Virginia Alliance of YMCAs
Open Y website serves communities in the Commonwealth of Virginia
Project Services:
The Virginia Alliance of YMCAs unites 27 independent Ys that serving communities throughout the Commonwealth. The Virginia Alliance brings Virginia Ys together to improve YMCAs' capacity and effectiveness to serve their members and communities through programs and key initiatives at a statewide level.
The Problem
The Virginia Alliance of YMCAs was functioning on a website that not only looked dated, but was missing some basic functionality, and was challenging to maintain, frequently bumping into errors when making security updates in Wordpress without developer support. It was critical to allow the Alliance to apply security updates, keep content up to date, and take advantage of the fast-growing Open Y movement.
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The Solution
Five Jars was able to work with the Alliance to build a new website based on the Open Y platform providing a more stable and secure solution for content management, with easier updates and maintenance, including mobile optimization through leveraging the features built into Open Y. We used Open Y out of the box, but we also developed "Find your YMCA" leveraging "Locations" basic function from Open Y.
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The Result
Five Jars launched the Alliance's new website virginiaymcaalliance.org on Open Y. Using Open Y allowed the Alliance to benefit from a modern and brand-compliant design and improved content management experience. It also provides advanced features - such as locating Alliance on a map via a location search - that they would not otherwise be able to afford. At the same time, Five Jars worked with the Alliance to find an affordable hosting solution that fits within their budget.
Enabled the newest set of Open Y features and advanced content management experience
Made mobile-friendly website
Simplified maintenance and upgrades
Built advanced locations search across the state
It was indeed a remarkable enhancement for the Virginia Alliance of YMCAs! Five Jars contributed to the successful launch of the new Open Y website, and we're pleased to be the Open Y partner of the Virginia Alliance of YMCAs.
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