Throughout Philadelphia our Recreation Centers serve as vital spaces for youth, families, and seniors to come together to enrich their lives.  In every neighborhood, Philadelphia Parks and Recreation staff work tirelessly to provide and maintain safe facilities that our communities rely on. Their invaluable work day in and day out has the ability to change and save lives. Yet, understaffing and lack of investment in these vital positions is making our Recreation Centers less safe and prevents our communities from receiving the high quality consistent services they need. The City of Philadelphia has an opportunity to provide the robust community spaces we deserve, with staff delivering high quality programming to all, health and wellness services, and facility maintenance to keep facilities in excellent condition. We call upon City Council and the Parker Administration to step up, fund, and take whatever measures deemed necessary to ensure our Recreation Centers have the full complement of staff needed to respond to the diverse challenges of Philadelphia neighborhoods.

 

The dire state of our recreation centers:

Over the last 8 years, our recreation centers have been neglected with dwindling staff, leading to decreased safety and lower quality recreation programming.

• Youth in harm’s way: Since 2019 there have been over 300 shootings at or in the immediate surrounding areas of Philadelphia Rec Centers.

• Staff vacancies skyrocket: From Fiscal Year 2017 to Fiscal Year 2024 the number of Philadelphia Parks & Recreation positions that are funded but vacant has doubled from 14% to 28%, with Recreational Services (Rec Staff) suffering even worse as vacancies skyrocketed from 7% to 32%.

• Rec leaders wearing too many hats: Under staffing forces rec leaders to take on the role of social worker, custodian, and security in addition to rec leader, leading to less time for them to focus on delivering high-quality recreation programming

• Recreation centers and parks fall into disrepair: In 2023, over 40% of internal maintenance requests for parks and rec centers were not completed, leading sites to fall into disrepair and close until they can undergo major repairs.

 

Our communities deserve more:

We are at a crossroads: We must invest in our youth to ensure their safety and ability to thrive, or continue with the status quo that has been failing them. We need City Council, the Parker Administration, and Philadelphia Parks and Recreation to:

• Mobilize to hire the nearly 270 staff positions that are funded but sit vacant, including the nearly 100 vacant Recreation staff positions.

• Secure funding to hire social workers and recreational therapists to provide supportive services and help our youth take full advantage of parks and rec programming

• Hire appropriate staff to support community safety to support and enable rec leaders to focus on delivering programming.

• Hire maintenance workers to ensure our Parks and Recreation sites are properly cleaned, maintained, and improved, proactively addressing infrastructure issues as they come up and consistently making improvements.

• Ensure equity across the system by increasing funding for programming so family finances are no longer a barrier to youth joining programming.

 

Join us in demanding the Rec Centers we deserve!