YWCA Board Ponders Options

Following criticism of a proposed merger with the Boys & Girls Club, the board of the Central Orange County YWCA late Monday discussed an alternative that would preserve a scaled-down version of the beleaguered 81-year-old organization.

“We want to go back to our roots,” said Shannon Tucker, the YWCA’s executive director. “We want to get more into community outreach.”

Under the plan discussed, the Boys & Girls Club would move into the YWCA’s Grand Avenue headquarters in Orange and take over the Y’s after-school programs. The YWCA would continue as a separate entity working rent-free out of an office in the building.

“It would involve giving the opportunity for the YWCA to focus on issues that the organization is promoting nationally, such as women’s empowerment and racial and social justice,” Tucker said. “The building has been an albatross for us -- this way we can regroup and refocus.”

The board on Monday postponed a vote on the issue, and instead scheduled a meeting for Jan. 6 to consider several options for the YWCA.

The merger was originally proposed as a solution to the YWCA’s increasing financial problems.

At a public meeting before the board went into closed session, however, many parents and community members spoke against that plan.

“I believe that they’ve been acting against the bylaws and that there’s no need to merge with another organization,” said Arianna Barrios, a board member and critic of the original plan. “I think we’re facing a simple cash-flow problem that’s easily corrected.”

Diana Livingstone, a parent who remembered taking ballet lessons at the YWCA as a child, said she has been disheartened by the possible closure.

“I feel saddened and betrayed,” she said.

DeAnn DeBerry, a neighbor, agreed, calling such a loss a “terrible thing” for the community.

Trudy Chatham, 78, a lifelong YWCA member, said she would mourn the loss of the building.

“I’m disturbed,” she said. “We knocked ourselves out to build and keep this building -- they shouldn’t sell it out.”