AUBURN — Community partnerships, a new pavilion at the Stetson Road location and a new building renovation are a few of the big plans Brian Curtin has for the YMCA of Auburn-Lewiston. 

Curtin, one month into his role as the chief executive officer, is invigorated by the possibilities for the nonprofit organization. 

He began his role June 16 and has since been making introductions and integrating himself into the community, not to mention thinking up ways to better serve the Lewiston and Auburn community. 

Before coming to the organization, Curtin served as director of audit at the U.S. Center for SafeSport, an organization founded in 2017 to address and end abuse and misconduct in youth sports. Previous to that, he was director of athletics at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine. 

“I’ve always hoped that I’d have an opportunity to lead a nonprofit organization that was about community and youth development,” Curtin said, which have been a “through-line” in his career. 

His work at SafeSport, he said, prepared him to work in the nonprofit space. Given the newness of the organization, Curtin was able to gain valuable knowledge of nonprofit operations and structure. 

He said working at Saint Joseph’s helped solidify the value of community in his leadership.

“You’re in a community that you’re trying to make better — improve that community. Even though you’re just in a department, there is a sense of ‘how can you help the betterment of the all, not just in athletics?’” he said.

As Curtain looks to expand the offerings and operations of the Y, he said he wants to focus on partnerships with community organizations and hopes for one with the Dempsey Center. A partnership with the cancer treatment nonprofit, however small, would be an “early win,” he said, and pave the way toward others, which he sees as integral to growing the local organization.

“I really feel like the nonprofit landscape is showing us that the successful, sustainable nonprofit organizations are doing so with a foundation of partnerships,” he said.

Curtin said that with these “early wins” he wants to make sure the “staff knows that we’re going to be doers and the staff appreciates the fact that we can execute on ideas.”

Curtin wrote in an email to the Sun Journal that the YMCA has secured plans to have the Twin City Swim Team running for the 2025-26 swim season, having posted a job for a head coach and secured pool times from Bates College in Lewiston.

In addition, the Y has received federal funding to renovate a building in Rumford to open an early childhood education center. “Planning for that construction is in the very early stages,” he added.

Overall, Curtin hopes to build out the YMCA into more than just a gym. “I’d like for us to be seen as a community resource — a community engagement organization that just happens to have fitness equipment and a basketball court,” he said. 

Much of this reputation-building relies on promoting the underutilized services offered by the YMCA, including the early childhood education program. 

“We feel like we have a very unique space here and a tradition of youth development,” he said. “That’s important to me. So, I’d like to see if we can make that more robust.”

That reputation-building will also rely on the organization’s outreach into the community, Curtain added. That includes being present at festivals, being proactive on social media and improving facilities. 

Curtin added that he is excited about the opportunity to connect more directly with the communities he serves. As such, he has been working to understand the day-to-day of the YMCA’s operations in the community.

“I want to see where I can help and advocate and I want to be able to tell our story when I’m out in the community,” Curtain said. “I found it to be empowering. It’s exciting. It’s fun. I like coming to work.”