Aldine YMCA, a “Y without walls”

The Aldine Family YMCA operates out of multiple locations throughout the community. Their offices are located at 10960 North Freeway.

By Christine Nguyen

The Aldine-Greenspoint Family YMCA is not your typical YMCA. In fact, it’s not a YMCA in the traditional sense at all.

Only one of two of its kind in the Greater Houston area, the Aldine-Greenspoint Y is a “Y without Walls.” Instead of a traditional building, the Aldine Y uses existing facilities throughout the community to run its programs while operating out of one main office storefront.

“That’s the neat part about what we do,” senior program director Corey Calcote said. “We are really out in the community. Instead of the typical YMCA where the community comes to you, we try to bring ourselves to the community and serve them right where they are.”

The Aldine-Greenspoint Y maintains relationships with several partners in the area that provide spaces for its numerous programs. These include the East Aldine Management District, the Greenspoint Management District, Lone Star College System and Aldine ISD. The Y has about 1,000 program members and about 175 members who can use any YMCA facility in the city.

Day camps, sports programs and other activities are held in parks, Aldine ISD schools, the North Harris Lone Star college campus, the Acres Homes multi-service center, churches, apartment complexes and a number of other sites in the community.

While not having a traditional facility may seem like a disadvantage to some, social responsibility director Claudia Sanchez said that by allowing staffers to build strong relationships in the community, it can actually prove to be a blessing.

“Right now, with the summer day camp kids, you see them every day,” Sanchez said. “You spend 10 hours a day with them so at times, you actually spend more time with them than their parents.”

Despite multiple locations, the Aldine-Greenspoint Y offers essentially all of the same programs as a traditional YMCA, is funded the same as a traditional YMCA and even engenders the same sense of community as a traditional YMCA.

“We finished out an ESL class … and it was so funny, the last class they had this big potluck,” Sanchez said. “It was like a feast, and it was probably about eight people, but they really felt like a family in that small class.”

Calcote said he hopes that the small communities they build in the area will eventually grow into one large, unified community. But without the visibility of a central location, Calcote says they still face one minor challenge: letting people know they exist.

“The people in this community have embraced what we’re trying to do more so than I could have ever imagined,” Calcote said. “It’s amazing what we’re able to accomplish if we can just get the word out. As long as we’ve been here, people still don’t know that we’re here sometimes.”