Meet Director Thennie Freeman, the powerhouse behind the DC Department of Parks and Recreation, who most recently launched the innovative Youth Development Professional Certification Program in partnership with the GW Center for Excellence in Public Leadership. But first, how did she get to this point—where she’s empowering other leaders to inspire youth in the workforce today?
Director Freeman’s passion for community work started at Job Corps, and she has since dedicated herself to supporting children, young adults, and those who lead them today—many of whom have faced adversity. Having learned on the fly early in her career, she understands the challenges of navigating the workforce and has made it her mission to equip leaders with the tools they need to guide young people toward success. You’ll learn a lot from her three tools. Much of her life’s work focuses on shifting power back into the hands of youth, helping them build confidence and take control of their futures—ultimately leading to the launch of this program, which aims to equip future leaders with the skills needed to effectively mentor and support youth across various educational and community settings.
In this episode, Director Freeman also shares insights about her latest project—the newly launched Joy Evans Therapeutic Recreation Center. She tells the story of the facility’s namesake, Joy Evans, a young woman born with developmental disabilities who spent much of her short life in an institutional facility. Inspired by her family’s experience, advocates pushed for keeping families together while also supporting children of different abilities. That same vision led to the creation of this state-of-the-art center, which features outpatient therapeutic services, a temperature-controlled therapeutic pool, and comprehensive family support—all while fostering inclusivity. And it’s open to the public.
A key aspect of the facility is its unique biophilic design, which embraces the healing power of nature. Every detail has been thoughtfully crafted to accommodate individuals of all abilities, ensuring both accessibility and comfort for them and their families.
For someone who wears many hats in the community, you might be surprised by where Director Freeman spends much of her time thinking and reflecting. Hint: It may inspire you to jump in! She also teases some exciting upcoming projects focused on bringing learning beyond the classroom and into community spaces.
We hope you leave this episode feeling as inspired as we did after hearing Director Freeman’s story and her dedication to creating an inclusive space for all.
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Listen to the podcast here
Empowering The Next Generation: Director Thennie Freeman On Leadership, Inclusion, And Community Impact
Youth Development Professional Certification Program Launch
With us, we have Thennie Freeman. Thennie is the Director of the DC Department of Parks and Recreation. Mrs. Freeman joined DPR as Deputy Director of Recreation Services, overseeing the direction and management of the agency’s recreation program portfolio and operations of all rec centers, parks, and aquatic facilities. Director Freeman, who is known for her leadership and engagements to enhance the district’s Marion Barry Summer Youth Employment Program, was recognized in 2020 for her exemplary service to district residents and was honored with the KFORTs awards.
The award highlights outstanding DC government leaders and innovative teams whose commitment and professionalism demonstrate the best in public service. Mrs. Freeman has developed innovative programs and directly supported the effort to turn around high-risk programs, which are instrumental in helping our district’s youth find employment. Through various workforce programs and leading the charge in developing their work skills, Mrs. Freeman has helped thousands of the district’s youth accomplish their personal and professional goals.
Her work led to DC earning the title of number one place for a summer job in Forbes Magazine in 2016. In 2017, Mrs. Freeman helped launch and oversee the Mayor’s Opportunity Scholarship. In 2024, she helped launch the Youth Development Professional Certification in partnership with the George Washington University Center for Excellence in Public Leadership. Mrs. Freeman earned her Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of the District of Columbia and is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, where she leads and supports fundraising activities for educational scholarships.
Welcome, Thennie. Thennie, Bonnie, and I are super excited to have you here for many reasons. One of which is the launch of the new Youth Development Professional Certification Program, which has been your baby, and I would love to learn more about that. Also we know that you’re in a very special place on your office. I know I can see snow from outside because it’s been snowing in this area. It’s really pretty. You can also tell us about that. I’ll just invite you to bring your toe in, to come in.
