At the YMCA of Greater Seattle, health is not defined by a single program or outcome. It’s shaped by relationships, trust, and the everyday connections that help guide and motivate people to improve their well-being.
As Josh Stabenfeldt, Associate Vice President, put it, the Y is “really a community hub,” where building a healthy lifestyle and healthcare support come together. For some, that means joining a fitness class or having coffee with someone who understands their challenges. For others, it means structured support through programs like diabetes prevention or blood pressure management.
This approach is rooted in the Y’s long history of whole person health. “We have always done this work,” Stabenfeldt explained, “but now we are becoming frontrunners in how we do it with the medical community.” That partnership with providers is central to the Y’s strategy, and few people understand that better than Sally Sundar, Program Executive for Health Integration & Transformation.
Sundar describes her role as building bridges between clinical care and community support. “We have referral relationships with hundreds of healthcare providers and clinics,” she said. These referrals are built directly into electronic health record systems so clinicians can easily refer someone to the YMCA for something like increased physical activity, or weight management, blood pressure control, cancer survivorship, or disease-specific support like its highly effective diabetes prevention program.
We see these programs as an extension of someone’s clinical care,” Sundar said. “So, as much as possible, we’re looking to health plans to offset the cost. That’s why funding from partners like Premera has been so instrumental.”
Leveling the healthcare playing field
Not all communities have equal access to clinical care, which is where the Y’s community engagement work has the biggest impact. “We have organizations that bring in volunteer nurses or other providers to community events,” said Katrina Gangsaas, Community Health Program Manager, adding that these partners help connect people to programs and services they might not otherwise seek out.
Teddy Ayele, Community Health Team Manager for the Seattle Y, works directly with immigrant and refugee communities and sees firsthand how cultural responsiveness shapes health outcomes. One example he cited had to do with encouraging mammogram screenings. To help reduce wariness and hesitancy about the procedure, the Y provided culturally tailored education sessions, then brought mobile mammography screening clinics directly into underserved neighborhoods. “We take the entire clinic into the community and get people tested right there,” he said.
The same approach applies to colon cancer screening in East African communities, where screening rates are low. “We created linguistically responsive materials and brought in subject matter experts from the community,” Ayele explained. “People would rather hear from someone who speaks their language and understands their culture.”
“A living, breathing testament”
Another example Ayele often mentions to show the impact of YMCA programs, and perhaps the most powerful, is the story of a young man named Marcos, a member of Seattle’s Ethiopian community, who suffered a severe stroke that initially left him almost completely paralyzed. Ayele noted the profound effect this incident had not only on Marcos’s physical health, but mental health as well. Marcos couldn’t see much hope for recovery or a path back to a life where he wasn’t dependent on caregivers. “I almost thought he wanted to give up,” Ayele said.
Ayele and one of his colleagues were able to convince Marcos to attend a group exercise program, and that small step proved to be critical. “He started coming there because he needed some support,” Ayele said. “They have a senior program twice a week, and Marcos starts coming there and seeing people from all walks of life, other people are in a wheelchair, in a walker, some people are with a cane. He starts seeing that stuff and he’s relatively a young person, so he’s seeing these people who are in their 70s and 80s working out.”
As Marcos started to engage with the program he also started seeing results, which drove more engagement. Two years later, Marcos is a different man. “I literally saw the transformation from the wheelchair into a walker, to no cane, wheelchair, none of that stuff. He runs,” Ayele said. From needing 24-hour-a-day care, Marcos now only has help with housecleaning a few times a week. “That guy is running now. He takes care of himself. He is a living, breathing testament to our work.”
It wasn’t just exercise and community that had an impact, however. Ayele and his colleague served as health navigators for Marcos as well, helping connect him to different resources in the healthcare system that related to his recovery and other social services he needed but was having trouble accessing. Ayele’s ability to speak the same language gave Marcos support in a way he hadn’t experienced before.
I think it points out how health is so personal,” Sundar said. “There’s this assumption that well, you would never want diabetes, you should do this so you don’t get it, or you have a stroke, you should do this so you get better…”
But if people don’t have that social support and that relational support or someone to help them — I think that’s the bridge that our program provides. It makes health feel real and doable, and connects it to your values, which is not always easy to find in the clinical sector.”
“When we talk about the foundation of our programs,” Gangsaas added, “it really is lifestyle change and habit change, and that really requires pretty sustainable motivation for people. Having the opportunity to connect with a coach or other people that are having similar life experiences allows them to…we call it finding their ‘why.’ Why are you here? Why do you care about this? Why does this matter to you? I don’t think most people outside of these types of programs really ever have the time or inclination to do that reflection, and that makes lifelong change next to impossible without the support and accountability they get through coaching and programs in the community.”
A foundation of trust
The theme of trust comes up often when the Y leaders discuss their work. Sundar noted that the Y is often one of the only trusted health resources in certain communities. The organization’s presence in neighborhoods, schools, and other institutions makes it a natural bridge between daily life and clinical care. “We are trusted, we are known, and we have built expertise in fitness, healthy lifestyle programs, and health education,” she said. “The bridge goes both directions.”
That trust extends to the Y’s partnership with Premera Blue Cross. Sundar described Premera as a thought partner that understands health as more than clinical metrics. “They see health as broader than A1C control,” she said. “They can think big and get granular with us.”
At its core, the YMCA’s approach is about creating webs of support that make healthy choices possible. Community, accountability, and belonging aren’t add-ons. They are the foundation. As Sundar put it, “If you do not show up, your coach or your peers are going to say they missed you.” That sense of community is central to how the YMCA approaches its health equity work, and shows it understands health is not just a clinical outcome. It is about relationships, culture, and understanding.
