A competitive national grant for the Parks and Rec Department will help amplify girls and women’s voices and allow for more girls sports in Eudora.
The National Recreation and Park Association, in collaboration with Nike, awarded Eudora a $20,000 grant aimed at increasing access to sports for kids, but especially for young girls.
Parks and Recreation programmer Matt Shirhall applied for the grant because he said it aligned with the department’s existing goals.
Some of the funding will go into some start-up programs coming for the spring, like a girls flag football league. The city will also have a softball team this summer, and some more programs are coming later this year, he said.
“One of the missions for Parks and Recreation is to find an activity for everyone, and there’s a lot of studies that are showing the rate of girls dropping off in sport participation as they kind of get into that fourth, fifth, sixth grade area,” Shirhall said.
Grants like this help Parks and Recreation fund things that may have not otherwise fit in the budget, like the new league, he said.
A community focus group for women and girls in Eudora will also get started due to this grant, he said. The city is still looking for athletes, coaches and other community members of all ages who are interested in having a spot on that coalition, he said. The goal of the group will be to figure out new ways to get girls into sports and keep them in sports for longer, he said.
About 35% of participants in parks and rec agencies’ youth sports programs are girls and only 25% of coaches are women, according to the National Recreation and Park Association. About 59% of agencies lack specific training for coaching girls in sports, according to the same source.
The grant was awarded to 10 communities to explore strategies and approaches to increase access to sports for girls, said Allison Colman, senior director of programs for the National Recreation and Park Association.
Each of the communities chosen will also participate in virtual workshops to explore and share their challenges and solutions as they explore expanding opportunities with their grant funding.
This is the first program focused specifically on women and girls. Nike is providing the financial support for these awards, Colman said. Nike is also focused on addressing barriers facing women and girls in sports, so the grant was created to address some well-documented gaps that girls are dropping out of sports earlier than boys, she said.
Some other cities that received the grant are Chicago, Los Angeles, Columbus, Ohio, and Seattle.
“NRPA are really focused on leveraging the power of local park and recreation departments to increase, you know, access to opportunities for all kids to play, but we recognize that they have a pretty major role in creating opportunities for youth sports and communities,” Colman said.
Not only are local parks departments oftentimes managing these programs, but they’re also serving a unique role as they are able to provide an affordable, fun and welcoming environment, she said. With these grants, the association is able to pilot and learn what the best strategies are for forming programs to increase participation for girls, she said.
They believe in bringing more women and girls to the table to have discussions around these issues, like conversations about breaking down barriers like accessibility to equipment, facilities, uniforms and working to create programs targeting girls specifically. Recruiting more coaches who are women and providing more coach training are also things being piloted through these different initiatives, she said.
Colman said Eudora is spot on with its plan for a coalition of women, girls, athletes, coaches and community leaders and its plan to add more programming for girls-specific teams.
“I think they had a really strong application and, you know, very clear that there’s a commitment to this work and an understanding of the power of youth sports within the community and the impact that it has on all kids and families and so that definitely came through really strongly, but I believe that that we were very impressed by their vision for really establishing this new coalition,” she said.
Seeing how cities find success with these funds will help the National Recreation and Parks Association help others find answers in the future, she said. Case studies will be made based on the work of many of the projects funded under this grant to help build a roadmap for future usage for other parks and rec departments.
If you are interested in joining Eudora’s focus group, contact Shirhall at 785-690-7281.
