Raised in Southbridge, the new deputy director of Wilmington’s Parks and Recreation Department has been on the job for only one month but says she is already using her previous experience working with youth and her love for the community to make an impact.
Melody Phillips, 42, joined the department on August 1. Her role oversees the day-to-day operations of Wilmington’s city parks, as well as supervising recreation centers.
Phillips has worked in the programming industry for more than a decade. Most recently, she was the director at The Warehouse, a community hub for teenagers to access social and recreational activities in Northeast Wilmington.
Phillips has also worked as a program manager at Delaware Technical Community College, where she helped build a GED and career pathway program for struggling youth between the ages of 16 to 24.
“The program was really successful,” Phillips said. “We had a 72% completion rate and the requirement from the state was 67%.”
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As a native of the Southbridge neighborhood, Phillips developed a passion for serving youth and families in the Wilmington area. She prioritizes building communities and enhancing social justice initiatives.
“Southbridge is home and that’s where I grew up,” Phillips said. “People will often hear me rep Southbridge frequently because I still have a heart for it.”
In addition to her programming background, Phillips started her own consulting firm in an effort to spark community action through grant writing and designed initiatives. She is also enrolled in the Chicago School of Professional Psychology’s doctorate program and is in the process of completing her dissertation on co-developed youth and adult leadership models.
Delaware Online/The News Journal caught up with Phillips to learn about her plans for the department and what she hopes to accomplish.
The following Q&A has been edited for length and clarity:
Q: How did you become interested in the position and why do you want to help lead the department?
A: I believe young people need to be in spaces and places where we can really elevate them to lead and so anytime I have an opportunity to do that — it’s a good day. Ironically enough after I resigned from the Teen Warehouse to start my own consulting firm, (Parks and Recreation) Director (Ian) Smith reached out to me to do an assessment of his leadership team. I met with them, did observations, conducted individual interviews to help understand their inner workings. Through this process, I also informed them of different ways that the Willam “Hicks” Anderson Community Center could grow from a program standpoint.
Q: How has your previous background in programming and consulting prepared you for this position?
A: I’ve only been with this team for a few weeks now but I’m already tapping into a lot of that experience. For example, my community service work — because I’ve made some wonderful connections with both large and small grassroots and non-profits from across the city, I was able to reach out to a bunch of different partners and have them actively engage with a recent open house that we had. Having built those relationships and having that experience of running the Team Warehouse has helped me prepare.
Q: What are some goals that you have for Wilmington?
A: Increasing recreation and another goal is really developing a youth leadership program at the Hicks Anderson Community Center and bridging the gap between our senior centers on the first floor and the programs that run on the main level of the building, so that way our seniors could feel more included — we really want to make sure that they are being involved in the activities. This would also include doing a program where some of our young people interact with the seniors and help them understand the nuances of technology, which will help the digital divide that some of our seniors experience. I also heard from a lot of young people that they would love to have a music production studio at Hicks Anderson.
Q: Are there any glaring issues in Wilmington that you want to address?
A: One of the things that we identified especially that there are a lot of “food deserts” around the city — meaning there isn’t a local grocery store that is readily accessible. So one of the ideas that we have is expanding the community refrigerators that are popping up in the city. We are currently having conversations with the nonprofit, Planting to Feed, to potentially launch a community refrigerator in front of Hicks Community Center.
Q: Are there any specific programs that you want to bring to community centers or parks around Wilmington?
A: I think a priority will be making sure that the Wilmington area knows about the programs that are already available and having constant communication between all the community centers — all of them do an excellent job by offering programs to both youths and adults and even 12 and under. I think some sort of interactive calendar where we can place events of each others around the city would really impact how we can get more community members to support these events throughout the entire city.
Have a tip or story ideas? Contact local reporter Cameron Goodnight at cgoodnight@delawareonline.com, or by calling or texting 302-324-2208. Follow him on Twitter at @CamGoodnight.
