Designing an LGBTQ+ Youth Support Framework at the YMCA

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: From April to June 2023, Adita joined the Social Impact Consulting Corps (SICC) at UCLA Anderson. SICC was a 10-week pro-bono consulting engagement in which MBA students worked with non-profit organizations to solve real-world problems and create impact. Along with three other MBA students, Adita applied her sustainability and social impact knowledge to help the YMCA of Burbank build their Social Impact Center and provided several recommendations for the program aimed at the LGBTQ+ youth community in Burbank. Adita demonstrated her leadership and communication skills in this project as she not only worked with other students on her project team but also worked closely with the client. This project was a means to support her post-MBA career goal as a consultant in the social impact and sustainability spaces.

2. IMPORTANCE: This project with the YMCA of Burbank was important since it was not only valuable to the organization, but also instrumental in solidifying my path towards a social impact and sustainability career. While the YMCA gained valuable tools and a roadmap for the Social Impact Center from this project, I honed my leadership skills by leading a team, collaborating with the client, solving complex problems, and fostering sustainable solutions. It built the foundation for my own journey as a leader in creating positive social change. Overall, this project provided a crucial foundation for my aspirations in sustainability consulting, making it an ideal choice for my leadership project.

3. IMPACT AND REACH: This project helped the YMCA of Burbank grow their Social Impact Center. Adita and her team help them identify the basic needs of LGBTQ+ youth community so that they can design better programmings that can address the problems found in the community. Adita and her team developed a tool called the “Kaleidoscopic Pyramid”, adopted from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, to help the YMCA evaluate the needs of youth. Adita also identified 10 organizations in LA County that can partner with YMCA for future programmings and selected one as a recommendation. Finally, Adita and her team provided the YMCA with an implementation roadmap. By knowing the problems that were critical to be addressed and potential partnerships, Adita and her team helped the YMCA of Burbank maintain the sustainability of the Social Impact Center with a continuous development on the programmings.

4. COLLABORATIONS: In the SICC project, I worked in a team of four MBA students. The other three MBA students were Luc Woodard (FTMBA ’24), Daniel Irarrazabal (FTMBA ’24), and Sebastienne Brown (EMBA ’23). In terms of the relationship between the team and the client, we worked with two YMCA board members in the process of identifying and resolving problems by holding weekly meetings with them. My team and I had the opportunity to visit and observe the Social Impact Center and discussed with some of the center’s staff and managers.

5. YOUR ROLE WELL DEFINED: The YMCA of Burbank has facilitated the LGBTQ+ youth in activities that empower them, but the organization was still struggling with identifying the best way to help the community through its programs and facilities. Therefore, as a student consultant, I was particularly responsible for identifying programs that the YMCA of Burbank currently has in place and suggesting several potential partnerships with other organizations in LA County, with a focus on the San Fernando Valley, that the YMCA of Burbank could build on to maintain the center and the program sustainability. I suggested several organizations that have special facilities that the YMCA of Burbank does not and could utilize.

6. OPTIONAL NEXT STEPS: Although this was a one-off consulting project, it created a foundation on what social impact consulting work is like and how I might navigate similar projects in the future. I am interested in working on social impact consulting projects in the future, either pro-bono or in a professional career.