instructor

recreation leader

attendant

director of parks and recreation

grounds manager

Chicago Park District

At the park/direct service level can be great, Park Spervisiors & Park Staff work together. Special Recreation participants are adults & children with disabilities, they are fun, challenging & rewarding to with with (however don't get involved personally with their families). You get to become a Special Olympics Coach & seeing the sportsmanship of these athletes will make you cry tears of pride. 

The Special Rec programs differ from park to park & your job expectations will change based on the coordinator you work under, don't expect to have any direction as to what exactly your role is because it will change. Lack of communication & job specific training lead to a stressful work environment, after 50 years developing the Social Rec Program you'd think they'd have set guidelines for each position but it's all very vague & they go by the "you'll learn as you go" ideology. 

There is an "us versus them" environment when it comes to field staff & administrative management. If you make friends with Admin Mang you'll have more opportunity for job advancement; experience isn't what gets you a promotion, it's who you know.  Admin Mang withholds communication & when asked basic questions like "what are the mandated participant to staff ratio numbers" they are unable to reply with certainty but will be quick to place blame on field staff when an incident occurs, there is no policy & procedures handbook, again it changes based on whom you work under or whom you know and what they tell you is fact might not be so. When in doubt ask the park supervisor, if their worth their salt they will know or find you the answer. 

Special Rec leaders are the baby sitters, they are given no responsibility other than to supervise & assist. They can not teach classes or be left alone with participants. All programming is to be led by the Coordinator or Instructors. However both happen regardless but if an incident occurs it could cost you your job. For a position that "requires a Special skill set to work within this special population" Special Rec Leaders are the lowest paid field staff; janitors make more, SR Leaders are suppose to understand how to assist with all spectrum of disabilities, even be hit & hurt by them but they get paid $13.00 for only 25 hours a week. 

I love my participants & I like my co-workers but the work environment is stressful & not conducive to a healthy work life balance.

My day consists of gathering the children in one room to start the day and once the children are gathered, we move to the next room for the next thing on the agenda. The next agenda is to have the children do homework and my job is to do homework assistance. Afterwards is snack and the we go to the gym to do a organized game in which I engage in.
In my time of employment I've learned to supervise children and some co-workers in activities such as sports, l.o. games(low obstacle), board games, field trips, group games and team games. Also this job has given me knowledge on dealing with the public and showing leadership.
I have great co-workers, they helped me a tremendous amount at the beginning stages but as I progressed in this job I've learned my own strategic ways to maintain in my own way. I work side by side with one of my co-workers and it makes it a lot easier to conduct activities.
The hardest part of the job is to put activities together that can cater to each age group because, the ages range from 6-14 years of age but we still make it work for each child. It's also hard to improvise when games become repetitive.
The most enjoyable part of the job is that I am part of the development of the children enrolled in the program and I take this with extreme pride and seriousness.

Most positions at the Chicago Park District aren't difficult and most of the work can be pleasant.  However, each field house has its own culture.  Some field houses operate correctly, and some don't.  Unfortunately, an employee usually does not learn the extent of the issues going on at a field house with management, staff, and the customers until they are placed within one. Customers, especially parents and their children, can be difficult to deal with due to entitlement attitudes and behavioral problems.  Having to deal with unresponsive and/or unreasonable supervisors along with staff members who have poor work ethics is worse, however.  The majority of park district employees are part-time and employee turnovers are high.  Salaries are practically set in stone, and regular pay raises do not take place.  Promotions do happen, but there doesn't appear to be a clear path for those who wish to have a career with the park district.

Served the Chicago Park District, the oldest and largest financial park district in the United States with over 552 parks, 33 beaches, nine museums and two world-class conservatories, relative to day camps offered throughout various locations. 
•	Regularly contacted several park district offices to gather information regarding day camp programs, participants, successes and availabilities. 
•	Recognized for exceptional analytical, time management and prioritizational skills in analyzing and verifying accuracy of information.
•	Depended upon for attention to detail and timeliness in completing projects including recording all information into main database; maintaining database including updates as needed to ensure most up-to-date and accurate information. 
•	Point of contact for vendors requesting to participate within events; provided guidelines to be followed, forms to be completed, pricing information and required obligations to be met. 
•	Communicated directly with participants and potential guests answering questions, explaining programs and gathering any additional information required.

