The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries from 120 national associations.

During the Second World War the YMCA was involved in war work with displaced persons and refugees. They also established the War Prisoners Aid to support prisoners of war by providing sports equipment, musical instruments, art materials, radios, gramophones, eating utensils, and other items.

The Young Women's Christian Association of Kitchener-Waterloo (YW Kitchener-Waterloo), was founded in 1905 as the "Berlin YWCA" and operated out of rented premises on Queen St. South in Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario. Mary Ratz Kaufman served as the organization's first President. At the time of it's founding the YW's purpose was to provide for both the spiritual and physical welfare of the increasing number of young women who were coming to urban and industrialized areas seeking employment and education. The local YW offered both a residence and a programme of helpful classes in embroidery, cooking, and "physical culture". In 1911 fundraising began for the purchase of land at 84 Frederick St., Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario on which a new building opened on May 15, 1915. Although the motion was made in 1917 to change the name of the YWCA from Berlin to Kitchener, to reflect the name change of the city, the name was not officially changed until 1960.

In 1937 a new wing donated by Mary Ratz Kaufman, containing a gymnasium, was opened. A branch of the YW Kitchener-Waterloo was desired for Waterloo and in 1960 a property in the city was purchased at 186 King. St. S. It was later sold to the Red Cross in 1972. The building at 84 Frederick St. is now an emergency shelter called Mary's Place, named after Mary Ratz Kaufman and operated by the YWCA.

Over the years the YW Kitchener-Waterloo offered many programs for children and adults alike: camping started 1926 at Camp Tinawatawa, clubs flourished, physical, health and craft classes were offered and programs were devised for newcomers to the country and area. Rebranded in 2017 to YW Kitchener-Waterloo, the organization provides programming to meet the needs of women and advocates for "system level changes while working to provide shelter, supportive and affordable housing, improved education and training, and better childcare services."

Camilla Young was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey (United States of America) in 1946, and grew up in Woodbridge, New Jersey. Young was a professional writer, a fashion commentator, a consultant, and a model. She coordinated New Jersey's Miss Black America Pageant and judged other pageants.

Vershawn "Vay" Young is an artist, actor, diversity consultant and Professor, Joint Appointed, in Communications Arts and English Language and Literature at the University of Waterloo where he has been the director of Waterloo's Black Studies program since its launch in 2022. His research in Black Studies focuses on masculinity, language and performance, and he is known for scholarship about "code-meshing" which was explored in his 2007 book Your Average Nigga Performing Race, Literacy, and Masculinity.

Young holds a JD law degree from Mitchell Hamline College of Law and a PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Prior to his appointment at Waterloo, he was a faculty member at the University of Iowa and the University of Kentucky.

Since joining Waterloo, Young has been a founding member of Waterloo's Black Faculty Collective and, along with Kathy Hogarth and Christopher Taylor, was a member of the Black Studies implementation team whose work and phage 1 report led to the founding of a Black Studies program in 2022. Outside of academia, he has worked as a high school drama, English and speech teacher, an elementary school principle and a school board administrator. During Winter 2023 Young stared as Sir Robert Chiltern in a production of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband at the Firehall Theatre in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

The Youth International Party was founded on December 31, 1967 by Abbie Hoffman, Anita Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Nancy Kurshan and Paul Krassner. Coming out of the beliefs of the hippie movement, the group named themselves yippies and created the backronym Youth International Party. The organization advocated for cooperative and alternative political and social institutions including food co-ops, free health care, permaculture farming, free schools and more. They had a plan for a "new nation" in America that was grounded in collectivism, community, and anarchy and were one of the early schools of the political New Left movement. The movement continued to exist through the later part of the 20th century with protests, smoke-ins, operating cooperative institutions, political farcicality and more.

Stephan Zagar (1902, Illinois - 1976, Michigan) and Wilma Marie Verk (1901, Yugoslavia-1975, Illinois) married in the 1920s in Illinois. Stephan was a machinist and Wilma Marie worked at home. On April 1, 1929, their twin daughters, Rosalyn and Marilyn Ann, were born. On October 22, 1936, their third daughter, Margaret Ann, was born.
Marilyn attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and married Clyde Amundson in 1951, with whom she had two children. She died on May 26, 1995.
Rosalyn married Frank Ross.
Margaret Ann got infected with Poliomyelitis at a young age (possibly when she was 2 years old) and later developed cerebral palsy. She attended Gompers School for the Handicapped and later graduated from the University of Illinois. In 1987, Margaret Ann started volunteering as a coordinator for Meals on Wheels in Lansing, Illinois, fielding calls from clients and scheduling cooks and kitchen helpers. Margaret Ann died on November 9, 2014.

Carl Zehr was born in Baden, Ontario and is a graduate of Rockway Mennonite Collegiate in Kitchener. He has served as a member of the board of numerous Kitchener area organizations: the Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro Board, the University of Waterloo, Centre in the Square, and Kitchener Housing Inc. Zehr was the Ontario Liberal Party candidate in Kitchener-Wilmot in the 1990 provincial election, but came in second to New Democrat Mike Cooper. He was elected mayor of Kitchener in 1997 serving until 2014. . He previously served as a city councillor from 1985 to 1994. He is the namesake of Carl Zehr Square, a public square at Kitchener City Hall.