Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that answer the question.
Query: When was the YMCA founded?
The YMCA was founded by George Williams, a London draper, who was typical of the young men drawn to the cities by the Industrial Revolution. He and his colleagues were concerned about the lack of healthy activities for young men in major cities; the options available were usually taverns and brothels. Williams's idea grew out of meetings he held for prayer and Bible-reading among his fellow-workers in a business in the city of London, and on 6 June 1844, he founded the first YMCA in London with the purpose of "the improving of the spiritual condition of young men engaged in the drapery, embroidery, and other trades." By 1851, there were YMCAs in the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States.
YMCA Canada was established over 160 years ago as a charity dedicated to the health of both individuals and communities. YMCA Canada values inclusiveness and accessibility and serves people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities through all stages of life. YMCA Canada is a federation of YMCAs and YMCA-YWCAs who work together to achieve common goals for improving the health of Canadians. Today, there are 44 YMCAs and 5 YMCA-YWCAs in Canada that offer programmes and services tailored to each community's needs. Together, they serve 2 million people in more than 1,000 communities across Canada—and they keep growing.
The national YMCA federation in Canada expresses its statement of purpose:The YMCA in Canada is dedicated to the growth of all persons in spirit, mind and body, and to their sense of responsibility to each other and the global community.YMCAs are a centre of community where friendships are formed and family ties are strengthened. Available programmes include:
Through YMCA financial assistance programmes, the YMCA is accessible to all.
In the US, the YMCA began building SRO facilities in the 1880s to house people from rural areas who moved into cities to look for work. The typical YMCA SRO housing provides "low-income, temporary housing for a rent of $110 per week" for stays that are typically three to six months long. By 1950, 670 of the 1,688 YMCAs in the US provided SRO spaces, which made 66,959 beds available. By the 1970s, the typical YMCA tenant was more likely to be homeless people and youth facing life issues, rather than people migrating from rural areas.
YMCA Football Club was an Irish football club based in Belfast, formed by the members of the Belfast YMCA. It was founded in 1883 and competed as a senior club in the Irish Cup. Its best season was 1888-89, when the club reached the final of both the Irish Cup and the first County Antrim Shield, losing to Distillery on both occasions. The club also competed that season in the 1888-89 FA Cup. Later in 1889, however, the club folded, with most players joining Cliftonville, in what was described as an "amalgamation". In 1891, however, the YMCA Athletic Club acquired the Enfield ground on the Crumlin Road with a view to reviving the football team for the 1891-92 season. The revival was not a success, however, and the team, bottom of the league, resigned before Christmas. The club appears to have folded in 1892.
The Granite City YMCA is a historic YMCA building located at 2001 Edison Avenue in Granite City, Illinois. The building was built in 1924–26 for Granite City's branch of the YMCA, which was founded in 1916. St. Louis, Missouri-based architects Wedemeyer and Nelson designed the Late Gothic Revival style building; their design features a red brick and green tile exterior punctuated by vertical shafts and topped by a parapet. The building is the only institutional building in Granite City designed in the Gothic Revival style. The YMCA used the building for their activities, which included athletics, community education and citizenship classes, community gatherings, and charity work. The building closed in 2004 when the YMCA moved elsewhere.
In the United States, the YMCA exists as a national resource entity (named YMCA of the USA and denoted as Y-USA) plus about 2,700 separate local YMCA entities. The local entities "engage" about 21 million men, women and children, and seek to "nurture the potential of children and teens, improve the nation's health and well-being and provide opportunities to give back and support neighbors."
Founded in 1858, YWCA USA has 225 associations nationwide at more than 1,300 sites serving more than 2 million women and families. Associations were configured into 9 regions until 2012, when the YWCA reorganized with a new CEO and eliminated the regional structure system. Regions varied in size from 19 associations (New England) to 60 associations (Great Lakes). The other regions averaged 32 associations each. In 2015, the associations had over 12,000 staff members and 44,000 volunteers. A YWCA logo was created in 1988 by Saul Bass.
The practice of basketball in Argentina was started by "Asociación Cristiana de Jóvenes (Young Men's Christian Association – YCMA)" in 1912. Canadian Professor Paul Phillip was in charge to teach basketball at the YMCA headquarters in Paseo Colón Avenue, Buenos Aires.
The first basketball clubs in Argentina were YMCA, Hindú and Independiente. By 1912 the first basketball games were held by YMCA headquarters in Buenos Aires. In 1913 the first games between Argentine and Uruguayan YCMA are played. One year later, the YCMA organised the first internal championship. In 1919 the Uruguay national team played a game v. local team Nacional, in Buenos Aires.
