Organization Makes Sailing Accessible To City’s Youth By Tia Carol Jones
Organization Makes Sailing Accessible To City’s Youth
By Tia Carol Jones
July is National Learn to Sail Month and the Chicago Yacht Club Foundation (CYCF) is giving young people in the city of Chicago more access to Lake Michigan through its programs.
The Chicago Yacht Club Foundation was founded in 1990 as a volunteer run organization that sought to reduce the financial barrier for young people to attend sailing school. There was also a maritime academy that focused on job training for maritime workforce development. Three years ago, CYCF hired its first professional staff person as a programs manager to create camp programs for youth from communities that have been underserved by a lack of access to aquatic activities.
The Chicago Yacht Club Foundation has programs that include first-time sailing cruises, STEAM sailboat cruises, water safety lessons, powerboat rides, adventure boating, sailing camp, LEAD Her ship and city sailing league. There are also scholarships and internships. The concepts of sailing and boating are explained to students in the same way physics would be explained, with the goal of creating a level playing field for the students, then other concepts are introduced.
Maggie Shea, Executive Director of the Chicago Yacht Club Foundation, said the CYCF was inspired to launch programs focused on underrepresented youth because the organization acknowledges that the sailing community lacks diversity. She said CYCF wants to create a much more welcoming, inclusive environment, where youth can feel a sense of belonging and feel comfortable operating in a new environment.
“We think the sport of boating, whether recreational or competitive, offers so many benefits to kids, especially; it’s an amazing tool to create confidence and resilience and complex problem solving. We also think the teamwork and communication skills that come out of operating a boat with your friends or peers are really helpful leadership skills to learn,” she said.
In the off-season, CYCF program managers visit schools and community partner organizations and do after school programs that are STEM based and have a marine focus.
In one program, students build boats with clay and tin foil and see how many marbles they can fit on a boat before it sinks. While doing that, the students are learning how boats float using science to learn fundamental concepts. Through these programs the young people get to know the staff at CYCF and the staff gets to know the students. In the Spring, the students are invited to go sailing to see if they are interested in participating in more programs.
In the immersive, multi-day camps young people learn more skills and are provided further skills development. CYCF is also building programs for high-school aged young people and beyond through scholarships for post-secondary education and internships. Shea said those programs are meant to create a longer term and a more meaningful engagement with the youth the organization serves, so they can benefit from boating recreationally or competitively.
Shea said the long-term vision for the Chicago Yacht Club Foundation is to have camp in different harbors along the lakefront to make it as convenient as possible for all the youth who are interested in participating. She said access to the lakefront is important because CYCF believes Lake Michigan belongs to everyone and it is a special space that everyone deserves access to.
“You get a kid on a boat, and it really transports them to another place. They see the city from a different perspective, they do something they didn’t think they could do before,” Shea said.
For more information about the Chicago Yacht Club Foundation, visit www.chicagoyachtclubfoundation.org.
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