Cleveland plans to offer new summer programs for youth through the city’s Neighborhood Resource and Recreation Center program. The expansion is part of an ongoing initiative to transform Cleveland’s rec centers into community hubs that provide support services and resources to youth and adults who deal with trauma.
In a joint meeting with two Cleveland City Council committees on Monday, Sonya Pryor-Jones, chief of Youth and Family Success at the City of Cleveland, requested $1.4 million to provide new programs for the summer. The city plans to partner with 18 organizations, including Little League Rugby, Karamu House and other youth-centered agencies.
Pryor-Jones also said the expansion of arts programs for this year was made possible by a $25,000 City Council arts award sponsored by Ward 9 Council Member Kevin Conwell. The program will contract with Julia DeBurgos Cultural Arts Center, Eleanor B. Rainey Institute, The Music Settlement and Center for Arts-Inspired Learning.
Cleveland rec centers keep evolving
In 2023, the city budgeted $1.3 for neighborhood recreation centers, with a focus on programs for youth and adult employment. In that year, the city worked with 26 partner agencies to provide programs in six focus areas: education, job readiness, health, youth leadership, arts and sports. Those partners included Recess Cleveland, Youth Opportunities Unlimited (Y.O.U.) and After-School All-Stars.
This year, the money budgeted would support the recreation center’s existing programs and provide funding to focus on new marketing and promotion. The money would also be used to continue a trauma-informed care training program for recreation staff that is monitored by Case Western Reserve University.
Trauma-informed care “recognizes the signs and symptoms of trauma in clients, families, staff and others involved with the system; and responds by fully integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures and practices, and seeks to actively resist re-traumatization,” according to The Mayor’s Office of Prevention, Intervention and Opportunity for Youth and Young Adults
Pryor-Jones said that more than 1,300 people attended at least one program at the city’s recreation centers last summer. She said the number of participants who use these programs has gradually increased and she expects that to continue this summer.
Bibb picked up where Jackson left off
In 2018, Mayor Frank Jackson announced a new initiative to transform Cleveland rec centers into community resource centers as an effort to combat crime, primarily violent crime among youth. One effort included providing trauma counselors and staff trained to detect symptoms of stress that can affect behavior and lead to violence at recreation centers in the city.
During Jackson’s last term as mayor, his administration focused on hiring dozens of social workers and counselors as well as on training recreation center staff to help launch the program. The pandemic slowed progress, said Pryor-Jones, but in summer 2023 the program returned when Mayor Bibb awarded it $1.3 million.
Last year, researchers at Case Western Reserve University published a five-year study in the journal Behavioral Sciences that examined how the neighborhood recreation center resource program model impacted staff and supported youth with trauma and mental health. Researchers noted the program is being replicated in other cities across the nation.
