Lisa Early to retire after two decades; cites Kids Zone, After School and CVI as drivers of improved youth outcomes

ORLANDO — At a Dec. 12, 2025 workshop of the Orlando City Council, Lisa Early, director of Family, Parks and Recreation, reviewed more than 20 years of city youth programs and announced she will retire in February.

Early told council members and staff that a city study comparing groups of children found "the biggest factor was poverty," a finding she said guided the department’s shift toward a cradle-to-career approach that bundles child care, after-school programs, mentoring, housing assistance and employment support.

Why it matters: Early credited the city’s Kids Zone model, Orlando After School All Stars, Operation AmeriCorps and Peace Orlando (the city’s community violence intervention program) with measurable improvements on several indicators. She urged incoming leaders to sustain investment, saying political will is a key determinant of whether results continue.

Early described long-standing neighborhood centers as the "roots" of the city’s approach and provided program figures: just over 1,500 children enrolled in city after-school neighborhood-center programs last fiscal year and more than 2,000 children in summer programs; athletics programs reached about 2,300 participants. She said federally funded meal programs and a state agreement support after-school and summer meals and that the recreation division served "383,669 meals to children just last year alone."

The presentation included academic and safety metrics collected through federal grants tracked by the Florida Department of Education. Early said All Stars sites reported that 100% of participating youth were promoted to the next grade and that 83% "increased their English language arts and math grades, or they maintained an A or B average." For the city’s neighborhood-center sites she cited increases in FAST test scores and report-card grades across multiple centers.

Early connected targeted place-based investments to declines in juvenile arrests and teen births in focus neighborhoods. She reported juvenile-arrest reductions in the four Kids Zone areas (Paramore down 88.6%, Holden Heights down 80%, Mercy Drive down 53.9%, Englewood down 58.5%) and said overall confirmed child-abuse-or-neglect cases in the zones fell about 68% combined. On teen births she cited a 97.6% drop for Paramore and an overall 45.8% decline, while noting some baseline recalculations remain pending.

On violence intervention, Early said Peace Orlando engaged 54 fellows last year (average age 21) and that program outreach and mediation hours exceeded 21,000, with "a 47% drop in gunshots in Orlando, a 34 percent decrease in gunshot wounds, [and] a 26.5 percent reduction in homicides" since the program started; she estimated the program saved "approximately $20 to $22 million" in taxpayer costs in the first two years. Those figures were presented by Early; the workshop record contains no external verification of the calculation.

A student who participates in Mercy Drive Kids Zone, Alze Stinson, told the council the programs offered mentorship, daily hot meals and support during legal challenges: "I've been given access to life changing opportunities," Stinson said, and added that mentors attended court dates and wrote letters on his behalf. Stinson said he is "waiting to start" a trade program at Valencia College and thanked staff and elected officials for support.

Council members and department colleagues offered public praise for Early and the staff running neighborhood centers, All Stars and violence-intervention efforts. Rodney (FPR staff) described hiring Early two decades ago as "visionary," and multiple commissioners thanked staff and urged continued advocacy for centers citywide.

Next steps: Early said she will retire in February and asked the council and future leaders to maintain the political will that enabled program growth. The workshop adjourned with a public invitation to continue congratulations in the rotunda.

Sources: Presentation and remarks at the Orlando City Council workshop, Dec. 12, 2025. All quotes and program figures are drawn from city staff remarks recorded at the workshop.