City of Gardena Recreation & Human Services Department

The Recreation & Human Services Department is responsible for supervised recreational activities at six parks with community buildings, two gymnasiums, one parkette, one large two-story community center, and one municipal swimming pool. The Recreation Division is categorized into ten complementary areas, consisting of: Adults Sports, Aquatics, Children's Day Care, City-Wide Special Events, Contract Classes, Developmentally Disabled Programming, Facility Reservations, Nakaoka Community Center Programming, Park Programming and Youth Sports. Over 400 special interest programs for adults and youth are supported, such as: Senior citizen activities including clubs, exercise classes, Tai Chi classes; youth sports leagues in flag football, basketball, softball, baseball, and soccer; adult sports leagues in basketball and slow pitch softball; instruction and recreational swimming; special interest classes, such as dance, gymnastics, phonics, math, crafts, tennis and more; specialized programs for the developmentally disabled population, including the Special Olympics and monthly dances; community special events, such as the Easter Bunny Brunch, Breakfast with Santa Claus, Martin Luther King Jr., and Cinco de Mayo parades and celebrations, Black History Month Celebration, Heritage Festival, Youth Carnival, Cymbidium Orchid Show, Koi Show, Celebration of the Arts Show, Golf Tournaments and more. The Recreation Division also aids the community through reservations of ten park classrooms, six Community Center classrooms, two auditoriums, eight picnic shelters, nine ball diamonds, twelve tennis courts, five basketball and volleyball courts and one swimming pool. The Human Services Division aids the community through Senior Citizen programming, home delivered meal service, an emergency food pantry and a family child care program.