Providence Recreational Advisory Board-Monday, May 6, 2024-6:00 PM

You might wanna sit over here though because we're gonna do... They're gonna do a presentation on the screen that you might wanna sit.

Yeah. One more. That's fine.

Have a seat. These chairs are... At least here are small one. Maybe they're like a really small figure. Alright.

Do let me know when you're ready to roll. Good afternoon slash evening, everybody. This is Monday, 05/06/2024, and this is a meeting of the recreation advisory boards. Madam clerk, would you please call the roll?

Chairman Anthony Simon?

Present.

Vice chair Miguel Sanchez?

Present..

Seventh. Gina Lafayette is absent.

She's here. Oh, is she here?

Yeah. She just pulled

up. Okay.

Oh, she'll be in

the second.

But right now,

when she's absent.

Kenneth Phillips is absent. We have three present, two absent. We have a quorum.

Excellent. It shouldn't have to be mentioned.

I'm I'm trail director in.

There there were a section. Yeah.. Okay. Okay. Great.

Well, thank you everybody for coming once again. Excited to be here at the Kennedy Rec Center tonight, which is my neighborhood rec center, and we've spent some time in here with Josh and the great team here. We're thankful for all that they do. And sort of... And and our mission to kind of hold these meetings at different rec centers across the city, this is the third one that we've had at, and I think what we've tried to display at every turn is the different types of rec centers that we've had.

Right? So we've had... You know, we've done it at at West End where it's a standalone recreation center. We have done... This this is an example of the type of rec center that's actually attached to a school.

So we'll hear more from Josh about about the way that that generally works. And then we've also done the hybrid models the last time at Jocelyn Rec Center, which is a school, but then a sort of very separate sort of recreation facility attached to it. So this is our... We will recognize that Jenna, if he has just joined us. Oh, no.

Right. And so, Jenna, we're talking about this is the third example of the different types of rec centers. This one is really attached to a screw as well. So most kind of like a hybrid of of the boat. So now this will give us a good, I think, sort of feel for the three different types of rec centers that are out there.

We have a long agenda tonight, a pretty packed agenda, and lots of great stuff to talk about. So I don't wanna take up too much time, but I am going to turn it over to Josh Aragalla, who is the director here. I will say, personally, at first hand, I've seen the amazing work that they've done here. My son Anthony plays basketball here. So during the winter time, we are here quite a bit, and there's a lot more that goes on with rec center.

So we are thankful to you and your team. And Derek is here too. I recognize Derek Wise as the deputy director of the center here. So we're lucky to have them in our neighborhood and in the city. Especially, I will say that Kennedy won a championship this year.

We'll... Without thirteen years. Right? Twelve years. That was an exciting accomplishment.

We're expecting a banner sometime soon. Right? Is it? Alright. Good.

It's been a good one. So... But, anyway, thank you for all the group. Thank you for all that Eugene does. What we've been doing, Josh, is we started meeting as a board in November, and we've been going around.

We started doing the meetings at City Hall, but then we thought it would be especially important to go to the rec centers themselves, hear from the directors, hear from the teams about the work that's being done, in your individual rec centers. So the floor is yours. We're gonna have ten minutes or so. We appreciate you taking the time, and thanks for hosting us. And thank you for.

Yeah. The PowerPoint presentation. Yeah. I hope there was a... There's an issue in mind.

There it is. Alright. Well, with that said, let me give a brief about myself. Joshua O'Bella, born and raised in Providence. Actually, a neighborhood guy as well as Derek Wise.

We live right in the neighborhood. I live right behind the Alumni Hall. So you come here, I'll be here within five minutes. So I just I just enjoyed working for the rep. It is what I really want to do.

I was a rep kid growing up, so I've always seen the older staff looking up to them. So me stepping into this role was some... It was easy for me because I already had an example to perform. About Kennedy, before... Most of you guys already saw the talk, but we're only operating out of two units.

This classroom, right now, we're currently not, you know, operating out of it. We only really use it in the summit. Fully in the summer. Before I got here, before the directors would switch, they were using this room and part time teacher... Part time art teacher, so they had full access to the dream.

Now we don't have any access to the dream. So everything that we do and operate is fine. That's where everything is done. After school program, learning program, everything. So a typical day at Kennedy would be start off in the morning.

Starts off at 07:00 in the morning. So there are parents that drop off their kids at seven in the morning. It's a huge, huge help for the community. Mind you, school starts at nine. Parents are dropping them off at seven.

Starts at seven. Most kids start arriving between seven and 08:00. So kids are here morning program, school, and our after school building. So we have kids down here all day. We provide meals for them, homework help, and all types of activities in the after school program.

In the morning program, we do feed them breakfast. We give them breakfast. We have two staff, and we do a b 10 plus that take care of everything involved. Those those... Shayla and...

Shayla and Samantha Burnley, very, very good show. They've worked here before I came direct, but they were working on Mike Mike Holland. I filled in. They decided they wanted to stay. Showed me the ropes.

Huge, huge help. I have the school program. Like I said, we have meals. We have programs. We have a trip as well.

Going into sports, as Tony was saying, we have basketball program doing very, very well. This year, most reps have three team... Three age groups, 10 year, 12, and 14. We've had two teams for ten years because the numbers just grew for us, which is which is solid. Comic book 12 comic book 12 and side here.

We're probably the only rec that does it. We have a group group proms here. We've got come in. We do reading. We do arts.

They do drawing with them. All comic book stuff. The good thing about it is not just boys. Girls are involved with it too. So So every time they leave, when they come and meet, when they leave, they leave a.

My basketball skills and drills, that's huge. It was a big, big demand for it, especially after the season. I really wasn't gonna do it, but a lot of parents wanted... After the season was over, they're... What's next?

Is there anything going on? So we started doing the skills and drills. Computer club, that's something that's been on pause a lot because we need to get an updated computers. We can do more things on computers. In house, athletically, we...

Before, we had a... We had three. We're a host of the bidding league. So before everybody goes out to their own neighborhood reps, This is where they stop their basketball their basketball. We have numerous teams, volunteer coaches.

We have age groups five and six and seven and eight. So it's two degrees. So this is where we lower the rents. The kids get a foundation of the game. And then we have a whole side after school program.

We have a flat football with kids. That's Kennedy graphics, which is numbers as far as people who's coming in, I guess, who's coming in and out, so it fluctuates up and down. Questions?

How many how how many kids a day come come through the doors here?