Englewood YMCA — Local services in Englewood

This review is more in Regards to the day care then the facility, the facility is great and most of the staff are also very nice. Before I signed up for the gym I went and toured it and I have a baby that just turned one so one of the main bonuses of this gym for me was that there is child care. During this tour I passed the day care room 4 times total and all 4 times Mrs G (day care employee) was on her iPad facing away from the three kids in the room. Then when i went to talk to her she did not greet us with smiles and was very negative talking about only all the stuff they don’t do, it immediately put a bad taste in my mouth. After my visit I got an email from Todd (Program Director) asking how my visit was, I expressed my concerns and he responded saying he is so sorry but that Mrs G had some things going on at home recently and wasn’t having a great week and acknowledged that that’s no excuse. I enjoyed my conversation with Todd and decided to give it a shot, I still was skeptical using Mrs. G so I went in the evening and used Mrs. Barb (daycare employee) who was great and every time I checked on them through the glass she was interacting with the kids, she is amazing but she only works the evening shift. So this morning I wanted to do a Pilates class and was nervous because my child was going to have to be in Mrs. G’s care. 23 minutes into my class she calls saying he hasn’t stopped crying, so I leave my class and go to grab him and see him trying to climb up her leg to be held, and she is trying to walk away (not in the direction of the other kids). All the other kids in the room where older and more self sufficient running around together and my kid is crying and you can’t pick him up to comfort him or interact/play with him? My baby is normally a very happy baby even with new people but with the bigger kids in the room running around with carts he may have been alittle more scared and wanted to be comforted and she did not care. So I recommend if you have younger kids who aren’t good at playing by themselves either going at night to see Mrs. Barb (which stinks because all of there classes are mostly morning classes) or just finding a different gym. In my experience Mrs.G does not want to care for your kid, she wants them to play with themselves and be self sufficient and get paid for...

everyone @ the Englewood FL YMCA are so helpful & friendly ... my husband & I are disabled retirees that for decades now we had dreaded! doing any types of exercises beyond our everyday lives bcuz it seemed everything we tried was challenging & painful! even when Drs would tell us we really needed! to exercise! it still was tough to get into regular habits of doing movements that didn't hurt sometimes just walking around our home & doing a few errands was enuf to drain our energy etc ... THEN WE JOINED THE YMCA & began w/the misc morning Water Aerobic POOL Classes several times/wk ... @ first it was tough motivating ourselves to get there! but the SMILING people @ the YMCA'S front desk & class instructors & life guards kept Encouraging! us to stick with it ... within a short time we were feeling & moving! better! bcuz of the Strengthening Flexibility + Balance improvements that are a result of participating in the LOW-impact pool workouts ... Now my husband & I look forward to exercising!! :) The employees volunteers & other clients @ our Englewood YMCA have shown us such an abundance of Compassion & Inspiration & Encouragement + New Friendships & all these Positives have helped us alter our mindset from avoiding exercising to now making a Regular Routine of Safe! Exercising! a Priority! in our daily lifestyle :) ..... our BP & Glucose + Labs are Improving as is our Quality of Sleep all these things is helping us in creating Better Health for ourselves ... one of the Best decisions anyone of any age can make is Joining your Local YMCA ... it seems silly that grown adults weren't figuring out on their own how to lose wgt & exercise safely & feel better but that's how challenging life had become for us both ... we just were not getting into the exercising habit WE NEEDED HELP TO GET ON TRACK & MAKE CHANGES!! HAPPEN!! :) ... we are so Thankful to everyone @ our local YMCA you are changing lives ~ pls know how much we appreciate ur facility & each of you! :)...

Overall, it is ok. The facility is decent but the hours leave a bit to be desired. They close at 2pm on Sundays, which are days when many other businesses close at 2pm. So if you want to do anything else on Sundays, you can't. You are left having to choose between the YMCA and most other activities on the most available day to go to the YMCA for most people.

Secondly, they have random slots where they close the pool simply due to the one and only person who can serve as lifeguard needing to take a break. There should always be a second person on duty to serve as lifeguard. Come on folks.

Thirdly, put this on your website. Isn't this an expectation in today's world, to have schedules posted online? When I spoke to them about this, their solution was that I should have called about the pool hours.... this isn't asking too much to just put this online somewhere folks.

Lastly (for now anyway), when I asked who I can talk to about these types of things she offered nothing except that I should go to the Venice location because they don't do anything here. Staff here need to be properly trained as well. Based on comments I have since read, and my interactions so far, the folks running this place need to take a closer look at how they are missing some otherwise major holes in their business, training, offerings, etc. This place could be great, but it is poorly run...