The Joy Evans Therapeutic Recreation Center
I will bring my toe into this space that I just stepped out of the snow. It is beautiful. The snow is beautiful. This view is beautiful. This is our very new, just opened December of 2024. It’s the Joy Evans Therapeutic Recreation Center. It is special for several reasons. Joy Evans was at the time that she transitioned from earth, she was eighteen years of age, and she was born with developmental disabilities.
She was relegated to a place called Forest Haven, which is where they would send children who had needs beyond their parents’ ability to care for them. It was later learned that children in that space were not treated well at all. Her fight continued. Her parents fought throughout their lives just trying to advocate for children of different abilities.
Of course, the district takes great pride in servicing young people who may not have the same needs. One thing that the district does differently is we try to keep families together. Our goal is to keep families together and to provide the families with support and resources. This Joy Evans Therapeutic Recreation Facility is one where you can do that. We have a therapy room where you can have outpatient therapy here on-site.
We have a sensory room for different abilities where if the noise is too much, you can take some time, dim the lights, quiet. There’s art on the walls that’s designed to feel. That’s another sensation. There’s a pool here also, a 92-degree therapeutic pool, not designed for lap swimming because it’s too hot for a swimmer, but designed for someone recovering or dealing with aching muscles, or even for our sea nagers, as I like to call them, who are very active. Their normal temperatures will be harsh on their bodies.
Tell us about the design of the Joy Evans Center.
It’s a bio-philic design. I love that because bio-philic speaks to the healing powers of nature.
The Kuo gets to come there.
It’s open to the public. All of our facilities are open to the public.
It’s beautiful. I was there when you launched. You guys opened the center and the experience of being in the space, it’s open. There’s so much openness. You just enter inside Bonnie, and there is this beautiful wall designed with plants, and it’s all wood, spacious and tall. These lamps that are coming down look like little dandelions to me. That’s how it felt, like little twinkles and lights. I remember Thennie talking to some of the people in the community and how excited they were because this was closed for a while because it was in building mode, but they’re so excited, and there’s just so much joy. I did not know Joy Evans’s story. I heard it that day, and then I heard it again from you. All I kept thinking was the Joy, her name also, the quality of Joy.
I was just going to tell you quickly, we opened with a song called Joy. I put together a DPR choir, and the program started with staff singing the song Joy. The lyrics to the song is Joy, Joy, God’s great joy, joy, joy, beautiful joy. It was special.
It’s so moving. I don’t want us to move from this topic until you explain the design of the space.
It is designed with every aspect from the playgrounds. We have a playground that is designed to serve children who may need a wheelchair. There is that aspect. It’s a 2 to 5-year-old playground. There’s an upper playground that’s designed for the older children. They all are designed with adaptive modalities in mind. That’s the playground. We also have a splash pad, which is like a spray park.
In the summertime, you will be able to use the splash pad, and it will serve as an outdoor waterfall to keep you cool. There’s also field space. There’s like a mile. A trail that goes over a mile in between the trail, their benches, their workout stations. There’s also an open field for concerts, movie nights or other family gatherings that can happen. That’s just outside. When you come into the facility, the vestibule has lounging seats.
Before you even fully come in, similar to a hotel, you can take a seat and rest yourself. We have a senior room, and then we have a caregiver’s room. Now, the thought behind the caregiver’s room is because we do have seniors who have AIDS. Instead of the AIDS always programming with them, the AIDS can go in the caregiver room and the seniors have their space. We have a community room and a demonstration kitchen. A fully functional kitchen.
It’s a demonstration kitchen because you can teach. You can also use it for catering. That’s how large the kitchen is. There’s a weight room. There’s an art room. There’s a dance room. There’s a playroom where we have like ping pong tables and a couple of things. There’s a trainer’s room, there’s a room that looks like a doctor’s office where you can come in. Again, that’s to have services in the community. There’s a technology lounge. That’s the computer lab. Anyone can come in and have access to the computer lab. The gym, of course, and then the pool. I think I’ve covered it.
It’s such a beautiful honoring of Joy and her family.
There’s a mural on the wall of the story of pictures of Joy in her family. I’m glad you felt it, although I didn’t articulate it, it’s here.
