Toronto dad Phil Vlach said he was frustrated with the city’s system for signing up children for programs like swimming or gymnastics, so he created an app to make the process easier.
“It was really challenging and we thought, ‘Gee, there must be a better way.’ And our friends were having the same problems,” Vlach told CTV Toronto on Wednesday.
Some parents across the city -- who also found the online registration extremely unreliable -- even lined up overnight to register their children for programs in person.
Vlach said he spent three months writing 10,000 lines of code and created the Fun Guide, available for free in the app store.
“Let's say I want to get one of my kids into Level 5 swimming,” he said, “it will pull up the various courses.”
The app allows users to search for activities, save favourites and share with friends so “you can compare with other families to get kids in the same programs,” Vlach said.
The city agreed that the current online registration system is out-of-date and is not the most user-friendly for parents. They are in the midst of an overhaul but they said it won’t be complete until the end of next year.
“We heard a lot of feedback that the website wasn't as intuitive as it could be so we've really listened to that feedback to try to respond as best as can,” said General Manager of Parks, Forestry and Recreation Janie Romoff.
So far, the city said they’ve improved the search function on their website and the next round of registrations should be faster and more reliable than before.
But parents still have to wait a year until all updates are complete.
“I think there are some easy wins they're not addressing, like this one,” said Vlach. He said he hopes his app can help other parents.
The next round of registration for fall and winter recreation programs are set to begin at 7 a.m. on the following dates:
- Etobicoke York District: Sept. 10
- Scarborough District: Sept. 11
- North York District: Sept. 13
- Toronto and East York District: Sept. 14
With files from Natalie Johnson
