” an increased visual prominence across the country, but added that isn‘t what puts the C in YMCA.

“The way we operate on a daily basis will always be a far greater indicator of our commitment to fulfilling our Christian mission than any logo or acronym ever could be. Just ask the 13 churches who meet in local Ys because they don‘t have their own building, or the more than 300 people who place prayer requests in a box at their Y each week, or the four volunteer chaplains who are part of a pilot effort to explore placing a chaplain in all of our centers or the more than 2,000 children across the globe who will receive Christmas gifts from someone they‘ve never met thanks to our Y‘s partnership with Operation Christmas Child,” Fain said.

“The ‘C’ always has and always will live in us and the work we do. Presenting ourselves in a new way so that people better understand our impact doesn‘t change that.”