There was a large population of young people who had been disconnected from education and the workforce at a very young age.
We should get a picture of that to make sure we feature it as part of the show.
Thennie, I want to stay in the energy of this space, which is also serving children and Joy herself as a child and the Center honoring her life and her work that could bring a lot more joy to other children. I know that matters to you in particular, the work you’re doing with young people as the director of the Department of Parks and Rec in the city. Also prior to that, you’ve worked with young people almost all your life and which then brought you to this new program that we started recently. Can you say more about your work with young people?
Director Freeman’s Personal Connection to Job Corps
My very first job out of college was at Job Corps, which is an education and training facility for youth ages 16 to 24. Young people who attend Job Corps all have varying paths. Some of them come to Job Corps because they feel that there’s no other way, there’s no other hope. Some of them faced homelessness. Some of them were court-mandated. Of course, you could attend on your own, but there was a high population of young people who had been disconnected from education and the workforce at a very young age.
It’s an overnight. It’s a residential facility, Job Corps. I am a product of the Job Corps. My story and my path to get to Job Corps after I graduated high school, I had a friend who was facing homelessness. I grew up in a very religious home, and I was sneaking my friend into my home at night. I did not want my family to know that I was sneaking her in because the last time I brought somebody homeless home, I got in trouble. I had been strategic about when I would allow Melanie to come inside.
We had it all planned out. I knew that wasn’t sustainable, so I personally took her to the Job Corps office. She was sixteen and still in school. I had already graduated high school. She did not want to go alone, and she was terrified because there were no Job Corps in the area. She would have had to go to a different location. The counselor asked, “Why don’t you go with her? We have a buddy system where you two can go together.” I said, “Why not?”
I was scheduled to go to college, but at the time, I didn’t want to go. That gave me an out for not having to go, but then an in to do something. Mel and I left Roanoke, Virginia, and went to Charleston Job Corps Center. Of course, I left her like three months later and went to an advanced training program here at Potomac in DC. I completed the advanced training program, and then I entered the college program at Job Corps.
I ended up leaving, graduating college, and I wanted to give back. In my mind, it was the best-kept secret. I didn’t believe that people valued or understood the power and the transformation that the Job Corps presented to families or young people such as myself. It’s my very first job out of college. It wasn’t my first job. My very first job after I graduated was at a funeral home. They didn’t tell me that I would be selling plots.
I worked there for all of five days, and I said, “It’s not going to work.” My very first real job was at Job Corps. I was so excited. I also knew that I looked like I could be a participant because of my age, and some of the participants were older than me. I knew that I could not disclose my age to anyone. On my very first day on the job, they gave me the keys to the dorm and said, “Here you go. You’re assigned to Holly dorm.” I said, “What does that mean?”
They said, “Tonight is Monday, and they’re working on their chores. You should be assigning them to do chores and this and the third.” I said, “Who’s coming with me?” They were like, “You got it.” That was my very first experience. You can imagine all of the things that were happening in my mind. Me having to walk into space, exert authority, demonstrate authority, and not be eaten alive, not show any fear, hesitation, or reservation, and not having any tools.
Not one tool was provided. The only tool that was provided to me was a set of keys. Fast forward, when working in the space with young people, I’ve always had a desire to ensure that people understood, “You just don’t give keys.” Metaphorically, when I say keys, as I recall that day, every time. The keys to the kingdom. There were 60 young women in this dorm that I now was responsible for with no training.
Thennie, you learned tools on the fly, apparently. In this new program, it’s about teaching those tools so people walk in with more than a set of keys. Can you articulate for everybody like 2 or 3 of the really good tools that you picked up that you think are essential?
Essential Tools For Working With Young People
The first tool is to be open. I think the most important thing that I’ve learned along the way, people unload their trauma on young people, and it manifests in different ways. Some people are overzealous because of their mistreatment as a child. Some people reproduce or redemonstrate what was demonstrated to them in the form of tough love. I’ll come back to tough love because I’m a tough lover, but I think sometimes people believe that tough love means a lack of connection.
