Last month, the Chicago Park District, the Center for Healing and Justice through Sport (CHJS), and Nike came together to celebrate a powerful milestone: 10 years of the Swoosh Summer Academy, a partnership that is changing lives and strengthening communities through the power of local parks and recreation. For a decade, the Swoosh Summer Academy has redefined what summer can look like for young people in Chicago by pairing fun and play with mentorship, healing and connection for nearly 160,000 children, between the ages of 6 and 12 years old, all while providing essential training to seasonal recreation leaders across the city.

Training Leaders, Transforming Lives

The Swoosh Summer Academy is designed to train summer recreation leaders to be the trusted, caring mentors that every child deserves. On June 17, the partners gathered at Intentional Sports in North Austin, Chicago to celebrate the 10-year milestone and train 1,700 summer recreation leaders through the 2025 Swoosh Summer Academy. The training focused on better understanding how the brain works, including how the brain responds to trauma and adversity. This helped build the skills and confidence for summer staff to lead with empathy, regulate emotions, build relationships and use movement to heal.

CHJS trainers led the workshop alongside select Chicago Park District year-round employees known as Swoosh Summer Ambassadors. These Ambassadors complete more intensive training with CHJS and then lead workshops and trainings that equip recreation leaders with the tools to create positive, healing-centered experiences for youth — both on and off the field. The train-the-trainer model launched in 2021 with just nine Ambassadors and has grown to 60 strong, creating a self-sustaining model and solidifying Chicago Park District’s commitment to creating positive experiences for youth across the city.

Participants also had the chance to hear from leaders across Chicago and two professional athletes, Sylvia Fowles, a former WNBA MVP and Chicago Sky player who recently was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, and D.J. Moore, an NFL wide receiver for the Chicago Bears. Fowles and Moore emphasized the importance of being a positive role model for youth and how having positive roles models, coaches and community leaders can change lives.

Build Together, Play Together

Every child needs play to thrive – and so do our communities. Park and recreation departments are uniquely positioned to deliver these opportunities, reaching more than 40 million youth annually across the country. At its core, the Swoosh Summer Academy is about increasing access, joy and connection for all. As summer camps launch nationwide, this work reminds us that recreation leaders aren’t just running programs, they’re turning recreation centers and parks into vibrant places where kids can play, learn, grow and thrive.

Scaling Solutions

What started in Chicago is a promising model for other local park and recreation departments across the nation. Programs like the Swoosh Summer Academy show what’s possible when public agencies and private partners come together to invest in youth development. Whether it’s learning to work as a team, building confidence through sport or simply having a safe space to play, the Swoosh Summer Academy delivers experiences that help young people shine as leaders. It’s also proof that when we invest in youth and equip leaders to serve them with care, everybody wins.

At NRPA, we’re committed to supporting and scaling coach training and positive youth development programs like the Swoosh Summer Academy to more communities. We’re working alongside key partners, like CHJS and Nike, to increase access to positive youth sports experiences across the nation, especially for girls who face the most barriers and are dropping out of sports at twice the rate of boys. By championing access to sports and centering the needs of youth, parks and recreation is helping to build a brighter, healthier and more impactful future – one community at a time.

Learn more about NRPA’s youth sports goals here.

Allison Colman (she/her) is NRPA’s senior director of programs.