A cutting-edge partnership between CDC and YMCA of the USA links CDC's resources with YMCAs nationally to deploy community interventions to reduce disease burden and improve people's health.

Americans - especially children, are more obese with higher rates of diabetes than ever in our history. What if the most proven public health interventions for combating the enormous chronic-disease burden facing our citizens were at the fingertips of staff and volunteers from your neighborhood YMCA?

That's exactly what a cutting-edge partnership between CDC and YMCA of the USA ( Y-USA ) hopes to accomplish. The partnership links CDC's resources and technical expertise with YMCAs nationally to deploy the most promising, evidence-based community interventions to reduce disease burden and improve people's health. Uniquely, the partnership is already going beyond health prevention programs, to include coalition building at the local level leading to lasting policy and systems change across multiple sectors and settings.

It's a partnership that makes perfect sense to both entities: CDC gains a broad distribution channel into thousands of communities, and YMCAs can tap into CDC's public health expertise. Y-USA is the national resource office for the nation's 2,617 YMCAs, which serve more than 20.2 million people each year (half under the age of 18), uniting men, women and children of all ages, faiths, backgrounds, abilities and income levels in 10,000 communities across the nation.