One tool is openness. You have to have a blank canvas. You have to approach young people with a blank canvas. That means leave all your inhibitions, all your preconceived notions. That’s the first thing. If a young person walks up to you and tells you that they want to be a giraffe, instead of you saying, “You cannot be a giraffe,” you should start questioning what is driving the desire to be a giraffe.
What does the giraffe look like? What does the giraffe do? What does the giraffe want to do next?
That’s the one thing open. Number two, shut up. That’s because adults are always talking. With young people, you have to listen. The third thing is forgiveness. When working with young people, that inner child comes out all the time. It’s like natural. When you see something, I cannot tell you how many times a young person has come up to me and they’re crying. I’m like, “Why are you crying?” “I cannot go on the field trip.” Now I’m crying. I’m like, “Why am I crying?” The inner child always comes out.
Just understanding those three things. Forgiveness, because you may encounter a situation, you may hear something that may be re-traumatizing. You can internalize that. I’m talking about re-traumatizing to something that you’ve experienced. You cannot internalize it. You have to listen with an open mind, and then you resort to your toolbox as to how you can help them move forward. By doing that, you also move forward.
Thinnie, I know that even symbolically, when we did the lounge, all the participants in the new program were provided with a toolbox. Part of the idea is just to start thinking about some of these tools. What are your hopes, and what’s your invitation for the people who are joining or who have joined the program now?
We began to approach youth work differently. The world sees youth work as a valued profession. You have to have a certification to work on computers. There are multi-level steps to it. You have to serve food in DC, Bonnie. You have to have what’s called a ServSafe Certificate. You have to have a food handler’s license to serve food. The same thing for our pool operators, our lifeguards, they’re all certified. They all have to complete a certification. When you’re working with children, oftentimes people just want a warm body. I want people to start to think differently about putting people in front of young people. What does that mean?
Thennie, is there an example maybe that you’ve encountered when you’ve seen the work with young people and how perhaps the importance of the work with how the adult shows up and works with them and how it changes and transforms them? It could be a personal story.
Promoting Youth Financial Agency With Noncustodial Bank Accounts
I think about my time at DOES, and the workforce, and young people working and their funds impact the entire family. Having young people who begun to reject the idea of work because they don’t have access to the funds. They work their summer job, and they get paid, but mom needs those funds for the light bill. It doesn’t become a choice, but it becomes what I’ve done with the funds because mom had access to the bank card. We started non-custodial bank accounts so young people could get accounts and have agency over their own funds and didn’t have to have a parent sign.
It doesn’t mean that a young person was no longer helping mom with the light bill. It just meant that there was a different approach to how they were helping. It was now that you had to have permission from the young person. The young person had to make the withdrawal or to complete the transaction, and it wasn’t done, and then them being told. I just saw there’s a different sense of pride when I feel like I’m helping my family than I’m being taken advantage of.
Quite a shift in that sense of agency, as you say, so important. I’m also wondering, Thennie, in your own life as a leader, because you’re working with young people, but you’re also director of a very large agency in the city. I wonder about some of the things that you do to support you as a leader in your own work.
I spent a lot of time at the pool. Let me tell you something. Prior to me coming to this job, I remember dropping my son off at school and craving the pool, craving a desire to go swimming. This was in the winter about three years ago. I remember having a conversation with someone at the school saying, “I need to go swimming. I need to find a pool.” Of course, because it was winter, all the hair thingamajigs, all of that.
It just never matriculated. It just never happened. Fast forward, I started working for the DC Department of Parks and Recreation, and voila, we have 31 pools. Fourteen indoor pool facilities. I found myself going just for exercise. Of course, the community started to realize, “She’s here.” The thing about being in the pool is that I realized you don’t have your phone, and people cannot talk to you.
When you’re in a pool, you don’t have your phone. You can’t talk to anyone. It’s just you. The sound of the water is therapeutic, and there’s a stillness to it, no matter what you’re doing.
