The municipality that I work for is examining the possiblilty of an archery program for kids. We have looked into the archery in schools program, however, it seems as though the administration wants to do something with the city parks, that any kid can enjoy. They seem to be very motivated about getting something started, and we have funds in a parks and recreation account, however, the funds will be gone  Jan 1, regardless of weather or not we spend them. I have been trying to research some sort of archery program that we could possibly implement in the city parks, kinda like they did back in the day. (I can remember old archery butts in the park when I grew up) Do you guys have any suggestions? Any bowyers or companies like Bear offer programs like this anymore in which we could buy a quantity of bows for kids? Alot of things to consider here but I am very excited that we have a city adminsitration so willing to jump into something like this. Any suggestions would be great.

Compton Traditional Bowhunters has a program that can assist with equipment purchases.  What you are describing is exactly the kind of program we like to help with.  
Vince Smith is the youth program chairman.  I'll PM you his phone number if you are interested.

If you go online and search for archery kits for schools and camps there are some very cost effective deals and programs for getting the targets and such. 4H used to do programs as well as the boy scouts. NASP has some good educational stuff for instructors. Check the parks insurance contract and state laws(cant discharge any weapon within a park area in NJ0. If you are confident in your instructing abilities just start the program. I would get a NASP instructor book for reference.Good Luck

We have alot of sponsers here that make kids bows why not ask them,with only a little over a month till your deadline I doubt that they could fill the order but might strike up a good deal on price that could be extended.It's a really good project that your doing,congrats Larry.

I will 2nd the 4-H opinion. My son shoots 4-H archery and they have a great program with some liability insurance and they are also a nonprofit organization, anything donated can be written off as a tax deduction. It takes a little time to become a leader but well worth it.

Bill

Check out USA ARCHERY, of course mentioned NASP, 4H, After School Archery Program, NADA, national archery developmen association?? State wildlife dnr type programs, Lots out there these days. Some of these overlap and many have similarities in the steps to archery.  Our club has many certified instructors through USAArchery programs, we do an intro to archery program and we have JOAD a program.  Three Rivers Parks District in the Twin Cities of MN has a very active archery program.  I've got a contact there but I'm headed off to work, PM and I'll see what I can do if your interested in contacts.

For Equipment you can buy set ups all ready to go through NASP, After School Archery Programs, some bowyers and manufactures have good stock.

Our club uses gensis bows, old comets recurves, other recurves most bought through ********* archery, some really light wieght laminated bows made by club members, about half our bows are gensis about half recurves we probably have at least 40 bows give or take...

A viable program for your park system is definately doable!

The Alabama Dept. Wildlife and Fisheries has a wonderful Archery Parks Program through out the state.  Check with them, I'm sure they'll be glad for you to pick their brains.
I'll check with the head of the program and if you'll PM me, I'll try to get you in touch.
Johnny/JAG