Photo via Racine Family YMCA - Facebook
Racine Family YMCA CEO Tamarra Coleman
Racine Family YMCA CEO Tamarra Coleman (2026)
The Racine Family YMCA celebrated its 150th anniversary last year. It has gone through multiple locations from 314 Sixth Street in 1886 to the longest lasting location at 725 Lake Avenue which operated from 1960 until 2019.
Throughout the years of multiple changes, the YMCA has remained dedicated to providing health services such as swimming and sports along with a sense of building community in Racine and Mount Pleasant and the surrounding areas. In January 2025, Tamara Coleman became CEO of the Racine Family YMCA, with her office at the Y’s largest location at 8501 Campus Drive in Mount Pleasant. Coleman is the former director of the Shalom Center, a Kenosha homeless shelter. At the YMCA, Coleman is expanding the organization’s outreach, establishing new partnerships, and extending services for vulnerable families. She met to discuss different forms of community, the importance of management in social work and the role YMCA plays in Racine.
Why is the Racine YMCA important to the community?
We’ve been a pillar in the community for 150 years and it’s a place that brings families together. You have one place where, holistically, we take care of the body, the mind and the spirit. We have aquatic programs, fitness programs, and education programs for both our seniors and young people. We also have childcare and child watch for younger students. It’s important to have that pillar legacy organization in the community. An organization like the Y strengthens the community by supporting those areas. It matters because it is an affordable fitness space that supports wellness and it makes an impact in the community because you are taking care of the person holistically. Not many organizations can do that and we’re proud to serve Racine County.
What inspired you to go into the field of nonprofit community service?
I think I was actually probably groomed for this work. I started my career in the corporate world for 20 years and I think my experience prepared me for nonprofit work. It made me a better leader and made me aware of having a different lens coming into the nonprofit sector. I joined the nonprofit sector about 11 years ago at a nonprofit in Kenosha before I came to the YMCA. It’s not necessarily about the nonprofit, it’s about the mission of the organization that I’m working for. Going into the nonprofit sector, it was important that I found an organization that aligned with me. I’ve found it twice so far. I think giving back to the community and being able to serve the community is important to me. Even when I was in the corporate world, I still served in the community, but now I get to work and serve the community in a different way.
|
|
Describe how management plays a role in your work. What is the difference between good management and good leadership?
Management is something I do every day. As the CEO, it’s important that I am leading and guiding. I’m also delivering the expectations that align with our mission and goals. I motivate the staff and I’m responsible for the day-to-day operations of this building. I’m responsible for leading the team of individuals who are boots on the ground. I also have a process and procedure requirement regarding best practices. Every day is management. As for the difference between good management and good leadership, I think good management is about doing things that are right and good leadership is about doing the right thing. Strong professionals use both skills depending on the situation. Management is about planning, staffing and budgeting while leadership is about setting a clear direction, motivating people, and helping them buy into the larger purpose. It all matters because by creating stability, consistency and accountability, a good leader can help people adapt and stay engaged.
You worked in Kenosha for a number of years. You’ve been here more than a year. Is there a difference in the communities that has proved important to you?
I worked in Kenosha for 10 years. Kenosha and Racine are different in their own way. When you serve people, serving people is serving people. Servant leadership is about serving the individuals and meeting them where they are. Serving the community is about providing access. Both communities are extremely different, but when you are serving people, the difference to me is not as important as understanding those differences and providing the services that are needed for the areas. When you work in nonprofit, there’s always a cross sector. When I worked in Kenosha, I worked with a lot of nonprofits in Racine, so when I came to Racine, I felt I had a lot of leverage. It was an easy transition for me, but I had to learn what the true needs for Racine. I had to figure that out so I could make sure met the needs of the people in Racine County.
What have been your biggest accomplishments this year?
2025 was my first year, but I have two. The first was we were able to celebrate our 150th. It was the first time The Y had any kind of fundraiser where the community could come and see our programming. I was really excited about that; we had donors and sponsors who had never donated or sponsored for us before, we had people who hadn’t known about our programs.
My other exciting opportunity that I am proud about is the momentum we’ve been able to gain at the Racine Y. We were stagnant for a while and struggling for a bit, but we reinvented ourselves, using the 150th anniversary as a leverage, almost like a rebirth. We’ve increased our membership and now have a maintenance agreement, which we haven’t had before. We’ve gotten systems in place for financial sustainability and being more involved in the community by sitting in on boards. We hosted a RAMAC (Racine Area Manufacturers and Commerce) business blender which we haven’t done in 15 years. It’s doing things like that and being a partner in our community was really important. The Y didn’t do a lot of grants, but since I’ve been here, we’ve been able to expand our reach to different types of grants. Through the lenses I had, we started a food pantry at the (George) Bray Center. We’ve been serving about 90 households a week since January. The need was there, we asked what the need was, and we’re now meeting that need. Those are the highlights that have been exciting for me.
What goals do you hope to accomplish this coming year and the next few years?
It’s always going to be financial sustainability where we can sustain our programs, but success for me looks like we’re growing both in membership and programming. We want to add services and meet the needs of the community. For me, it’s about sustainability, program growth, and it’s about ensuring we’re meeting the needs of the community based on what the communities needs and not what we think they need.
Is there anything you’d like to add?
It’s been an honor to be here for a little over a year. February 2026 marked my one-year anniversary here. We have a lot of work to do, but I am proud of the work we’ve been able to do thus far. I’m grateful for the partnerships we’ve been able to create and cultivate. It’s been amazing and I know we have a lot of work to do, but I am grateful the community welcomed me with open arms. They really embraced me and opened their arms, I’m really grateful for that. Onward we go and I can’t wait to see what the next 150 years brings to the Y.