It’s really you alone. The sound of the water is very therapeutic. The stillness of the water because it doesn’t matter what you’re doing in the water. The water will always come back to being still. The water will adjust the fluid. If you’re swimming laps, the water will adjust. If you stop to rest and drink some water, the water becomes still again. When you’re swimming, there’s a natural flow. When you’re playing, there’s a different flow.
You can see that the water began to tell its own story based on what was happening. If nothing happens, the water is still moving, yet the water is still still. I found myself here in the pool while we were determining whether we were going to close or not because of the snowstorm, and it was stressful. I was like, “Let me just jump in the pool.” I did. I got a good little 30 minutes in.
I’m just thinking on your logistics here, you’re always carrying clothes with you, swimming suit with you, and everything. That’s part of your package.
It’s wonderful.
It has definitely become part and it really feels good. That’s the one thing. I hate exercising, but I know it’s necessary. I’m really not a fan, but I can get in a pool for hours. You have to put me out.
I love how you had the vision and wanting or this inkling and then boom, you become the director of a place that now gets you more in touch with the pools and maybe you have extra reason. This is part of my community outreach being here also with the community.
That leads within my relationship with the community, especially the seniors because normally, I was doing 6:00 AM at a particular pool, Berry Farms. The same crew, Gloria and Sharon, was there. When I wasn’t there, because things just got really busy, they were like, “Where have you been? You need to get back here.” I’ve switched my location. When I see them out in the community, they say, “We miss you. When are you coming back?”
Thennie, I have another question for you. One of the things that I appreciate about you that inspires me is that I feel like you are this exciting box that opens out with a lot of things flying out of it in a lot of different directions, nonstop ideas. This big launch has just happened. This big, beautiful new facility has just opened. What’s Thennie dreaming up next?
Professionalizing Play And Supporting Staff Development
That’s a great question because we do have some things. St. James is a beautiful facility in Virginia. It’s a world-class facility with everything, all the accoutrements. As we began to professionalize play, we hosted a manager’s retreat there last because I want the staff to develop an appetite for what that looks like, what that feels like. My goal is to professionalize play and to do so through the guest experience and the individual staff experience.
We have a women’s workshop, a series of trainings for a staff. We’re doing recreation university to build the staff. This launch was one component. However, we were sending staff to the Maryland recreation, The Parks Association. We’re sending staff to the National Recreation and Parks Association convention that’ll be in Orlando. The ideas are bound. We started a junior lifeguard program so that our young people could already begin to learn what it could be to be a lifeguard. Our lifeguards make good money, and they’re district government employees.
If you’re a college student, you’re a district government employee as a lifeguard, your lifeguard salary is $50,000 or $57,000, and you’re in college, that’s great money. You can work your own schedule because the pool’s open from 6:00 AM to 9:30 PM. If you’re in college all day, and even if you cannot work a full eight hours and if you have four hours, you’re still a district government employee. Those are some of the things. It’s so funny you say, because my team, they always say to me, “Stop thinking.”
Please don’t stop thinking.
They say it funny in a way because every time I say, “I have an idea. You guys, let’s do this.” I’m looking at, I’m telling you, the thing that I want to do now, but I just spoke with, I’ll wait on that. We’re going to take about 50 young people and I want to begin to follow them. We’re going to identify 50 young people. I want to see how they’re being supported with the whole system of services in the district, from school to after school to extracurricular activities. How’s the family being supported?
That’s my goal. I’ve also spoke with the chancellor about that. Spoke with him, and he and I are supposed to meet to Europe about being proactive where we see schools may not have the best testing data. We know that those young people spend a lot of time they walk to school, and then they walk to the recreation after school. What educational experiential learning programs can we have at those locations where they’re learning and increasing their literacy and numeracy skills without them being in a literacy and numeracy program?
That sounds so interesting. I even wonder, and we can talk about this some later, but if there is a way to link it with the youth program and see if participants who are being trained and going through the program perhaps could be also supporting them and serve maybe as mentors or guides or coaches to them. That’s just something to think about. I love the professionalizing play tagline.
