150 years of history at YMCA Norfolk
 2007: A History of the YMCA in Norfolk and Lowestoft covers 150 years of service across the region. Here are some of the more notable moments of those 150 years taken from the book by Peter Larter and Charlotte Barringer.
1856: Norwich Young Men’s Christian Association was founded by a group of young men, largely Nonconformists, to help apprentices and shop workers in Norwich and to improving the moral and religious life of the City.
1886: 48 St Giles in Norwich was bought with the help of Jeremiah James Colman, of mustard fame. The extra space enabled the Association to open a junior centre for boys just apprenticed and for the senior Sunday School for scholars.
1888: A gymnasium was built at the rear of 48 St Giles.
1912: During the Great Flood of August the YMCA took in 280 people who had been evacuated from their homes.
1914: Norwich YMCA launched an appeal to provide hostel accommodation primarily to cater for young men coming as strangers to Norwich.
1914-1918: During the First World War the YMCA provided places for soldiers to eat, rest and write home.
1920s: After the war, the YMCA concentrated on helping the country recover by providing youth work, education and physical fitness, including three centres in Norwich catering for 400 boys.
 1930s: During the recession, the YMCA worked with unemployed men and boys by providing debates, concerts and plays, lantern lectures, wireless talks and painting groups.
1939-1945: During the Second World War the whole premises and organization was turned over to accommodating and feeding the troops and providing for their leisure. They also provided mobile canteens for daily visits to isolated troops in the Norfolk countryside providing tea, doughnuts, woodbines and shoe laces.
1941: A second hostel was opened at 56 Bethel Street including a reading room and small chapel
1944: There were 32 YMCA centres in Norfolk and 20 mobile vans including tea cars, mobile cinema vans and other for gramophone recitals.
 1950s: Was the era of the hostel being occupied by middle-class and overseas students and young men in white collar jobs. The summer camps were proving very popular giving the young boys a taste of adventure.
1957: A matron was appointed when general secretary Mr Cody said: “we are anxious that the YMCA be something more than a place in which to sleep and eat. We are anxious that it should be a home from home.”
1962: The first YMCA summer day camps were pioneered by Norwich YMCA. They included a treasure hunt, first aid, camping instruction, gym, rafting, canoeing, archery, carpentry and athletics.
Since then more than 10,000 Norfolk youngsters have taken part in the holiday schemes. One youngster, after a week’s camping, said: “This is the best thirty bob my father has ever spent on me.”
1960s: Was a period of expansion for the YMCA, a large new sports hall combined with a new Boys Club.
 1968: A grant from the British Council helped enable a further growth in accommodation with the purchase of 46 St Giles Street.
1969: In October, newly-married Mr and Mrs Roger Chandler made history as the first couple to spend their honeymoon at Norwich YMCA.
1970s: Saw demand for accommodation for overseas students and young workers fall as other accommodation was built around the city and the YMCA turned towards meeting the needs of the homeless, unemployed and disadvantaged young people.
1979: In January, John Drake was appointed general secretary and brought a fundamental change to the operation of the Association. His priorities were financial stability and mission development.
1986: By now, the YMCA Camps department was advertising an impressive range of holidays for young people: water activities in North Walsham, pioneering in Wales and archery, abseiling, map work and sports in the Lake District. Other activities provided by the YMCA included orienteering, assault courses, computing, sailing, film-making, football, rowing and art and crafts.
1992: A growing work was developing with schools to help pupils deal with personal and family problems that were affecting their schoolwork.
1990: A combination of social changes and Government grants led to a shift in emphasis towards the hostel catering for young people with special needs, particularly those with drugs or alcohol dependency or other forms of disadvantage.
 1994: Norwich YMCA launched the pioneering Foyer concept and also in that year Prince Charles visited St Giles Street on a fact-finding tour (pictured right courtesy of Archant) and a BBC TV documentary on the YMCA featured Norwich.
1998: The summer camps for children were attracting 400 young people, there was increasing contact with schools and prison work and asylum resettlement was being developed.
1999: Norwich YMCA offered support to British troops in the Balkans by providing a tented outpost serving hot food and drink as well as contact with their homes for thousands of the soldiers drafted to help refugees fleeing Kosovo.
2000: With the new millennium, YMCA Norfolk looked to the future and CEO John Drake outlined his vision for a new purpose-built building to offer vulnerable young people a full range of services and programmes.
2002: In May, John Drake received the Pioneer of the City Award from the Norwich Evening News for his leading role in developing the SOS Bus Project.
2006: The name YMCA Norfolk was adopted to reflect the YMCA’s work across the county.
 2007: The YMCA started work on building a new 34 purpose-built accommodation units at the Norwich Bus Station site and a second 40-unit development was announced.
The YMCA continues to work with dozens of asylum seekers and prisoners. It works in 34 schools across the county as well as providing an ever-expanding range of accommodation options for young homeless people in lodgings, Nightstop, hostels and self-contained units.
YMCA Norfolk has an impressive story to tell and a heritage to treasure, but more importantly it has new generations to serve.
A limited number of copies of A History of the YMCA in Norfolk and Lowestoft are available from the YMCA by writing to Susie Knights at YMCA Norfolk, The Street, Trowse, Norwich, NR14 8SP while stocks last. A suggested donation of £5 would be welcome to cover printing and postage costs.
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