REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
October 13, 2016
FROM: MAUNEL A. MOLLINEDO, Director
Parks, After School, Recreation and Community Services Department
BY: SHAUN SCHAEFER, Community Services Manager
Parks, After School, Recreation and Community Services Department
SUBJECT
Title
WORKSHOP - Weekend Recreation and Fitness Program Six-Month Overview
Body
RECOMMENDATION
N/A - Workshop only, no action required.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
On December 17, 2015, Council appropriated $1.2 million that would be used to expand the amount of green space available at existing school sites to Fresno residents through a partnership with Fresno Unified School District (FUSD) and Central Unified School District (CUSD). The Weekend Recreation and Fitness Program (WRFP) was launched on Saturday, June 4, 2016, at four schools, including Terronez Middle School, Steinbeck Elementary School, and Bullard and Edison High Schools. The WRFP proceeded to open four school sites per week until all 16 sites were operational as of June 25, 2016.
The highest level of attendance is occurring at the high school sites with Bullard High having the strongest level of participation. Conversely, the elementary school sites have not generated the same level of interest. In order to address the lack of participation the PARCS Department will be partnering with other community stakeholders, including Building Healthy Communities and Cultiva La Salud, to assist the Department in developing various strategies aimed at increasing interest and participation at these locations.
BACKGROUND
The WRFP is built around the core programming areas of sports (traditional and non-traditional), fitness and nutrition, and access to green space for recreation and leisure. The WRFP leadership worked with key stakeholders, community partners and the Personnel Services Department to recruit, hire, train and deploy over 35 temporary employees to cover the 16 school sites. The WRFP staff was recruited from local area colleges, including Fresno City College, Fresno Pacific University, Fresno State University and, specifically, the Recreation Administration Program at Fresno State University. Site logistics for program location set-up, portable restrooms, and storage units were coordinated with CUSD and FUSD Facilities Management leadership and Plant Coordinators to ensure adequate and accurate locations for deployment of resources.
Basic site management duties include WRFP staff placing phone calls to both school districts’ security divisions to check in and out for the day and walk-through’s and observations at the site for issues. The WRFP has been challenged with managing the site layout of certain schools, specifically the difficulty of monitoring areas that are not easily visible to WRFP and walking large-scale campuses. Nevertheless, both CUSD and FUSD have observed quicker response times on site issues, and FUSD has noticed a perceived reduction of vandalism at WRFP sites.
The WRFP had a successful roll-out of site openings, which included four sites per week over four weeks to open all 16 sites for program implementation and green space access. The WRFP has served 9,813 participants throughout the first 16 weeks in operation. The overall program is experiencing growth and an upward participant attendance trend with the fourth week having a total attendance of 471 participants, the eighth week having 504 participants and the sixteenth week having 759 participants. The WRFP high schools have a daily average of 25 participants; the middle schools have a daily average of 17 participants, and the elementary schools averaging 12 participants. The highest daily average is Bullard High School with 46 participants. The lowest daily average is at Addams Elementary School with only 9 participants.
In order to increase participation levels the PARCS Department will be convening monthly stakeholders meetings that will include WRFP leadership, Building Healthy Communities, Cultiva La Salud, Every Neighborhood Partnership, City Council District representatives, and CUSD and FUSD designated staff. These stakeholder meetings will be used to develop marketing and other outreach strategies with the goal of continuing to increase participation and awareness.
ENVIROMENTAL FINDINGS
N/A
LOCAL PREFERNCE
N/A
FISCAL IMPACT
N/A
ATTACHMENT:
WRFP Six-Month Overview PowerPoint Presentation
.