The document outlines a marketing plan for a YMCA youth sports program. It analyzes the demographics of neighborhoods served by the YMCA and local parks and schools. Many parks need more volunteers and have issues with low parent participation. The YMCA can help by encouraging members to sign up their kids and offer sports not provided elsewhere to build partnerships in the community. Translating documents and increasing communication across languages and communities will help reach more families.

1. YOUTH SPORTS
PROGRAM MARKETING
PLAN

2.  The members of the Blaisdell YMCA are 50% White
30% Somali, 15% Latino and 5% other.
 Neighborhood demographics: 63.8% White, 18.6%
Black, 10.5% Hispanic or Latino, 5.6% Asian, 4.4%
Mixed, 2.0%, Native, 15.1% of the neighborhood is
foreign-born.
 Due to the high immigrant population translation
services may be needed.
BLAISDELL YMCA DEMOGRAPHICS

3. The YMCA Association sends emails
creates posters and flyers that Jontae
uses. Occasionally face-to-face
marketing is used.
Current issues: YMCA own members are
hard to reach, marketing is a challenge
because of language barrier.
CURRENT MARKETING PLAN

4.  Strengths: Local, close, less expensive, not grueling or uber-
competitive.
 Weakness: Not a sports academy, there are other options.
 Opportunities: We can build a strong program and start a
culture of sports programs. We can get kids from charter
schools private schools, and neighborhood to participate in
our programs.
 Threats: Parks and rec have more youth signing up for their
programs. Professional programs. Not enough kids signing up,
there is not a youth sports culture.
S.W.O.T. ANALYSIS

5. Parks: Whittier Park, Bryant Square
Park, Phelps Park, MLK Park, Powderhorn
Park, MPLS Park Board.
Schools: Green Central Elementary and
Whittier.
SCHOOLS & PARKS VISITED

6.  Demographics: 65% Latino, 25% African-American, 10%
other.
 Sports offered: After school sports program by Revolution
Sports. Soccer, basketball, Karate, tennis Hockey and
swimming at the YMCA.
 Needs: The school needs more volunteer coaches.
 Communication: Translating documents to Spanish,
handing them out to parents and talking to them is the
best way to communicate. Handing out documents to kids
is the best way to let them know about programs.
GREEN CENTRAL ELEMENTARY
3416 S 4TH AVE, MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55408

7.  Demographics: 30% Latino, 30% Black, 30% White, 10%
Asian, Native and other.
 Sports offered: Soccer, basketball, running, biking, open gym
are offered.
 Needs: Whittier would like to have more swimming training
and girls biking group. Whittier also needs more adult
volunteers.
 Communications: Face-to-face works the best, handing out
physical documents, and people at the park knowing members
of the community makes communicating much easier.
WHITTIER
315 W 26TH ST, MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55404

8.  Demographics: 40% White, Somali, African-American, Native
and Asian all make up 60%.
 Sports offered: Baseball, soccer, flag football and winter
basketball.
 Needs: Out of all the parks Bryant square needed the least.
The park wants more girls to participate in sports.
 Communications: Social media and email actually works for
this park. Posters works for recruiting new people.
 Improvements and positives: Quality coaches, quality
products can always be improved upon. Bryant square youth
sports program is affordable.
BRYANT SQUARE PARK
3101 BRYANT AVE S, MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55408

9.  Demographics:90% African-American, 5% Native, 5% other.
 Sports offered: Baseball, basketball, football, soccer, softball,
cheerleading, track, wrestling… The Park can add more if
suitable.
 Communications: Word of mouth, social media. Mail is rarely
used.
 Unique structure: Youth sports at Phelps is not run by the Park
Board instead by the Phelps Activity Council; the head of the
council is Pastor Jim Halbur.
 Issues: Kids misbehaving, no two parent homes, kids moving a
lot. 22% of MPLS families move. This happens among low-income
families.
PHELPS PARK
701 E 39TH ST, MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55407

