YMCA Partnerships

Our Learning Collaborative helps YMCAs implement Community As Medicine™

We partner with innovative YMCAs that want to expand their health coaching offerings, strengthen clinical integrations and explore new opportunities for revenue generation that align with their strategic goals. Selected YMCAs become part of an engaged community of peers that receive 12 months of training and technical assistance to successfully launch a Community as Medicine program.

If you have coaches who want to become NBHWC certified, you don't have to wait for the next Learning Collaborative cycle to kick off. You can enroll your health coaches in our training program at any time.

Health Coach Training

Expand Health Coaching Offerings

With support from Open Source Wellness, YMCAs design their Community as Medicine health coaching program, ensure their staff are ready to lead experiential and effective health coaching programs, and have ongoing access to Open Source Wellness implementation experts to address challenges in real time.

Strengthen Clinical Partnerships

Learn how to build and expand existing clinical partnerships by offering evidence-informed, transdiagnostic programs that can receive clinical referrals and integrate clinical staff into program delivery.

Build Financial Sustainability

Build strong financial sustainability pathways by understanding effective reimbursement and revenue generating strategies, honing your value proposition to potential partners and exploring best practices and lessons learned from others.

Our 2024 Cohort

Y of the North

San Diego YMCA

Greater Seattle YMCA

Denver YMCA

12 months of support to design, train and launch.

The Community As Medicine Learning Collaborative provides customized group and individual support for program leaders and frontline staff to ensure successful design and implementation of a CAM program.

Training and support focuses on our six core components to ensure YMCAs are prepared to launch effective, outcome-oriented health coaching programs.

Have questions? Contact us.

Organizational Support & Readiness

Buy-in and sustained support from executive leadership is key for the long-term success of a CAM program. We help Y leaders identify key organizational priorities and value propositions that will ensure a solid foundation and ongoing support.

Skilled and Engaged Health Coaches

Diverse, trauma-informed, and culturally relevant teams of health coaches are fundamental to a successful CAM program. We can train coaches in our program, or work with already-trained coaches to strengthen key competencies.

Accessible & Inclusive Program Design

Health equity is a core design principle for CAM programs. We help YMCAs expand access to health coaching beyond private pay or membership-based offerings, utilizing clinical referral systems and financial sustainability strategies.

Strong Referral Pathways

Some YMCAs have existing clinical referral relationships, and some do not. We help strengthen clinic-community partnerships, supporting information exchange, billing, revenue sharing, and Group Medical Visits to uplevel these essential collaborations.

Financial Stability

We support YMCAs in exploring and implementing innovative strategies for financial sustainability in their Community as Medicine programs, including Group Medical Visits, Community Health Worker Billing, 1115 Medicaid Waiver programs, and more.

Analytics and Evaluation

We help YMCA leaders identify key success metrics, including clinical patient health outcomes, participant engagement/retention, healthcare utilization, membership, and more, - and implement sustainable measurement and analysis strategies.

Our Application Process

We want to make sure that every YMCA we invite into the Learning Collboratory has a strong chance to succeed. Our application process is designed to help assess mission alignment and leadership commitment to equity-centered health coaching.

We also want to make sure that your YMCA can thrive with clinical partnerships/integration. Past experience with referral partnerships like Livestrong or the diabetes prevention program are a plus.