That is really fun and it’s important because play keeps us moving. As you were talking about the water, the movement, the flow, play gets us moving, gets us in the flow. Bonnie did this outward when she talked about you, like expanded her hand out of her chest because of all the ideas and the openings. Since I know you, Thennie, you’ve always had that in you. I met you, I think, 10 or 12 years ago when you were in the certified public manager program at that time. Every time you would speak, I knew you had something cooking.
There’s something going on. Even remember one of your parties that you hosted at that time. It was like always thought creatively. You always wear colors too. That’s the other thing. You have like a little nice red top with a shirt underneath, but there’s always color. There’s always some movement around you. I wish you all the best as you continue to do the work that you’re doing. As Bonnie said, don’t stop thinking. I know sometimes it’s a lot of ideas take time to seed, but I think that’s those ideas that keep us moving. Do you have any last words you want to leave our readers with?
I do. As I sit in this new office, this is what’s on my best.
Thennie’s showing us several stuffies. Some bears.
Mama bear and the many ones. I intentionally put these here for several reasons. As you can see, Ina, they’re all different colors. I chose them for that reason. You never know when you encounter a child that just needs a pick-me-up. I have these so that if there is ever someone who walks in this space and just needs a little token of joy, I can give them a token of joy. As I close, I just want us to remember because we’re talking about leadership, power is not in the title.
Power is not in the role. Power is really giving away power. It’s empowering others to be them their authentic selves, which is one of the reasons why I fell in love with Ina, Jim, and GW because I am unorthodox in everything that I do. It was always welcomed. As we are in an ever-changing world, just remember, the power that you give is the joy that you give to others by just allowing them to lead authentically.
Beautiful. Thank you.
Thank you, Thennie.
Important Links
- Thennie Freeman on LinkedIn
- DC Department of Parks and Recreation
- Joy Evans Therapeutic Recreation Center
- National Recreation and Parks Association
About Director Thennie Freeman
Thennie Freeman is the Director of the DC Department of Parks and Recreation. Mrs. Freeman joined DPR as Deputy Director of Recreation Services, overseeing the direction and management of the agency’s recreation program portfolio and operations of all recreation centers, parks, and aquatics facilities.
Director Freeman, who is known for her leadership and engagements to enhance the District’s Marion Barry Summer Youth Employment Program, was recognized in 2020 for her exemplary service to District residents and was honored with a Cafritz Award. The award highlights outstanding DC government leaders and innovative teams whose commitment and professionalism demonstrate the best in public service.
Director Freeman has more than 15 years of experience leading teams, executing large-scale social service programs for youth and young adults, and overseeing multi-million-dollar budgets. She started her District government service in 2008 as an Out-of-School Time Coordinator for the DC Public Schools. From 2012 to 2022, she served as Associate Director for the Office of Youth Programs at the Department of Employment Services. During her tenure, she helped increase the program’s productivity and enhanced services provided to serve youth overall in District communities.
Mrs. Freeman has developed innovative programs and directly supported the effort to turn around high-risk programs which are instrumental in helping our District’s youth find employment. Through various workforce programs and leading the charge in developing their work skills, Mrs. Freeman has helped thousands of District youth accomplish their personal and professional goals. Her work led to DC earning the title of #1 place for a summer job in Forbes Magazine in 2016. In 2017, Mrs. Freeman helped launch and oversee the Mayor’s Opportunity Scholarship. This scholarship provides eligible District youth with financial support for post-secondary and vocational aspirations. Since its inception, this scholarship has provided thousands of District youth scholarships assistance and has awarded close to $1 million dollars over the past 5 years. In 2019 she led the effort to secure a 5-year $3 million dollar partnership with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). This partnership will help nearly 500 District youth, by providing them with a pipeline into the financial regulatory services industry.
Mrs. Freeman earned her Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of the District of Columbia and is a member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, where she leads and supports fundraising activities for educational scholarships.