My story with the YMCA goes back many years. I started volunteering when I was sixteen teaching English to children in Colombia. Back then, I couldn’t have imagined that volunteering and serving my community would one day take me across the world, that it would lead me here, to Northern Ireland and to a life and career shaped by purpose. Slowly, my world started to open up.

Every experience showed me that when we give of ourselves, new possibilities appear not just for others, but for us too.

Today, I work at Greenhill YMCA, a place that has truly become my home. I help lead programmes that connect people from different cultures and support young people and volunteers to grow, learn and belong. For me, opportunity has always been at the heart of that journey. It’s the value that has shaped who I am, both as a migrant and as a leader.

I first experienced this through the Rank Foundation’s Time to Shine programme, which funded my transition from international volunteer to staff member at Greenhill during the COVID-19 pandemic. That opportunity gave me the chance to stay, to try something new and the confidence to grow, to make mistakes and to learn what leadership rooted in care really means in practice.

I first experienced this through the Rank Foundation’s Time to Shine programme, which funded my transition from international volunteer to staff member at Greenhill during the COVID-19 pandemic. That opportunity gave me the chance to stay, to try something new and the confidence to grow, to make mistakes and to learn what leadership rooted in care really means in practice.

That experience also marked the start of a great relationship that has opened many doors for Greenhill. Through Rank Foundation support, we have since received funding to establish our bookings software, to create a Special Needs Coordinator role for three years and to pilot a Social Enterprise Lead position for a year, with more opportunities still to come. It has been transformative, both for me personally and for the organisation as a whole.

This year, I was honoured to receive the Rank Memorial Award 2025 which will allow me to travel to Australia to visit several migrant-led social enterprises and meet their leadership teams.

I want to understand how they have built organisations that are both socially impactful and financially sustainable, how they balance purpose with business viability and how they nurture inclusion within their communities. In a time when conversations about migration can be difficult, I want to explore how opportunity can become a tool for connection and peace.

My goal is to bring those lessons back to Greenhill and to other social enterprises within the Rank Foundation network exploring practical ways that we can all create models that empower people, strengthen communities and remain resilient through change.

At Greenhill, I see every day how opportunity transforms lives. Our international volunteers come from across the world and through the outdoors they connect with local young people. Those small interactions, over a campfire, an outdoor challenge, or a shared laugh, open doors to empathy and care. That’s what opportunity looks like to me: the chance to learn, to lead and to help others do the same.

Alejandra Arcila Alzate
YMCA Greenhill