‘Playing Fields, not Killing Fields’

Eric Worley fondly remembers the time he spent at Waterview Recreation Center, a block from his childhood home in Germantown, and the mentor he had in Calvin Lewis, a volunteer basketball coach at the center.

Worley, now 47 and the director of Neighborhood Based Programs and co-founder of Philadelphia Youth Basketball, said “Coach Cal” embodied a positive male role model growing up and inspired him to make basketball his passion.

“That really led me to do the life’s work that I have done,” Worley said.

That work is leading to the development of PYB’s sprawling, modern indoor basketball facility in the heart of North Philadelphia. It is intended to serve the neighborhood’s young people with robust athletics and extracurricular programming and is set to open in January.

Backed by a growing body of research, community leaders like Worley are furthering the belief that youth sports and recreation are crucial tools in Philadelphia’s efforts to curb gun violence.

North Philadelphia has a rich sports legacy. NBA champion Kyle Lowry sharpened his handle at the Hank Gathers Recreation Center at 25th and Diamond. WNBA champion Kahleah Copper played pickup basketball against boys on 32nd Street. Joe Frazier operated his legendary boxing gym near Broad and Glenwood. Dawn Staley, the renowned women’s basketball coach, was named the national high school player of the year while at Dobbins Technical High School.

It’s a section of the city that is also plagued by gun violence. North Philadelphia has no official boundaries, but the dozen ZIP codes that span from Brewerytown to Oak Lane to Kensington have seen more than 280 people shot this year alone, accounting for more than half of the city’s shooting victims.

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After reaching a record 562 gun deaths in 2021, Philadelphia’s total declined to 516 in 2022, and the city is on pace to see about 12% less gun deaths this year, according to data from the controller’s office. Despite the declines, those figures are a far cry from the 353 gun deaths recorded in 2019, and the vast majority of Philadelphians rank public safety as the most important issue facing the city, according to a Pew survey.

Gun violence has been among the top issues in the mayoral primary this year, with candidates sparring on a range of issues spanning from the role of police to whether to declare a state of emergency on crime.

What has not been front-and-center in the gun violence debate, so far, is the role of sports and recreation.

Research showing a direct link between sports programs and crime prevention is scarce. The literature does suggest, however, that increases in nonprofit, community-building programs — including youth development initiatives — align with decreases in violence and can make residents feel safer in their neighborhoods.

A 2022 study of two Illinois youth sports programs found they significantly promoted youth development among kids exposed to violence and diverted their energy away from riskier behaviors, like joining gangs or self-harm.

“The practitioners, believe the program makes the community safer,” said Hwayong Son, one of the study’s authors. “Having the organization and having a safe place to play, and participating in a recreational activity, or sports activity, was a huge thing for the participants who are living in a dangerous area.”

Sajon Weeks is a program director for Harlem Lacrosse, a nonprofit sports and academic program in Olney. He said his goal is to provide a safe place for boys of color while giving them the confidence to succeed and the opportunity to fail without repercussions.

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“I tell my players every day, ‘Hey, you guys are men of color in Philadelphia,” said Weeks. “Whether it’s the school system, or the justice system, or even just the everyday system, there’s a lot of things out here that’s going to try to take you. One thing I guarantee when [we’re] in practice is that, ‘Hey, while you’re here, all of that other stuff you won’t have to worry about.”

Harlem Lacrosse isn’t solely focused on the sport. The program provides study halls and tutoring, as well as social events like trips to museums and the movies, said Emily Davidson, its local director. The organization was one of several sports-oriented recipients of Pennsylvania’s Violence Intervention & Prevention grants .

“We’re providing kids the chance to learn communication skills because they’re working as a part of a team, but also because they’re starting to learn to advocate for themselves in new and different ways, gaining tools and resources to actually be able to talk to their teachers,” Davidson said.

The city’s hundreds of public recreation centers may also have a role to play in its anti-violence strategy.

Worley credits his positive experience at Waterview to its round-the-clock programming and a full complement of staff, a feature that many recreation centers around the city currently lack, he said.

“You have one or two people running these large buildings and they’re like, ‘Hey, we can only do but so much because there’s only two of us,’” Worley said. “They’re like, ‘Hey, this building really should have, you know, five or six staff.”

Through the Rebuild program, funded entirely by Philadelphia’s soda tax contributions, city officials initially sought to upgrade 150 to 200 recreation centers in neighborhoods with high rates of poverty. As of now, just 72 sites have received or are in line to receive renovations, a shortcoming city leaders attribute to material and labor shortages resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Philadelphia’s recreation centers are not isolated from violence. According to the city, there have been nearly 300 shootings at or near city parks and recreation facilities since 2019.

At Winchester Recreation Center in North Central, 19-year-old Shidayah Haynes said he didn’t feel the park was safe.

“It’s something to do for kids who [don’t have anything] to do after school and all that, [but] it ain’t safe though, no,” said Haynes, while playing basketball one-on-one with a friend. He added that if the city fixed up the park, it would probably be safer.

Parks need “eyes on the street,” or active community involvement, to be safe, research shows. Whereas neglected, deteriorating spaces can become hotbeds of crime, well-maintained parks with social programming tend to bring in so-called community “guardians” whose presence deters it.

On a warm spring day, 14-year-old Jaivon Melton was shooting hoops at the recently renovated Nelson Playground in West Kensington. The colorful courts and swing sets stand out on a block bordered by vacant, overgrown lots.

“It’s kind of a safe place for everyone to come,” Melton said. “I usually come here with my cousins just to play ball, because I don’t want to be running around the streets doing nothing.”

Playing Fields, not Killing Fields is an Inquirer collaboration with the Claire Smith Center for Sports Media and The Logan Center for Urban Investigative Reporting, to produce a series examining the current state of Philadelphia’s youth recreation infrastructure and programs. The project will explore the challenges and solutions to sports serving as a viable response to gun violence and an engine to revitalize city neighborhoods.