In January, 1834, the Young Men’s Association for Mutual Improvement (YMA) opened a reading room with 800 volumes and 100 newspapers and periodicals. The Albany Public Library grew out of this reading room, which remained a subscription library with a $2.00 per annum fee until 1899. The first free library in the city of Albany, NY, the Albany Free Library, was established in 1893 by local educator John A. Howe. In 1900, the Albany Free Library opened the Pine Hills Branch at 272 Ontario Street. In 1901, the Pruyn Library opened at 135 North Pearl under the trusteeship of the YMA. In 1922, the YMA, Pruyn Library, and Albany Free Library merged to become the Albany Public Library with Elizabeth Smith as its first director. In 1923, Albany Public Library and the City of Albany reached a formal agreement to provide services, and the Delaware Branch was established.
Brigham Young (; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader, politician, and settler. He was the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1847 until his death in 1877. He founded Salt Lake City and he served as the first governor of the Utah Territory. Young also led the foundings of the precursors to the University of Utah and Brigham Young University.
The practice of basketball in Argentina was started by "Asociación Cristiana de Jóvenes (Young Men's Christians Association – YCMA)" in 1912., with the first Federation ("Federación Argentina") established to organise competitions not only in Buenos Aires but in several cities around Argentina. Argentina played its first international game against Uruguay in 1921.
The Reformed Episcopal Church (REC) is an Anglican church of evangelical Episcopalian heritage. It was founded in 1873 in New York City by George David Cummins, formerly a bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
In 1958, Connie Gay helped found the Country Music Association and served as its first president. Gay called for a meeting in his hotel room with Wesley Rose, Hubert Long, and Dee Kilpatrick, to discuss the defunct Country Music Disc Jockey Association. The meeting culminated with plans to create a new association, that would cater to all aspects of country music, and the CMA was born. Gay also helped organize the Country Music Foundation, which operates the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. In 1963, the CMA instituted the Connie B. Gay Award as an honor of high prestige. Gay funded the award with his personal assets and established a trust, in his will, to ensure perpetual viability beyond his lifetime. Now called the Founding President's Award, recipients include Roy Acuff, Johnny Cash, Martina McBride, and Brad Paisley.
A conference in August 1974, organized by Norma Sharpe and six other music therapists, led to the founding of the Canadian Music Therapy Association, which was later renamed the Canadian Association for Music Therapy (CAMT). As of 2009, the organization had over 500 members.
STM started as a joint-venture among the Anglican Diocese of West Malaysia, the Methodists and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Malaysia and Singapore (ELCMS) in Malaysia and was opened on 6 January 1979 (Feast of Epiphany). Its stated aim in the Companies Act of Malaysia under which it was incorporated was "to provide education in the Christian faith for the service in the ministry, worship and witness of the Church." This venture built upon a 1974 collaboration between the Anglicans and the Evangelical Lutherans that saw the merger of the Christian Training Centre (founded by the Lutherans in 1969) and the St. Mark's Training Centre (founded by the Anglicans in 1970) that was called "Kolej Theologi Malaysia" (KTM) or Malaysia Theological College (in English).
1842 was the 56th season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). The official foundation of Kent County Cricket Club took place in Canterbury."6 August". Formation of the original Kent County Cricket Club in Canterbury; it was reformed as the present club in 1859. Teams representing Kent had been playing regularly since the early 18th century but these were invariably "ad hoc" sides raised by wealthy patrons.
CMA was started by Herb Shreve,
an Arkansas pastor who purchased a motorcycle to close the generation gap with his rebellious son. As they rode together to biker events and rallies, it was apparent that the church had no outreach toward motorcyclists. At first, he prayed that others would take this mantle of ministry, but he accepted the task and began evangelizing alone at motorcycle rallies. In 1975, he resigned from his church to start CMA. 
The organization grew to over 125,000 members and over 1200 chapters in all 50 states, and then gained chapters in 31 foreign countries, through the CMA International Ministry. René Changuion started CMA South Africa in 1980 and was the first country to be in the CMA International Coalition, now called CMA International. The UK organization was formed in 1983 when members of the Christian Bikers Association, established in the UK in 1979, approached the CMA in the USA and South Africa.
Father's Day was founded in Spokane, Washington at the YMCA in 1910 by Sonora Smart Dodd, who was born in Arkansas. Its first celebration was in the Spokane YMCA on June 19, 1910. Her father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, was a single parent who raised his six children there. After hearing a sermon about Jarvis' Mother's Day at Central Methodist Episcopal Church in 1909, she told her pastor that fathers should have a similar holiday honoring them. Although she initially suggested June 5, her father's birthday, the pastors did not have enough time to prepare their sermons, and the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday of June.
