HISTORY

The Greater Scranton YMCA re-located to Dunmore from Downtown Scranton and opened its new facility in 1972. At this time, membership and programs were offered to women and girls and the facility became a full fledged family organization. When the local YWCA ceased its operations in Scranton in the 1980s, the Greater Scranton YMCA offered to incorporate their remaining members into its roster. 

At the Y, our most important goal is to keep our facility available to the kids and families who need it most, as giving kids a safe and nurturing place to go benefits everyone and makes the community we love a better place to live. As a charity, we work every day to address community needs and ensure that all are welcome and that no one is turned away for an inability to pay.

The Greater Scranton YMCA’s mission is to put Christian principles into practice through programs that build a healthy spirit, mind and for all. Here, strengthening community is our cause! 

The Y is the organization that

• saw to and met the practical and spiritual needs of young men flocking to London during the Industrial Revolution.
• has served the military and military families in every U.S. conflict since the Civil War.
• inspired the formation of the U.S.O., Peace Corps and Father’s Day.
• met immigrants coming off the boats at Ellis Island to offer services and support in making a new life.
• began the first night school and English as a Second Language courses.
• invented group swimming lessons, basketball, volleyball and racquetball, and gave them to the community.
• provided quality and affordable child care when women began joining the workforce in droves.
• began values education at a time of social unrest.