RECREATION AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Recreation and community Development

Recreation and community Development

Introduction

A network of community members concerned for the youth in a neighborhood called Glenview formed an advocacy group to improve the lives of their children through recreation. This advocacy network was concerned about the deterioration of the Glenview neighborhood and the increase of problems facing resident youth (e.g., violence, drug and sexual activity, truancy). When problems are concentrated within a neighborhood and coexist with factors of poverty and residential instability, they are detrimental to child development and termed “child-linked social problems” (Sampson, 2001). The Glenview neighborhood was characterized by these co-existing factors. Agents associated with the neighborhood believed structured recreation could be used as a tool to help the Glenview youth counter the factors that made them at-risk. Many formal and informal meetings transpired over the period of one year that involved collaboration between these community organization agents.

Following the formal meetings, the city Department of Recreation and Parks, with the support of other members from the community organization effort, proposed a plan approved by city commissioners to fund a recreation program at Glenview Park specifically targeted for youth living in that neighborhood. For marketing, a neighborhood event was implemented and flyers were passed throughout the neighborhood. No fee was charged for participation in the program, and lunch and snacks were provided each day for each child. The recreation program was implemented during the weekdays for the Glenview youth during the following summer.

Many questions remained unanswered surrounding this phenomenon of active achievement to lethargic decline, of mass to scattered involvement and of collaboration to mistrust and finger pointing among the community organization members. Research supports the notion that recreation programs offered at targeted times (i.e., after school, nights and summers) can help to provide a safe space, reduce the crime rate and decrease maladaptive and destructive behaviors of youth in neighborhoods (Witt, 2001a). However, organizing a community to come together for an important cause and to continue the effort when challenges arise is not a simple task. After time and energy were spent to get a recreation program implemented in the Glenview Park, it lasted only four months. Not only was the program discontinued, but problems mounted to where the community organization effort deteriorated and members disengaged.

The original issues of concern remained extant for the residents of the Glenview neighborhood. As reported by Maton (2000), the social problems of post-industrial society are deeply embedded within multiple levels of the social environment, and if changes are not made within all levels, efforts and programs to aid in helping to decrease problems can be unavailing. The intent of the study was to explore the infrastructures of the Glenview neighborhood and the community organization effort. Recreation as an issue for advocacy and as a target for prevention was also examined. Exploring recreation was important because the members involved in the community organization effort for Glenview chose recreation as a means for helping the resident youth cope with the child-linked social problems they ...