DEPARTMENT: Parks and Recreation
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Xavier D. Urrutia
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City-Wide
SUBJECT: Briefing on San Antonio Parks and Recreation Summer Programming
SUMMARY: City staff will provide a briefing on the ongoing summer programming opportunities provided by the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: The Parks and Recreation Department is committed to offering a variety of opportunities centered on youth development, community fitness, and aquatics which promote health, safety, and staying active during the summer months.
Youth Development
The department has provided a recreation summer program for youth for over 25 years. The Summer Youth Program provides supervised, structured recreational activities to children ages six to fourteen years old. The program operates for eight weeks each summer and serves approximately 5,000 children at 62 locations including Parks’ facilities and school sites.
Through a grant from the Texas Department of Agriculture, the Summer Food Service Program provides nutritional meals to children age eighteen and below and serves up to 6,600 children with over 258,000 lunches and 254,000 snacks, which have been designated Por Vida healthy by Metro Health, in conjunction with the Summer Youth Program, city pools, and other non-profit organization’s locations.
BRAVO! An Evening of Song and Dance provides an opportunity for local youth to showcase their talents through a series of dance and music performances held annually in July at the Arneson River Theater. BRAVO! highlights two pre-professional dance troupes operated through the Parks and Recreation Department: Fandango and Alamotion, accompanied by the department’s Take Note Youth Band.
Community Fitness
Parks and Recreation offers a summer fitness initiative, Fit Pass, a scavenger hunt type program which offers participants a chance to accumulate points by participating in a variety of fitness, wellness, nutrition and volunteer events around the City using either a paper or mobile app passport to track their points. Incentive prizes are offered at various levels of participation at the end of the program. This initiative complements existing Fitness in the Park programming offering over 6,500 classes annually.
Aquatics
The summer provides an opportunity for several aquatics-related activities for families to stay cool and learn valuable skills. The Parks and Recreation Department operates 23 outdoor swimming pools, open from the middle of June through the middle of August, as well as 4 splash pads located at Pearsall, Elmendorf Lake and Lincoln Parks and Yanaguana Garden. Pools are open 6 days a week for open swim as well as a morning lap-swim option is available 3 days a week at designated pools. Additionally, aquatic fitness classes such as Aqua Zumba are offered at several pool locations throughout the season.
Free group swimming lessons provide an opportunity to learn valuable life-saving skills. Three, two-week sessions are offered at each pool and morning and evening lessons are available at beginning and intermediate levels for both youth and adults.
ISSUE: The San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department offers a variety of summer programming for both youth and adults and has integrated these initiatives into the department’s core services.
ALTERNATIVES: The item is for briefing purposes only.
FISCAL IMPACT: The item is for briefing purposes only.
RECOMMENDATION: The item is for briefing purposes only.