10.  Demographics: No exact percentage, there is a mix of
African-American, White and other.
 Sports offered: Basketball, soccer, football, tennis,
baseball, and wrestling.
 Communication: Word of mouth, posters, online
information; word of mouth is the most effective.
 Issues: Not enough kids, not enough volunteers. The
park director stressed the fact that parent support is
vital.
MLK PARK
4055 NICOLLET AVE, MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55409

11.  Demographics: No exact percentages, White, Hispanic and
African-American.
 Sports offered: Basketball, baseball, softball, football
soccer.
 Communication: Brochures in English and Spanish.
Neighborhood email system, posters and word of mouth.
Building connections makes communication much easier.
POWDERHORN PARK
3400 15TH AVE. S
MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55407

12.  Issues: Surprisingly with all that space there is no soccer team.
Other soccer teams use the field. Those team have neighborhood
kids in them so there is no park soccer team. There is space
issues with wrestling. There is no hockey because park ponds are
not safe. This park also doesn’t enough volunteers. 30% of kids
don’t have parents involved in the park youth sports program.
70% of the time when parents are involved it’s just one parent.
 Improvements (according to director): Better volunteer program,
volunteer appreciation, better fields, more basketball teams,
better communication.
 successful program (according to director): Good coach
relations, neighborhood pride, willingness of people.
POWDERHORN PARK
3400 15TH AVE. S
MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55407

13.  Rec centers: There are 49 rec centers. Football, soccer,
volleyball and baseball are offered in the fall, basketball is
offered in the winter. The Park board creates leagues, decides
teams in leagues. The Park Board trains coaches, officials and
staff. The park itself decides which sports it offers and that
depends on which ones they can accommodate.
 Park Board operation: There is no higher governing body above
the Park Board. Unlike other cites the city government controls
the park. The Park board not being controlled by the city is a
great advantage for Minneapolis.
 Budget: Field maintenance , officials getting paid, donations are
welcomed for all parks. Baseball and softball receive the most
donations. The Twins are significantly involved in baseball
donations.
MPLS PARK BOARD
2117 WEST RIVER ROAD, MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55411

14.  Park independence: Individually parks have a lot of
independence. Park Board only intervenes if there is safety
concerns and if contacted by park.
 Issues: Sport specialization increases risk of injury. Overbearing
parents. Transportation may be the biggest issue, less affluent
areas struggle with this.
 Participation: Less participation in football, and girls softball.
Increased participation in basketball, soccer is consistent and
baseball remains strong.
 Positives: Sportsmanship awards, parks are public, parks work
with their neighborhoods. Every six blocks there is a park, The
park Board is independent from the city government.
MPLS PARK BOARD
2117 WEST RIVER ROAD, MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55411

15.  Demographics: There are multiple demographics in all parks
which affects sports offered. Parks have to translate documents.
 Issues: All the parks need more volunteers. There is a lack of
parents participation, there is also a lot of one parent homes.
Parks not being able to offer all sports they want because of
spacing issues. More funding is always a good thing.
 YMCA solutions: Encourage members who are parents to sign
their kids up for the YMCA youth sports program. Offer sports
that neighboring parks don’t. Offering sports parks and schools
can’t offer is positive for both the YMCA and them. Making the
YMCA, parks and school focus on their strengths will result in
positivity for everybody. Looking at the issues above and
deriving solutions from them.
CONCLUSION

16.  Green Central: Lilly Sand:Lilian.Sand@mpls.k12.mn.us, 612 -668-3730
 Whittier: Jeff Carlson: jeff.carlson01@mpls.k12.mn.us , 612-205-8828
 Bryant Square: Jason Green: jngren@minneapolisparks.org , 612-370-4773
 Phelps Park: Jim Halbur: phelpsactivitiescouncil@gmail.com , 612-423-1948
 MLK Park: Peter jaeger: pejaeger@Minneapolis.org , 612-370-4908
 Powderhorn Park: Lis Kraus: ekraus@minneapolisparks.org , 612-370-4960
 MPLS Park Board: Kent Brevik: kbrevik@minneapolisparks.org , 612-230-6400
 http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045215/2743000
 http://www.privateschoolreview.com/minnesota/minneapolis
 http://www.greatschools.org/minnesota/minneapolis/schools/?st=charter
REFERENCES