City poised to expand SUPIE program to 10 parks across Windsor

Denver Boismier, right, and Melissa Ospino, worked the Lanspeary Park site of the expanded City of Windsor SUPIE program on July 13, 2025. (Robert Lothian/CTV News London)

The SUPIE program is poised to expand to 10 parks across Windsor on a permanent basis in 2026.

An administration report that went before the Nov. 24 council meeting indicated that $100,000 in funding is needed to implement the SUPIE program in one park per ward across all 10 wards in Windsor for the spring/summer of 2026, operating daily from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. seven days per week.

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens informed the council the funding is included in the 2026 budget that council will discuss in January.

Ward 3 Counci. Renaldo Agostino spearheaded the SUPIE (Supervised) Program, which began in 2023 as a pilot project in Mitchell Park at 399 Giles Blvd. West.

Agostino says he thinks it’s fantastic that the program is growing and that the city has faith to invest in it.

“In these times we see that investing in our youth, investing in our children, and investing in programming is the right way to go, especially when it comes to dealing with issues at our parks, so I’m ecstatic about it,” he says.

The program provides services designed to restore proper usage of the park to the residents of the neighbourhood and encourage community engagement and healthy, active living by providing recreation staff to run free supervised programming for youth-aged children, including sports, arts and crafts, passive games, and special events.

Agostino says it will probably be the best money the city spends all year.

“Anytime you can invest in your youth and invest in having activities for young people to do, to enjoy, to learn, to grow, and to make mistakes, that’s what life is all about.”

According to Agostino, the problem is that we park kids in front of televisions and video games, and they’re not out there connecting with other people.

“We have got to get our kids back out there. You have to fail to succeed. You have to get out there and play. You’ve got to get out there and learn, get out there and have fun, and exercise. That’s what the SUPIE program is all about,” he says.

During the summer of 2025, the SUPIE program was expanded to nine more parks on a rotating basis, with a total of 925 youth taking part in the program.

Park-by-Park Breakdown

• Ward 1 - Central Park - 165
• Ward 2 - Mic Mac Park - 175
• Ward 4 - Lanspeary Park - 141
• Ward 5 - Robert McDonald Park - 13
• Ward 6 - Riverside Baseball Park - 77
• Ward 7 - Forest Glade Optimist Park - 74
• Ward 8 - Fontainebleau Park - 107
• Ward 9 - Walker Homesite Park - 84
• Ward 10 - Remington Park - 89

Administration also reported to council that staff will continue to seek and pursue grant funding opportunities to offset the costs related to the SUPIE program in 2026 and in future years.