Fit2Lead: A Response to Community Violence and Improving Youth's Lives

About the Program

Category: Parks and Recreation (Best in Category)

Year: 2020

Community violence is a significant public health problem both locally in Miami-Dade County and across the nation. Violence most often impacts economically vulnerable communities of color, consistent with long-standing and persistent educational and health disparities. The Fit2Lead Youth Enrichment and Sports (YES) afterschool program and the Fit2Lead Internship program were developed through a unique interdisciplinary collaboration between Miami-Dade Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department; the University of Miami; Florida International University; the Miami-Dade County Department of Juvenile Services and the public school system, and a number of community-based organizations to provide structure and stability for at-risk youth. Fit2Lead is a first-of-its-kind park afterschool and internship program model that targets neighborhoods with the greatest needs and fewest resources, where children are at the highest risk for becoming a victim or perpetrator of youth violence. Fit2Lead Youth Enrichment and Sports (YES) is a free after school program that meets daily in selected parks and includes academic support and life skills that are infused within sports and recreation activities for youth ages 12-14 and a Park Internship Program that is a paid apprenticeship and a 3-hour weekly life skills curriculum for youth ages 15-18. Both programs explicitly leverage teachable moments to introduce and practice skills underlying risk and resilience pathways and common to evidence-based adolescent prevention that includes effective communication, emotion regulation, and problem solving. The goal is to introduce physical and mental health trajectories for vulnerable youth that lead toward educational, employment, and earnings success. Fit2Lead has helped to create and continues to foster other programs, relationships and partnerships that include the University of Miami; Florida International University’s Department of Psychology; the Parks Foundation of Miami-Dade; the Florida Department of Health (Miami-Dade County); the Consortium for a Healthier Miami-Dade County; the Health Foundation of South Florida; The Children’s Trust; the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA); and Florida Recreation and Park Association (FRPA).