Providence Recreation Advisory Board reviews 2024, sets 2025 goals for leagues, swim, volunteers and facilities

The Providence Recreation Advisory Board on Feb. 10 reviewed 2024 participation data and department improvements and discussed priorities for 2025, including expanding the fledgling city soccer league, boosting girls' basketball participation, launching swim lessons and a splash pad, and continuing rollouts of online registration and maintenance tracking.

The discussion centered on why the department is pushing system upgrades and program expansion now. Steven, Recreation Department staff, presented attendance and operations data showing the Rogers facility logged “just a little under 18,000” visits in 2024 — an average of about 60 people per day — and described how new digital tools are being used to measure use and plan services.

The board used the data to focus on three near-term program goals: develop the youth soccer league into a multi-site program with community partners; refine the Youth Basketball Development League schedule and registration so parents know practice and game days earlier; and expand swim programming, including lessons scheduled to begin March 10.

Mike Collins, director at Madeline Rogers Recreation Center, described local program work and outreach at Rogers: “I have a great, great staff. They always say, you know, as good as your staff and, it's the truth.” Collins flagged female participation as a continuing challenge: centers can recruit girls into programs but have had difficulty retaining them. He said staff are conducting outreach and surveys at other centers to identify retention practices.

Francisco Martinez of the Guatemala Soccer League described his group’s partnership with the department. “They wanna play soccer. They wanna play sports,” Martinez said, summarizing why the local league volunteered to help organize a city-run program. The department ran a spring soccer pilot in 2024 at a single site and plans to explore adding one to two additional locations by 2026 to improve geographic access.

Board member Jenna Lafayette urged earlier clarity for families on scheduling. Lafayette said parents are hesitant to commit without knowing practice and game days and suggested using last year’s data to publish likely schedules earlier. Department staff agreed to meet after the current basketball season to review registration, communication and league structure; the basketball season under way had 374 boys and 145 girls registered, with a championship date set for March 8.

On aquatic programming, staff said swim lessons are planned to start March 10 with Monday/Wednesday/Friday 30-minute lessons and a $10 registration per lesson; open swim hours were described as Tuesdays and Thursdays 4:30–6 p.m. and Saturdays in the morning or early afternoon, depending on pool availability. A splash pad located near the rec center was described as likely to open in the summer pending weather and construction schedules.

The department emphasized systems work completed in 2024: piloting online registration and membership with support from Watson Institute at Brown University; launching a recreation Instagram account; switching facility booking to an online event manager so rentals and use are tracked; and adopting an asset/maintenance system (Asset Essentials) to capture maintenance requests and completion times. Steven said the new maintenance workflow sends requests simultaneously to the recreation office and public property staff; average completion time is roughly in the range the department reported when tracking began.

Staff hires and staffing changes mentioned as 2024 accomplishments included David Onyam (director of special projects), Xander Mon (media content manager), Luisa Chitang (operations support), and Seth Sigronatos (Elmwood Community Center director). The board and staff also reported successful collaborations in 2024: a city bowling league with a local partner, municipal exploration days that introduce children to city departments, and donor-supported holiday giveaways.

Board members and community speakers urged better communication with families and schools, use of WhatsApp for community outreach in some neighborhoods, and clearer volunteer sign-up flows. The department said it will add volunteer registration options to the online portal that allow users to indicate coaching interest and availability and will pilot targeted outreach in Spanish and via community partners.

No formal votes were recorded in the meeting minutes for the Feb. 10 session. The board set the next meeting agenda to include a more detailed review of the FY2026 budget and how program goals will be resourced.

Why this matters: the department’s mix of program expansion and digital systems aims both to reach more residents and to give staff data to make operational choices. Board members and directors said the availability of month-by-month attendance and registration data for the first time in years is informing decisions about where to expand programs, when to offer them and how to measure success.