South Side Parents Struggle to Get Their Kids Enrolled in Park District Programs EDUCATION
ILLUSTRATION BY SAADIA PERVAIZ
Opaque registration and language barriers are among the obstacles that leave parents with few summer options for their children.
BY ALMA CAMPOS
P
arents waited in line for hours. Some had brought folding lawn chairs and placed their kids in wagons, giving them water and snacks to ride out the long wait. Others came alone or in large groups with friends, speaking amongst themselves in Spanish, English, and Mandarin. Some parents had camped out since 4:30am. Others had taken the day off work to come. They were gathered outside the McKinley Park Fieldhouse on a Saturday morning in May to sign their kids up for one of Chicago Park District’s most sought out programs—summer day camps. Running from July 5 to August 12, the programs provide around six hours of care every weekday starting at $110 over the course of the program—a great deal compared to similar camps at places like the YMCA, which can run up to $210 per week. But by the end of the day, many
parents were turned away. One of the Park District’s core values is “Children First,” which their website describes as “[to] bring children and families into our parks and give them great reasons to stay and play for a lifetime.” In their budget appropriations document, the Park District states they “ensure that all families and children have access to affordable programming where they can play, learn and grow.” Yet year after year, many parents who want to enroll their children in day camps and other programs are turned away. Obstacles like language barriers and lack of internet access alongside insufficient programming seem to especially affect South Side parents, some of whom feel like the park activities are not meant for them and their families. Maria Negrete, who has lived in McKinley Park with her husband and two daughters for ten years, said that on three
different occasions she tried to register her two daughters at the McKinley Park spring and summer programs, but that every time she tried, she was not able to. Negrete, who doesn’t speak English, said she once showed up to the fieldhouse in McKinley Park to register her daughters into the swimming program and when she inquired to a staff member about registration, she was handed a flier in English with instructions to go home and sign up online. Negrete said she doesn’t use a computer very much and the information on the website was in English, so she struggled to understand the information and wasn’t able to register her daughters into swimming. Another time, she visited the fieldhouse in early spring to register her daughters for summer classes because she learned that spots fill quickly, but she was turned away because slots were full. One of Negrete’s daughters, Maritza,
who is a teenager now, said she remembers wanting to learn how to swim and not being able to get into the swimming program. “I felt bad because I would see other kids able to get in,” she said. Both Negrete and her daughter said the children they saw outside didn’t appear like they were from the area. “In reality, the programs here are not only for the people who live here, rather they are for those who come from outside areas. I see how they are giving preference to white people because they speak the language, because they are from here, and well, we are last.” “This is not for me,” Negrete said. “Even if the services are in my neighborhood, I feel that it isn’t for us. Because you can’t speak the language, you can’t defend yourself, you can’t say how you feel.” Negrete also remembers when Maritza was ten, they’d show up in JUNE 30, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 5