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers was then founded on 27 January 1847, in the Queen's Hotel next to Curzon Street station in Birmingham by the railway pioneer George Stephenson and others. McConnnell became the first chairman. The founding of the Institution was said by Stephenson's biographer Samuel Smiles to have been spurred by outrage that Stephenson, the most famous mechanical engineer of the age, had been refused admission to the Institution of Civil Engineers unless he sent in "a probationary essay as proof of his capacity as an engineer". However, this account has been challenged as part of a pattern of exaggeration on Smiles' part aimed at glorifying the struggles that various Victorian mechanical engineers had to overcome in their personal efforts to attain greatness. Though there was certainly coolness between Stephenson and the Institution of Civil Engineers, it is more likely that the motivation behind the founding of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers was simply the need for a specific home for the growing number of mechanical engineers employed in the burgeoning railway and manufacturing industries.
In 1784, a Catholic parish was formally founded in Stockholm. The members lacked suitable premises, however. Therefore, until 1837, Stockholm's Catholics celebrated mass in the Freemasons hall inside the building of today's Stockholm City Museum, which they were offered to rent for the purposes.
The Yuma War was the name given to a series of United States military operations conducted in southern California and what is today southwestern Arizona from 1850 to 1853. The Yumans were the primary opponent of the United States Army, though engagements were fought between the Americans and other native groups in the region. Conflict generally took the form of guerrilla warfare, and, over the course of three years, the army engaged in pursuing unfriendly natives, protecting American settlers crossing the Colorado River and preventing conflict between the native tribes. A peace treaty in summer of 1853 was signed, ending hostilities between the Yuma and the United States, but it sparked a short war between the Yuma and the Cocopah. During the conflict, the historic Fort Yuma was constructed and became an important outpost on the frontier.
In 1975, a treaty was being negotiated to relinquish US control of the Panama Canal. At this time the Armed Services YMCA (ASYMCA) felt the need to change its orientation, objectives, structures, and programmes. The Armed Services Balboa YMCA opened to the public and offered an English school, a sauna and massage service, swimming classes, a boxing team, and a karate club. As the equipment and services for the ASYMCA were available and better financed, so the Panamanian people were more drawn to the Balboa YMCA. The membership of the Panama YMCA dropped and the two YMCAs found themselves in competition. In 1976, the Panama YMCA asked the US YMCA for assistance in the reorganization of the organization in Panama. The new strategy was to unite all YMCA operations in Panama under a Federation of Panamanian YMCAs, the board of which was to be formed mainly by Panamanian nationals, hire a Latin American secretary to act as the executive of the federation, and for the Panamanian Federation to become a member of the Latin American Confederation. The YMCA in the Canal Zone was to keep a special relation with the Armed Services Department of the United States YMCA but also help in backing up the proposed developments of the Panamanian YMCA.
In 1969, prior to the founding of the SPLC, Dees sued the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in Montgomery, Alabama at the request of civil rights activist Mary Louise Smith, whose son Vincent and nephew Edward had been refused admission to attend a YMCA summer camp. The YMCA, being a private organization, was presumptively not bound by the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which would have forbidden them to discriminate against children on the basis of race. However, Dees discovered that, in order to avoid desegregating its recreational facilities, the city of Montgomery had instead signed a secret agreement with the YMCA to operate them as private facilities but on the city's behalf. This led the trial court to rule that the YMCA had a "municipal charter" and was therefore bound by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution to desegregate its facilities. According to historian Timothy Minchin, Dees was "emboldened by this victory" when he founded the SPLC in 1971. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit later affirmed the trial judge's finding, reversing only his order that the YMCA use affirmative action to racially integrate its board of directors.
The Akron Area YMCA was founded in 1870. In the 1920s, the Akron YMCA Building was constructed, and the YMCA moved into the building. It was intended to be used as most YMCA branches were used in that era: a Christian organization that was meant to give people a place to eat, stay for short or long terms, and worship. The exercise facilities in place today were used for a variety of different reasons then, but it was originally constructed with an indoor pool which is still in use. The main part of the building was used as living space for many of its members (of both sexes), and was the only place some could turn when they had not much else.
The Ohio YMCA Youth in Government program was led by Ohio-West Virginia Area YMCA from 1952 until 1970 when the Ohio-West Virginia Area Council ceased to operate program in the 1970s as the Ohio-West Virginia Area YMCA and the State YMCA of Michigan became the Great Lakes Region YMCA. In 1972 the Great Lakes Region YMCA appointed an Executive of what was called the West Virginia-Ohio YMCA, operated by the Great Lakes Region to run the YMCA Youth in Government and HI-Y programs throughout the states of West Virginia and Ohio. The Great Lakes Region continued to support these programs into the 1980s. In 1984 a new Ohio-West Virginia YMCA is chartered by the National YMCA. At the end of 2012 the Ohio-West Virginia YMCA made the decision to no longer be a YMCA and chose to return their charter to Y-USA, at this time the Ohio Alliance of YMCA's began operating the Ohio YMCA Youth in Government programs.