Programs beyond the building

Programs

While the building is being brought back, YES Center programs happen in community spaces and with partners across Chester — learning, creative practice, gathering, service, and remembrance.

See what we run Ask for the current schedule

Community arts workshop · YES Center photo gallery

Learning, service, culture, and connection

What our programs are for

The YES Center mission supports children, women, families, and the wider community through education, cultural awareness, creative arts, support networks, mentoring, and personal development.

The documentary remembers the former YWCA as a place for after-school programs, summer camps, swimming, leadership, meetings, sewing, fitness, events, faith communities, and intergenerational activity. Today’s programming carries that spirit forward while the center works toward a permanent home.

Five program areas

How the mission shows up

Learn

Education, mentorship, tutoring, cultural awareness, technology, personal development, and intergenerational knowledge.

Workshops · mentoring · youth

Make

Quilting, sewing, fashion and costuming, heirloom crafts, community art, exhibitions, and creative exchange.

Creative practice

Gather

Community meetings, conversations, celebrations, film, performance, fellowship, and shared meals.

Belonging

Serve

Service traditions, volunteer work, neighborhood care, and programs that connect help with local knowledge.

Community action

Remember

Chester history, veterans, women change makers, public exhibits, tours, oral history, and local storytelling.

Public memory

YES Center display recognizing Chester women change makers — Women Change Makers · YES Center photo gallery

Partners and community spaces

The building is the destination. The work is already moving.

Programs run with partners and in community locations while restoration advances. That keeps relationships active, makes the mission visible, and creates pathways back into the future center.

Program traditions the YES Center has carried include:

MLK Day of Service
Memorial Day and Veterans Day remembrance
Common Threads quilting
Community workshops
Specialty history exhibits

Ask what is running now

Now and after restoration

Where programs happen

Programming works across different formats and locations today, and expands when the building is ready.

Ask about current programs

Now

Partner-hosted gatherings

Community spaces for workshops, service, exhibits, and conversation.

Along the way

Restoration-linked programs

History, stewardship, collection, and volunteer activities tied to the building story.

At home

Programming inside the center

Recurring learning, recreation, culture, museum, and gathering opportunities in the restored building.

Low-friction sign-up

Get program updates by email

Send a short note through the contact form asking for program updates and we will add your address. You can ask us to stop at any time.

Ask for updates

Your address is used only to send the updates you asked for. See our privacy policy.

Community members painting and sharing artwork during a YES Center arts workshop — Making and sharing together

Illustrated artwork about Chester history — Culture carried forward

More room to participate

What the restored building would add

A restored home can connect recurring workshops with recreation, museum exhibitions, technology, mentorship, and events under one roof. People can enter for one reason and discover many others.

See what restoration enables

Ask before you plan

Ask for the current program schedule

Contact the YES Center for what is running now, locations, accessibility information, registration details, and partnership opportunities.

Ask about programs