Honesty: to tell the truth, to act in such a way that you are worthy of trust, to have integrity; making sure your choices match your values.

Respect: to treat others as you would have them treat you; to value the worth of every person, including yourself.

Responsibility: to do what is right, what you ought to do; to be accountable for your behavior and obligations.

The Y's commitment to character development makes it extraordinarily valuable to the communities and people it serves. Building on this commitment and making it part of everyday operations and programming can be challenging.

What are the three challenges that Ys must accept to enjoy all possible benefits in recommitment to character development?

1. To embed character development and the Y's four core values-caring, honesty, respect and responsibility-into the Y's culture (who the staff and volunteers are and how they operate) so it will last.
2. To become involved in a long-term process in which character development gives focus to everything they do in the Y, including programming, hiring, planning and budgeting.
3. To ensure that everyone-staff and volunteers at all levels of the organization-is involved and committed to this process. Everybody must accept the role of a teacher of values as an integral part of his or her job. All staff and volunteers must accept the challenge to teach the Y's core values first and foremost by leading by example in their own attitude and behavior.