2000-Annual Town Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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One of the more challenging aspects of this Before & After-school child care along with the department will be to justify its value and benefits to Kids Klub Pre-School and our summer camp program this community. Additionally, we will be faced with continues to be a large portion of our programming many views regarding recreational programs as being sphere. Youth from age 3 to 14 continue to be our "non-essential" services when compared to services major area of concentration, with most programs fill- that may be provided by the school, police, fire, or ing up in a short period of time. Presently we have DPW departments. approximately 50 youth participating in our nationally accredited Pre-School program, with over 100 youth Our task will be to appraise and implement pro- participating in our Kids Klub program. Summer grams that not only encompass "typical" recreational Camp had over 100 youth participating daily during activities such as sports leagues and youth skill devel- our 8-week season.A new growth spurt is occurring in opment programs,but to constantly research and eval- our "Adventure Club" summer program for 10 — 13 uate programs dealing with "youth-at-risk" as well as year-olds that has shown a need for programming to programs in youth leadership, job training and Adult this age group. This high quality day camp program and Continuing Education. Additionally, we will look provides opportunity for youth to participate in Ropes to implement programs and activities that result in Course training,canoeing,hiking and biking,and field positive personal experiences, social stability, per- trips to unusual places in and around Cape Cod. ceived value, and other benefits to the community. The adult programming area has risen from 25 PROGRAM GROWTH evening class to around 60 choices with many of the During the last year, Leisure Services has taken classes having multiple listings to serve the public.great strides in expanding opportunities in the follow- This brings the option for class selection to over 90 per ing areas: continued increased use of all Schools; semester. In addition, the Adult Brochure has become a stand-alone document, now 16 pages in booklet After-School childcare & Summer Camp; Adult Continuing Education;programs for Older Youth; and form.Distribution for the youth and adult brochures is N Special Events. Continuous development in these 3500 and 8500 respectively. Youth brochures are dis- tributed directly through the school system, library, areas along with the growth of offerings such as the town hall and mailers. The adult brochure is distrib- Summer Adventure Club,youth enrichment and youth uted through the Upper Cape Local, the Mashpee sports skills programs, and Adult Sports programs has kept the Department growth oriented and creative. Enterprise, local business, local libraries, schools, town hall, and mailers. In addition to the brochure, we i also use the Internet, cable television, and newspaper Programming for after school enrichment and advertisements to publicize our programs. recreational activities in the youth category has risen from 11 individual offerings to approximately 40. Our Mashpee beaches showed a 15% increase in current brochure for youth and teens is the size our over-all sticker sales over the previous year. As such, combined brochure was 7 years ago.This past year our along with the growing population, parking is still a Department received a $40,000 grant from the major problem at South Cape Beach. Efforts to lessen Department of Education to provide after-school this situation are still a few years off. Staff has urged activities for our youth. Included in this program were Math Help and Tutoring, Reading Help and Tutoring, beach-goers to double up and car pool in order to Elementary Jazz Band, Drama, and also Arts and alleviate traffic jams. Additionally, this year we expe- I' rienced a shortage of lifeguards to protect the beaches Crafts.It included funding for snacks as well. In addi- and we are working on solutions to lure high quality tion, a Homework Club was started to provide after- high school and college students' back into this great school help for 25 eighth graders,while weekends pro- summer job. vided a "Teen Center" program held at the Boys and Girls Club. SPECIAL EVENTS %! In addition, youth physical recreation is holding Special Events have continued to be very well steady with approximately 250 in youth Saturday attended. "Daffodil Days" and "Kids Safe Summer" morning basketball and about 160 youth in indoor soc- held in the beginning of May at Mashpee Commons cer.This past summer we increased our soccer camps was attended by crowds estimated at over 2000. This to two with participation from Northeastern University event has been a key fundraiser for the Mashpee and Major League Soccer with approximately 30 to 40 Beautification Council, in conjunction with Mashpee Youth in each camp. The Youth fishing derby contin- Leisure Services, Mashpee Commons, and the ues to be a popular event and despite a cool and windy Mashpee Chamber of Commerce. A very successful day,almost 100 children participated. "Car Show" put together by Reid Riberdy was a high- light of the weekend along with the Kiwanis Club i sponsoring of the `Bike Rodeo" for youth. 145