Despite never having intended to work with children, Satchel Smith has, nonetheless, found himself guiding them, whether that be in his previous work teaching kids how to 3D print at the Community College of Philadelphia’s summer STEM program or his current two and half month long position as a recreation speciality instructor at Chestnut Hill’s Water Tower Recreation Center.
As many kids return for the recreation center’s paid after school program, Smith and other workers have the consistent opportunity to help with homework, provide entertainment, or general guidance. Smith stresses the importance of listening to children, especially when it comes to meeting them at the level they’re at.
In addition to holding many planned events, Water Tower offers the space for kids to freely play in the indoor and outdoor basketball courts, or choose between the two full sized baseball courts, to name a few of the facilities. During his time there, Smith noted that it appears the recreation center may be experiencing some difficulties with funding–a result of a lack of funding from the City, according to the instructor.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Can you share the experience of working at a recreation center in Chestnut Hill?
It’s fun, but everybody knows what they’re here for. Everybody realizes, yeah, we’re really understaffed and we don’t have a lot of patience for things at the time. Originally, I was given the job by a coworker at a restaurant I worked at who was working at the rec center and working at the restaurant at the same time and he approached me and offered me the job.
Trying to get the job was the hardest part because it’s just an extremely long process with trying to work for the City. You need a child abuse clearance, a Pennsylvania criminal background check, and you need to get your FBI fingerprint as well. It’s just genuinely a lot and you do occasionally have to pay out of pocket, so for people who don’t currently have a job, it’s really hard to actually obtain this–and even then, I was waiting for months and months and months to be checked for it. Sometimes I’d do it more than once.
The only person who offered to reimburse was my supervisor, but that would also be out of his pocket–not the City or advisory counsel. And that’s not even to mention the training you have to do–you have to do fire safety and CPR training. That’s the ones I had to go through. It wasn’t hard, it was easy stuff that I already kind of know.
What is the extent of the free programs offered at the recreation center?
We have a lot of them, usually basketball. We have Chocolate Ballerinas–it’s mainly catered to Black women who want to learn to dance like ballerinas. To the extent of them, I don’t exactly know. I’m pretty sure they continually keep going year round and they usually happen every Monday and Wednesday in the gymnasium or in the outside basketball court.
When we’re not doing the after school program, we open up a summer camp for a lot of the kids. Usually it’s most of the same kids that we work with after school. It’s like a collaboration with the school that’s just a four minute walk away, Jenks.
What does the after school program offer?
I believe the after school program is also paid by the parents. It’s mainly just a way to keep the kids in, out of the streets. Instead of having them out and alone, they know where their kids are. We usually take care of them around two to six, when they get out of school, and their parents come to pick them up. We just have them in the gymnasium trying to get exercise in and playing around on the playground.
It is hard for us to get snacks for the kids occasionally. We’ll have moments where one of the people will have to pay out of pocket to afford to give the kids snack time afterwards, which is hard on the people that work there. We try to help them with their homework. Currently, we’re taking care of at least 45 to 50 kids.
Is there a benefit of having free, public, and local resources for the community?
It gives people a space to do the things they wanna do. It’s nice to have a sense of community. Everyday I’ll see the same amount of kids that are in the after school program still come by and try to talk to their friends that are in the program. It’s nice knowing that the kids have some safe space where they can be around each other and not have to worry about the craziness that happens in the city.
The area served is predominantly Chestnut Hill. Would you say that the Water Tower Recreation Center is being more funded than surrounding ones?
No! I’ve spoken to multiple of my coworkers who say it’s really understaffed. If I’m being honest, I’m possibly on the list of being cut off from this job due to being understaffed. And if I don’t end up picking a specific day where they need me to work, I might not even have this job anymore.
Do you think the money through paid programs is fairly reflected in the recreation center?
Maybe to pay employees and maybe the events. When it comes to events, we are doing a really good job. We’re steadily keeping up with all the people that come in now and then. We have not only just the Chocolate Ballerinas and the basketball team, we have a boxing team as well. Well, not a boxing team but a woman who likes to help kids learn how to box–the Boxing Temple–as well as another gymnastics team for younger kids.
Usually during the summer we try to host movie nights outside on the lawn. When it comes to events we really do try our best to reflect everything that we’re given. When it comes to facilities, there’s a lot of things we could work on. When it comes to equipment, a lot of these things are paid out of pocket and the other stuff that we have are hand-overs from the City that we get from downtown. For example, we currently need a new air pump because a lot of the basketballs or soccer balls are not full of air, and the kids are like, “This doesn’t bounce, this doesn’t bounce!” and they just don’t use them.
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