After-School Achievement Program (A.S.A.P.) The Mayor's After-School Achievement Program (A.S.A.P.) was created in 1997 to engage Houston youth in structured, supervised after schoolactivities to reduce juvenile crime and victimization. In 2004, the program moved under the administration of the Houston Parks and Recreation Department. During this transition, new program guidelines were implemented and enforced and staff was added to conduct site visits to ensure contract compliance and provide technical assistance. Through A.S.A.P., the City of Houston fundsprogramming for youth in elementary and middle school at schools and non-profit agencies from September to June, Monday-Friday, between 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.All A.S.A.P. sites are required to provide matching funds and/or in-kind contributions from collaborative partners. Matching funds are typically used to fund snacks, transportation, field trips, and special events. First year sites must provide a $10,000 match with in-kind funds.

Programming must be provided for a minimum of 30 children per site, at least five days per week. Funded schools and organizations set their own curricula in collaboration with students, teachers, parents and program partners. To provide safe, supervised, structured programming for youth after school To prevent delinquency and reduce crime committed by/against juveniles To improve participants’ school performance, conduct, and attendance To encourage the ongoing involvement of parents and the community in youth programs To motivate youth to develop citizenship and good health habits To build positive partnerships to create fun, affordable, quality after-school programming for youth If you are a school (public/charter school) or a nonprofit agency and would like to be an A.S.A.P. partner, you must fill out & return the 2014-2015 Request for Proposals and Application Guidelines (RFP) and 2014-2015 Application Narrative. 2016 – 2017 RFP Click here for downloadable pdf

2016 – 2017 Application Narrative Click here for downloadable pdf ACTIVITIES GUIDE & CLASS CATALOG Fall Recreation Catalog Available Now H.P.A.R.D.’s Fall Activities Guide and Class Catalog is available online now! Check out the listings for recreation, fitness, and educational opportunities you and your family can take part in! REQUESTS FOR PUBLIC RECORDs Texas Public Information Act Requests Houston Parks and Recreation DepartmentMoving To Hawaii To Be A Beach Bum 2999 S. Wayside DriveLaminate Flooring That Looks Like Concrete PARK RULES & REGULATIONSHow Much Does It Cost To Move Electric Meter Outside ADAPTIVE SPORTS AND RECREATION ADULT SPORTS/SPORTS LEAGUES AND RECREATION

AFTER-SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT PROGRAM (A.S.A.P.) AFTER SCHOOL ENRICHMENT PROGRAM (A.S.E.P.) AFTER-SCHOOL MEAL PROGRAM (A.S.M.P.) FITNESS CENTERS / GYMS SENIOR SPORTS AND RECREATION YOUTH SPORTS AND RECREATION ONLINE REGISTRATION - ADULT SPORTS LEAGUES ONLINE REGISTRATION - AFTER SCHOOL ENRICHMENT PROGRAMS ONLINE REGISTRATION - GOLF ONLINE REGISTRATION - SUMMER ENRICHMENT PROGRAMS ONLINE REGISTRATION - YOUTH TENNIS LAKE HOUSTON WILDERNESS PARK NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT PROGRAM HPARD ACTIVITIES GUIDE & CLASS CATALOG - Aug. 30 - Herman Brown Park Garden Grand Opening - Jul. 14 - Let's Play Carnival Photo Opportunity - Jun. 30 - Hermann Park July 4 Traffic HPARD Calendar of EventsShow All ItemsStep 1: Prepare Yourself Mentally for Weight LossShow All Items-It will not be comfortable.-It will not be an overnight change.-There will be temptation.  -Your goal needs to be healthy and realistic.  Almost everyone who's lost weight has eventually put the weight back on.

Why this cruel reality? It's simple, really: During the first months of any diet, your body loses both fat and muscle. Then, when you gain back the weight, you add back only fat because it's much easier to gain fat than it is to gain muscle. "That's the dirty little secret of most popular diet plans," says exercise researcher Ellington Darden, Ph.D., author of the new Women's Health book, The Body Fat Breakthrough. "They don't combine muscle-maintaining exercises with the calorie reduction. More muscle is your ticket to a better body." It's no secret that muscle is more metabolically active than fat, so by having more lean muscle on your skeleton, you'll burn more calories even at rest. Fortunately, Darden says he discovered a super-efficient way to build muscle while losing weight: It's called "negative training," and Darden tested it on more than 100 people at Gainesville Health & Fitness in Florida a few years ago. The technique involves doing the lowering part, or "eccentric phase," of a resistance exercise very slowly.

But Darden gave this old-school bodybuilding trick a tweak: He found that by using heavier weights and doing just one and a half reps very, very slowly, you can achieve remarkable results from just one or two short workouts per week. MORE: 7 Pushup Variations You Need to Try To get a taste of what Darden calls "negative-accentuated training," grab two dumbbells, and stand upright with your arms straight and the weights resting against your thighs. Do a quick bicep curl to get the weights to your shoulders; that's the starting position. Now very slowly lower the dumbbells—that's the negative phase—taking 10 to 20 seconds to let them lower to your thighs. Then immediately curl the weight very slowly to your shoulders (again, it should take 10 to 20 seconds)—that's the positive phase of the lift. Finally, without pausing, do another negative movement, taking a final 10 to 20 seconds to lower the weights to your thighs. So the idea is that you'll do the negative movement for twice as long total as you do the positive movement.

(Eventually, you'll want to increase to 30 seconds for each phase of this exercise.) By doing one and a half reps of a lift, you can complete a workout in just 20 to 30 minutes—and feel like you've exercised for more than an hour. The moves are simply that tough, which is why you'll need several days for your muscles to recover. The negative-accentuated style of weight training results in 40 to 50 percent greater stress being put on your muscles, compared to more conventional training methods, says Darden. This stimulates key hormones that boost muscular growth and oxidize fat-cell content at a faster rate.  "It may be that the higher level of stress put on your muscles, combined with just the right amount of carbohydrates, decreases insulin responsiveness in fat cells to make them shrink," says Darden. MORE: How to Lose 15 Pounds Without Dieting In addition to emphasizing this unique lifting strategy, Darden's plan also includes nine other "Fat Bombs," or small lifestyle changes that help people gain muscle and lose weight—as much as a 30 pounds in 30 days.