Y Stories: Tino Barreras

For YMCA Chief Program Officer Tino Barreras, the path to a career in nonprofit work began with a part-time job at the Boys & Girls Club of Albany. 

Barreras has worked at our YMCA since 2021 and oversees our programs, services, grant management and events. Raised in Albany, he attended West Albany High School before attending Oregon State University.

“Like every kid growing up in Albany, I came to the Y at one point or another,” Barreras said. “Many people have spent time at the Y because they’ve played a sport, or have come to shoot hoops and get in the pool. So, growing up, I would play quite a bit of basketball—noon hoops—during breaks and during summertime.”

As a freshman in college, Barreras’ father was terminally ill, and his family life had gone from one of stability to uncertainty. Barreras wanted to stay close to home, navigating school and his dad’s illness. He ended up picking up a job refereeing basketball at the Boys & Girls Club. There, he took on additional work, including painting and supervising fields, before asking for a more involved role with the organization. 

“I wanted to move out, but my dad was sick, so I stayed close to home. But I still wanted to move out. The only way I could really do that, in my opinion, was to get some more hours,” Barreras said. “So I approached their program director at the time and said, ‘Hey, I’d love to work with the kids. I’ve worked camps and stuff like that for basketball, and I’d like to do that.’ And they gave me an interview.”

He said that, during the interview, he told them his dad was terminally ill, and he expressed what he was going through. He ended up getting the job, serving as the organization’s Director of Teen Services before becoming the Elementary Club Director in later years. 

“I talked about the fact that a lot of kids are going through the same thing, and a lot of kids have it worse than me, because they’re five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years old. They’re having a lot of the same stress that I had at 18. And they’re having to navigate it as kids,” Barreras said. “So that’s what I said in the interview. Just because you look a certain way or act a certain way, a lot of times that’s a product of your environment. And I want to be there for the kids, and to show them that they’re not alone.”

Consequently, throughout his early adulthood, the Boys & Girls Club became Barreras’ home away from home and a source of support during a difficult time. His dad got progressively sick, and when he passed, Barreras still went to work that day.

“Everyone was like, ‘You have to go home. Don’t be here.’ And I just said, I can’t, I don’t want to go home. Like, this is my home. I want to be here. I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t come to work today. I need to be here for the kids, and I need to be here for myself,” Barreras said. 

During his years at the club, Barreras fell in love with youth development. He started working with older teens, helping them on the path to college and post-secondary success. He helped start up a class called T3—Training Teens for Tomorrow—when he was about 23, just out of college. The class focused on college and job readiness, including help with FAFSA, resume building, and interview prep. He also worked with Linn-Benton Community College to authorize the curriculum and provide college credit to students. 

When he was in his late twenties, he was encouraged by one of the organization's major donors to make a career change. 

“He told me, ‘Tino, I like you. Good people—in five years at a job, they either move up, or move out.’ At that time, I had been working at the Club in a management role for about five years,” Barreras said.

Serendipitously, he was encouraged to apply for a job at Republic Services by Julie Jackson, a present-day YMCA board member, after giving a grant presentation for the Boys & Girls Club at United Way. He got the job. But the reality of that work, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, felt disconnected from what he valued most: collaboration and working for a cause. That realization ultimately led him back to nonprofit work and a job at our YMCA. 

Now, one of Barreras’ main responsibilities is overseeing our YMCA’s programs, which includes developing new programming to meet the community’s needs. He also oversees several departments, including Aquatics, Sports, Fitness, Resource Development, and Marketing. In his role, Barreras aims to analyze the YMCA’s programming holistically, ensuring programs are inclusive and accessible to all. 

“In my role, I ask myself many questions. Like, we have a lot of sports—what age groups are we hitting? Are we really a place for all? Do our programs cater more towards boys than girls? Do our programs cater to younger people more than older people? Are we just offering sports, and no other programs?” Barreras said. “We want to be a place for everybody. That’s why we continuously open our doors and are looking for opportunities, actively looking for opportunities to partner with like organizations, or organizations that do things differently than we do. Maybe they have a specialty, and we have the facility and the platform to make that program happen.”

Barreras pointed to examples of this, including a brand-new Youth Acrylic Painting Workshop this May, in which the YMCA has partnered with a local traveling art company called We Make Art. Our YMCA also recently introduced a free chess club for all ages.

“We have 22 folks in the Chess Club right now, and it’s really cool. You can walk by on Tuesday nights, and you’ll see a 13-year-old playing with a 62-year-old. That’s a cool dynamic,” Barreras said. “I think it gives purpose to both people. These 13-year-olds, or kids as young as 8 or 9, are there, sharpening their skills, but they also can come home and say, I was at the Y, and I beat a grown-up at chess. On the other hand, I think the older generation gets the sense of giving back and maybe teaching the kids, too. Maybe they meant to lose and threw the game because they wanted to see the kid smile.”

Barreras’ holistic approach has helped drive significant growth across the YMCA. Youth sports have expanded over the years, with Tots Sports and new programs bringing more families into the organization. Fitness programs have evolved to meet deeper community needs, including specialized offerings like Tots Tumbling and Rock Steady Boxing for individuals with Parkinson’s. Swim lessons have expanded to weekends, making them more accessible to working families. Together as a team, Barreras and his directors ask, what can we do to serve more people? What can we do to help?

“Five years ago, we didn’t have all this,” Barreras said. “I think in five years, we’ll have probably 20-30% more to offer, whether that’s more benefits and amenities for members, or the program capacity and the amount of different types of programs. I think that’s really important.”

In addition to programs and services, Barreras is involved in event planning for the four large events our YMCA holds each year: the free Albany Community Carnival, which takes place this month; the Ken Davis Golf Classic, which will be held this year on July 10; the Summer Y Games in August; and the Winter Gala in November. 

“I’m fortunate to have an amazing team, and to be honest, one thing that I’ve done the best that I’m most proud of is the development and selection of people that I’ve been able to have the opportunity to hire,” Barreras said. “Because no matter what, I could list the things I’ve done every year. But it’s not what I’ve done—it’s what everyone around me did. And I pride myself on finding those people. I identified them, and now I’m helping develop them, and they’re helping develop me.”

What Barreras enjoys most about his role is the ability to build new opportunities for members and the community, and his ability to collaborate with team members throughout our YMCA. Additionally, Barreras said he remains committed to his role because of the support the organization provides for him, both professionally and personally. 

“I’m happy, I love my team, I love what we’re doing, and I love the mission,” Barreras said. “What keeps me here is the ability to be myself and the opportunities we’re creating for people. That’s why I’ll be here for probably as long as they’ll have me. The more projects and the more opportunities we offer, the more people it can bless. I don’t know a better reason to stay around than that.”