Committee Report - Youth - 5-10-17 — File 203408

Youth Services Committee Page 1 of 2 Printed 5/11/2017 May 10, 2017 REPORT OF THE YOUTH SERVICES COMMITTEE Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Matthew McLaughlin Chair Present Mary Jo Rossetti Vice Chair Present Katjana Ballantyne Ward Seven Alderman Present Others present: Jill Lathan - Recreation, Annie Connor - Legislative Liaison, Rositha Durham - Clerk of Committees. The meeting took place in the Committee Room and was called to order at 6:00 PM by Alderman McLaughlin and adjourned at 7:30 PM. Approval of the April 6, 2016 Minutes RESULT: ACCEPTED 201136: That the Director of Recreation update the Youth Services Committee on #199518, a Resolution to waive the fee charged for field use for local youth oriented programs. Members of the committee received emails about the fees for using Dilboy Stadium. Ms. Latham said that fees are important for accountability and for ownership. There is an enormous staffing cost to run Dilboy Stadium, partly because it is a regional facility. Somerville Youth Organizations are charged lower fees than adult organizations and youth groups that use large blocks of time are charged the lowest fee possible, e.g., Pop Warner. Youth soccer may pay the most because they use the fields the most. Alderman Rossetti spoke about Pop Warner using Dilboy and Foss Park. Up to 2014, Pop Warner was being charged $150 a day, but now they are paying over $1,000 a day. Others pay $185 per hour. Pop Warner is not charged for the use of the locker room, concession stand, press box and ticket booth, which range in price of $150 to $185 a day. Pop Warner uses Foss Park which belongs to DCR. The city charges for the use of lights. Pop Warner also has to pay $200 for each of the two permits (spring and fall) for use of the field. It was stated that Dilboy is becoming too costly for the Pop Warner organization. There are 300-340 youngsters in the program, with 300-320 of them being from Somerville. The recreation center tries to offset the cost for Pop Warner by providing helmets, practice jerseys and other equipment. Football helmets have to be recertified every two years at a cost of approximately $5,000 - $6,000. The

Youth Services Committee Page 2 of 2 Printed 5/11/2017 Recreation Department recertifies the helmets that are lent out for Pop Warner to use. Pop Warner says it costs about $30,000 a year to run their program which includes the cost of referees. Little League pays the least amount of fees to the city at $630 a year and it was noted that the lights are not used for their games. Youth Soccer pays $14,000 - $15,000 a year and Somerville High School pays approximately $10,000 a year. There was a discussion about Community Development Block Grants, and other grants, to possibly assist with the cost of using Dilboy Stadium for youth organizations. RESULT: WORK COMPLETED 203358: That the Director of Parks and Recreation provide the number of youths under 18 served by gender and program, for FY16 and FY17 year to date. Ms. Lathan distributed her response to this item and said that the report was broken out by season and fiscal year. The information is used to gauge if the programs are working. Male participation is higher than female and Ms. Lathan stated that it is still a struggle to engage girls for the programs. Once girls are in high school, they become less involved in the recreation programs, perhaps because they are responsible for younger siblings and have family obligations. To address that possibility, Ms. Lathan has suggested programs that would allow girls to bring their younger siblings with them. Ms. Lathan said there is a huge cultural block with girls and that the Recreation Department has used a number of different methods to reach out to them, including social media, postcards and distributing program guides to the schools. Alderman Ballantyne spoke about a prior meeting at the Kennedy School with neighbors who would like to repurpose the black top/basketball court at the school. She also spoke about some school having teacher round table discussion about community activities that include recreation programs, noting that all program guides are supposed to be put into students’ backpacks. RESULT: WORK COMPLETED 203359: That the Director of Parks and Recreation share outreach strategy and methods, by gender, for youths under 18 years of age. Ms. Lathan distributed a document listing outreach efforts and said that the strategies have increased female participation. A member of the Recreation Department will reach out to families that are new to Somerville to let them know about the recreation programs. Babysitting will be offered to allow young females to attend programs or to at least find out more about the programs. RESULT: WORK COMPLETED Handout: • Youth Programming Data (with 203358)