North Kansas City YMCA — Local services in North Kansas City

Been a YMCA member for over 20 years so this rating is my first. I love the kids night out and the childcare. That along with the small water park that is part of the pool sold me on my membership. The complaint I have is just about every time I have taken my family to the indoor pool the slide has been closed due to never having adequate lifeguards... or so that’s what they’ve told me for 3 years now. We have gone on days that the kids are off school and still not open. The kids are so excited to play on this equipment when they come through the door. It is a complete let down when they are told it’s NEVER open. It’s what I consider a bait and switch. These amenities along with the rock wall (that seems to be closed the majority of the time) are part of the sales pitch to get you in the door, however you can seldom utilize the benefit from them. One experience my family had at the pool was when my husband and two daughters were in the shallow play area. The life guards roped off just about the whole area for swim lessons. I took my girls out to the more open area of the pool to swim with me and to play in the bubbler. I was immediately reprimanded and told by the life guard that I needed an adult for each child, that each child could only be at arms reach?! I looked around and their was a Middle Eastern lady with 7 children ranging from about 12 down to 1 standing on the side of the pool in full dress as her children played freely in the pool with no one in arms reach and with NO wrist bands. She was vigilant. (In order to get a swimmers wrist band you have to swim the full length of the pool without stopping!) The female children had long pants on... street clothes in the pool. I let the lifeguard know that both of my girls were fine and that I was teaching them to swim.(How do you teach them to swim a whole length of the pool when you can’t even work with them to swim to you?) It is impossible when you have to be in arms reach. It’s an absolute joke. The life guard at that time asked me and my girls to get out of the pool. I thought there was some sort of mistake so I spoke with the manager over the lifeguards and explained to her that I didn’t appreciate being treated like an irresponsible parent. I tried discussing with the manager the situation with the other woman with the 7 kids and that I did not understand how they are able to make an exception for this lady but others have to abide by this unrealistic rule. My husband and I both tried to get answers but were told these rules were put in place for safety. The more I insisted on answers regarding the other family the more she resisted. It was like she was programmed to repeat the rules that didn’t apply to everyone. Not a warm person. I pointed out the children in pants and dresses In the pool. Not only is that unsafe as the material could hinder their ability to swim but all of the outdoor contaminants these garments are adding to the pool making it unsafe for others..They merely singled us out that day and humiliated my family. We have not been back as a family in months which is sad. They should value the families who come to this facility. So parents with more than 2 kids can’t swim? Not a welcoming facility. I continue to monitor the pool amenities along with the rock wall. If they are closed on a continuous bases I will consider My options. These amenities are part of each members membership. We pay for them. Life guards should be there to over see swimmers not to harass parents who want to spend family time in the pool. Management should focus more energy on properly training lifeguards & leave parenting to parents. You shouldn’t penalize everyone for someone else’s mistakes. Provide more lifeguards if need be to cover your membership or reduce the number of members, but by all means show some dignity to those of us who just want to play in the pool with our kids! By treating parents like they are not responsible and by placing restrictions such as these on them is a complete insult to all of your guest. Not fair...

Update- I spoke to someone in their admin department who although apologetic did not offer any solution to the problem of their making. She stated they were "trying" to add more pickleball times in the evenings to their calendar, I decide to leave this discriminatory organization and if you look at their schedule they still haven't added any designated use of the gym for pickleball in the evenings so it was just talk to appease us but no real plan to address their discriminatory actions.

If you are white playing pickleball or black playing basketball in the gym you'll be happily helped and even encouraged but if you're Hispanic and dare to try to play pickleball they will gatekeep and discriminate. My mother is a senior citizen and has recently been diagnosed with cancer. She tried pickleball since her diagnosis this summer and fell in love. I've been trying to consistently support my mom and go with her to play outdoors but now that it is cold and need an indoor court and this YMCA added pickleball markings in the gym, I thought it'd be a good idea to try this YMCA during the winter months till it warms up again. Big mistake, I spoke to Nick who is the director over the phone to find out the rules and availability, he told me anytime in the evenings first come first serve and the basketball players cannot play full court, so technically there are 4 basketball courts and within that 6 pickleball courts are marked. It has been a horrible experience, even when we arrive first the staff has come up with excuses from they don't have keys to the closet with net (while other equipment was clearly out), to only being able to play on court #1 and making us move our whole set up when we were told by Nick any open court, to never having a gym monitor available to open the equipment closet (and they get angry when you ask for help) and if you're lucky to find one, refer back to no one has keys, then once you actually get playing you'll have employees come harrass you that you should leave because the basketball players want another court open even though we are only taking up 1/6 or 1/4 of the gym while the rest is basketball. The employee who tried to kick us off name is Argyll who's teen son plays basketball, we rightfully refused since we were there first and then he must have advised his son to be rude because they started to throw balls into our court on purpose, I knew it was on purpose because when I would try to return the ball to someone, no one would claim it. In the video you see my mom being refused accommodation to play because Argyll most likely told the basketball players to take up the entire court when they saw us arrive to set up, they were only in one corner when we arrived, Nick then came and told us to leave the gym. So they are all scheming together to prevent anyone other than basketball players to use the gym in the evenings.Nick who told us they weren't allowed to play full court, all off a sudden now allows it, he changed his rules after he met me in person and found out we're not white cause on the phone he was very nice and once he knew my race it was like a light switch change. The stress he and his staff has caused my mom while fighting cancer and simply trying to play something she loves is unforgivable and evil. I don't wish this type of discrimination on anyone, but especially on a senior citizen dealing...

As a member of the North Kansas City Community Center before the YMCA took over, I couldn't be more disappointed about this place. During the transition process, there was ZERO communication about the changeover. During the first week, we weren't even considered members because of computer issues, and a net reduction in open hours was presented as BETTER service. After talking with the executive director and getting promises that some things would change, I was willing to give them a chance.

A month later, all of those promises were mere lip service. Our membership STILL wasn't fully activated, my wife was STILL having to sacrifice time with the family to work out because child watch isn't available, and we were STILL being treated like second-class members.

The final straw was an incident with the child watch. We left our three-year-old in the care of the child watch staff and went upstairs to work out, leaving clear indication of exactly where we would be. As toddlers occasionally do, our child had an accident. Instead of making an announcement over the building PA or sending a staff member up to find us, they chose to call my wife from a PERSONAL cell phone of one of the staff members. Not recognizing the number, my wife didn't interrupt her workout to answer, and no voicemail was left. A while later, that same number called again, at which point we had finished our workout and my wife was able to answer.

My wife rushed out to the car to get a change of clothes for our child, and upon returning to the child watch area found our three-year-old standing half-naked and alone in a puddle of her own urine in a closed bathroom.

Our complaint was escalated to a regional manager, but instead of responding with an immediate and sincere apology, he tried to rationalize the staff's actions and minimize the impact.

Thankfully, he was at least speedy about refunding our prepaid annual membership from the NKC Community Center in full.

Not a great representation of the YMCA...