Working as a Recreational Leader with the Chicago Park District was a solid summer experience, especially if you're looking to build hands-on skills working with youth. The role gave me real responsibility — planning and running activities, managing groups of kids, and adapting on the fly when things didn't go as planned. That kind of experience is hard to get elsewhere at this stage, and I genuinely valued the time I spent with the kids.
That said, the job comes with its frustrations. Communication from supervisors and administrative staff could be inconsistent, and there were times when expectations weren't clearly laid out until something went wrong. Resources and materials weren't always available when you needed them, so you learned pretty quickly to improvise. Pay is modest relative to the demands of the role, which can feel discouraging when you're putting in real effort.
Overall, I'd recommend it to someone who's motivated to work with youth and can handle some organizational messiness. Just go in with realistic expectations — it's a city government job, and it runs like one. The kids make it worth it.

I was employed with the Chicago Park District some time ago, I am sure things have changed significantly.
- I was the Personnel Programs Manager, and had responsibility for Classification and Compensation, Health Benefits, Employee Services (assistance and recognition), Training and Development. I also assisted with the EEO function. At the time, the workforce size ranged from 2,000 to 8,000 employees in the spring and summer of the year. We worked with 35 bargaining locals.
-This was a very pleasant experience. Who wouldn't enjoy coming to work every day to plan recreational activities? We went through several reorganizations in the short time I was there and each wave brought the district more in sync with current industry practices.
- This is one of the few places where olympian athletes and professional coaches abounded. - a real motivation for the youth population served.

There isn't much room for advancement if you enter the company as an attendant. It's kind of like your expected to continue on as an attendant even though you have the knowledge, skill set and ability to function highly at another position. Though, there seems to be multiple opportunities, they seem to disappear prematurely at times.

My coworkers are awesome people! Very diverse and intriguing individuals and they make your daily work seem like an extended family in rotating shifts. The patrons are the best and at times the hardest parts of the job because at times what they want you can't provide or help with. Other than that the patrons have definitely become a part of my extended family. They know my wife and son. Management has quite a bit of work cut out for them. It would seem that they offer positions to individual that they know as opposed to people who have the experience and degrees specialization and or have been with the company for a considerable amount of time.

A typical day with the Chicago Park District is fast paced and fun. What I've learned is working with the Chicago park District is a great environment to work into because you get to get to the things you love most which was for me, putting a smile on the children faces and being role models for the children that came to camp everyday ready to have fun and learn new things. The management at the Chicago Park District was nice and friendly. My co-workers there were also nice and friendly and we were a well oiled machine, we worked extremely well together. The hardest part of the job was getting the children to participate when the weather would not cooperate with us because they loved to be outside but we still had fun and the children went home happy still. The most enjoyable part of the job was seeing the children happy and putting a smile on their faces and the parents happy because we made their children day worth while and they know that they can trust us

I would usually have to visit at least four parks per day.  My job would to make sure that all of my locations paperwork is up to date. I usually checked rosters, meal documentation etc.  I had to supervise meal time to make sure that the children ate at their specific meals times, count meal inventory, make sure that the park had enough meals to feed all of their entire day camp, but check to see if they were receiving too many meals; so that the state would not spend unnecessary money on meals that were not needed.  I had to make sure that the children and workers were all washing their hand and make sure that the day camp directors and or supervisors were checking the meal temperatures.  The hardest part of my job was dealing with the camp directors that did not want me to be there.  I got along with all of my co-workers and my supervisor was an amazing person.  I loved my job, even though some people gave me a hard.

I've worked with the park district for seven years. I come back because I love the children, but I can't say the same about  the staff. I have run into unreasonable and unethical staff members. However, I have found that recreation leaders have no authority in reporting these issues. There was a staff member harassing and intimidating the recreation leaders, and the supervisor did nothing. When they were reported we were chastised about making the call, and one of the workers was written up and ineligible to return to the park district (coincidentally) Basically, come and watch these kids, if the staff aren't doing their job, well thats not your problem, keep working. It's unfortunate, but it happens because we're only there for six weeks and it's easier to dismiss us than their permanent employees. I'll always love the Chicago Park District, but I wish they took their seasonal employees more seriously.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Instructor 38 salaries reported	$25.23 per hour
Recreation leader 20 salaries reported	$19.21 per hour
Attendant 10 salaries reported	$22.60 per hour
Director of parks and recreation 16 salaries reported	$85,011 per year
Grounds manager 15 salaries reported	$76,873 per year

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