Chester’s Mentoring Initiative

march 2022 Meeting Highlights

The March 2022 meeting of Chester's Mentoring Initiative featured Stefan Roots, new Chester Councilman and recently appointed Director of Public Property and Recreation. He advised us of many steps he plans to take in this important role. Here are some highlights:

  • starting an Adopt-a-Park program through which partners will help rebuild and maintain Chester's many parks and playgrounds, implementing accessibility whenever possible

  • collaborating with Crozer Library to possibly create a satellite location in City Hall's former computer lab

  • creating a Hometown Heroes display to honor veterans at Memorial Park

  • working with All-Star Baseball Academy to provide summer training and competitions for ages 9-11

  • partnering with Swarthmore College tennis teams and others to convert tennis courts to pickleball courts, introducing a fun and relatively easy new sport to the community for all ages

  • looking to overhaul and update the city pool

  • expecting this year's Juneteenth celebration to be the city's largest thanks to a collaboration with community groups including the Philadelphia Union

  • hoping to visit schools and bring along Virtual Reality equipment for the kids to try

  • building maps of parks by neighborhood so all the hidden treasures can be enjoyed by all

Details and registration for all of the above is forthcoming; Mr. Roots reminded us that he has only been in the job for about 80 days, so lots of processes and plans are still in the works. You can reach him at sroots@chestercity.com as needed. Check the city's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/cityofchester/ to stay up on events and opportunities.

Additionally, Gerry Gonzalez of Child Guidance Resource Centers gave us a brief report from his attendance at a local legislative forum breakfast meeting. He noticed great (unexpected?) cooperation between the team that is looking to improve childcare options, community engagement, drug/alcohol/suicide prevention and veteran support. Legislators encourage each member of the community to communicate with them about what they need and want for our hometown.

Richard Roberts of Young Men and Women in Charge shared news of a 6-week summer STEAM program. Learn more at https://ymwicfoundation.org/events


Bess Rizzo of Shevlin Family Foundation invited us all to Bowl for Hope on March 25. This is a fundraiser intended to ultimately provide essentials for those in recovery. Details and registration at https://shevlinfamilyfoundation.org/bowl-for-hope-1


Please tentatively mark your calendar for May 21, when Boys & Girls Club, Youth Development United and a variety of other partners are hoping to host a Career Discovery and Resource Fair in the parking lot by the police station. Details will be posted at https://www.youthdevunited.org/career-discovery as they are finalized.


Feel free to share the Soccer Saturday calendar at https://cuys.org/soccer-sat-2022 with the children and families you serve.


Our next meeting of Chester's Mentoring Initiative is April 6 at 10:30am featuring spring and summer field trip opportunities, and our usual exchange of support and superpowers.


Never hesitate to reach out if you have suggestions for future meeting topics.