{"id":149359,"date":"2025-08-16T02:15:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T02:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/149359\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T02:15:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T02:15:10","slug":"this-week-in-jacksonville-business-edition-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/149359\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. <\/strong> \u2013 Eric Mann, a dedicated leader at the YMCA, is preparing to retire next summer after an impressive 45-year career with the organization. His journey has taken him through multiple cities across the United States, culminating in his leadership role in Northeast Florida, where he has overseen significant growth and development.<\/p>\n

Mann reflects on his long tenure with the YMCA, saying, \u201cI have only worked for one organization for 45 years when I retire, and so I don\u2019t know anything else. And so there\u2019s a side of me that is excited for the next chapter.\u201d He credits his start at the YMCA to a college internship, initially taking a youth worker job at an old church facility, which provided full-time employment with benefits. Early on, his career was not planned as a lifelong path: \u201cIt was fun, but it wasn\u2019t like, okay, I want to grow up to be a Y person,\u201d Mann admitted.<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS EPISODE: <\/b>Spotlight on Jax Tech Fest & and regional innovation<\/a><\/p>\n

However, as he progressed, Mann found alignment between his personal values and the mission of the YMCA. He remarked, \u201cThe mission of the Y… the key word in it is, values and Christian values. Not necessarily an evangelical side of it, but we live by… caring responsibility… and also for all.\u201d This mission, focused on youth development, healthy living, and social responsibility, has guided his service and the organization\u2019s work in the community.<\/p>\n

The First Coast YMCA in Jacksonville, where Mann has served for over a decade, embodies these values by fostering a diverse and inclusive environment. \u201cYou can go to the Westside Y and it\u2019s our most diverse YMCA. It has every type of person, from socioeconomics to race to whatever you want to look at who\u2019s coming and they are coming together,\u201d Mann explained.<\/p>\n

Eric Mann (Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

Under Mann\u2019s leadership, the YMCA has experienced substantial growth and expansion, even during challenging times like the pandemic. Mann highlighted new community branches, stating, \u201cWe opened the Wildlife Y, we opened the Nocatee Y, the Open Up Baptist North, and we opened up Flagler Health Village and World Golf Village. All four of those were open within a year each other from spring of \u201919 to fall of \u201920.\u201d These developments position the YMCA strongly within Northeast Florida\u2019s growing communities.<\/p>\n

Discussing Jacksonville\u2019s competitive advantage, Mann noted, \u201cJacksonville is known (as) one of the top cities for young adults employment wise. And so we\u2019re… seeing much more growth than some of my colleagues that are maybe up north.\u201d He further emphasized the organization\u2019s strong recovery post-pandemic, contrasting it with other regions: \u201cThe pandemic kind of exposed a lot of the northern Ys because they couldn\u2019t where we, we could. And so we were able to come out of the pandemic, much stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Mann is confident in the future of the YMCA and its leadership. While admitting he is not worried about his replacement, he acknowledged, \u201cThe board is doing a national search as well as looking at internal candidates as well, but they will be YMCA people.\u201d He also emphasized the importance of continued community engagement and philanthropy to support growth.<\/p>\n

Upon retirement, Mann plans to remain active in Jacksonville civic life, saying, \u201cI\u2019ll remain engaged in my civic activities… I don\u2019t want to do anything more than about 20 hours a month. That\u2019s the big… I\u2019ll probably play a little extra golf and do some travel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eric Mann\u2019s dedication has left a lasting impact on the YMCA and the broader Jacksonville community, where he has been a transformative figure in building inclusive, thriving community centers. His journey is a testament to the power of values-driven leadership and the positive role nonprofit organizations play in society.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Eric Mann, a dedicated leader at the YMCA, is preparing to retire next summer after…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":149360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,16212,718,3188,723,7310,5158,16211,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-149359","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-business-edition","10":"tag-community","11":"tag-fl","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-jacksonville","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-this-week-in-jacksonville","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115036037081481369","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}