Weekly Update

Friends, 

It’s that time again—time to give you a rundown of the increased work we are doing every day to enrich the lives of our youth. Memphis Parks, Memphis Public Libraries, and Youth Services touch thousands of lives each year, and I think it’s important to highlight the great work they do day-in and day-out.

Memphis Parks

Youth Programs

• Summer Baseball/Softball Clinic
• Summer Baseball/Softball Games
• Summer Basketball League Clinic
• Summer Camp Summer Games
• Golf
• Youth Swim Lessons

Summer Camp

23 locations

Youth ages 5-15

1,669 youth served

 New programs being offered in the next Quarter

• Youth Flag Football –August
• Fall Youth Basketball –October

Citywide Showdown (5v5 Youth Soccer) –September

All in, 61,711 youth were served through the division of Memphis parks this past fiscal year. 

Here’s a quick video to demonstrate all the great things happening in our parks system. To learn more about your Memphis Parks and to get involved, go here.

Thanks to Director Nick Walker and his team at Memphis Parks for delivering quality services and programs that make Memphis a better place to live work and play.

Memphis Public Libraries

If you have children, you know how important it is not only to keep them physically active in the summer but to keep their minds engaged and continuously learning as well. When children and teens don’t read during the summer, they lose important knowledge and skills gained during the school year. At MPL, we are determined to help families prevent potential summer learning loss by offering opportunities to read and learn throughout the summer.

It’s why we created Explore Memphis. Explore Memphis has everything from summer camps, reading challenges and other fun events to keep kids academically engaged.

Overall Explore Memphis Program Attendance

Total (all ages): 18,078 (35% increase from 2022)

Youth Total: 12,658 (47% increase from 2022)

Thanks to Director Keenon McCLoy and her team at MPL for continuing to deliver much needed services to the next generation of Memphians.

Office of Youth Services

Our Office of Youth Services served 2,816 children ages 14-22 this summer. Our programs include MPLOY (summer jobs), I AM INCLUDED (youth with special needs), and All My Children (youth experiencing homelessness and foster care). In addition, we just graduated another 11 youth from our Opportunity R3 program (16-24 years old, not in school and not employed).

Thank you to Director Ike Griffith and the entire team for helping our youth grow and mature.

Boys and Girls Club: As you hopefully know by now, the Boys and Girls Club is an organization that is near and dear to me, and they do tremendous work in our community. Because they do such great work we allocated funds to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Memphis to expand their great work to 11 high schools across our city.

Because of our partnership, they served 5,198 youth in summer camp this year.

Thanks to Desmond Bane for hosting his 3^rd Annual Bane’s Backpack in support of the Boys and Girls Club. Check out this reel from the event when you have a minute.

Tennessee Highway Patrol: For years, we have been asking for more Tennessee Highway Patrol officers in Memphis. I want to take a moment to publicly thank Governor Bill Lee and his administration for their efforts to help us in this area by adding more funding in the budget and allocating more officers to our region.

On Wednesday of this week, I had to opportunity to join him as he announced that they had 1,000 applicants for the THP most recent recruit class with around 110 to 115 from Memphis.

I am sure you have noticed, but there has been a significant increased presence on state routes that run through Memphis. This allows our MPD officers to spend more time patrolling city streets and hopefully stopping crimes before they can happen.

Enjoy your weekend!

Yours,