“When the people around you are pushing sports, it definitely makes you feel seen,” Cabey said.

In May, Mayor Michelle Wu announced the launch of Boston’s first Youth Sports Hub, an online directory where families can find nearby sports leagues and programs for children in elementary school through high school.

The Youth Sports Hub allows users to search for nearby sports facilities and organizations by using their neighborhood as a starting point. Users can search the directory by specific sports offered like basketball, rugby, baseball, martial arts, lacrosse, and gymnastics. The directory also lists seasonal availability, gender accommodations, level of engagement, language, age group, and costs for each program.

The directory is part of Wu’s Connect, Learn, Explore initiative, launched in 2024, which provides youth with access to sports, the arts, gardening, and other forms of community involvement.

The sports database comes at a time when youth involvement is down. According to Boston’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), 34 percent of high school youth were involved in at least one sports team in 2021 — a 10 percent decrease from 2019.

“This give kids the access to top-tier equipment to playing sports at a high level and keeping them safe,” Cabey said.

The hub — which includes Boys & Girls Clubs and Boston Centers for Youth and Families — also provides information on statewide recreational sports news, city-run sports programs, and space for organizations to find more resources to expand their reach in communities.

Along with the directory’s launch, the city hired its first youth sports initiative manager, Tyrik Wilson, earlier this year and invested $100,000 into local sports leagues via small grants to pay for equipment upgrades and travel.

“We’re trying to figure out through these conversations with different programs — in what kinds of ways are you retaining your athletes in your program,” Wilson said. “It becomes more than dropping your kid off and leaving.”

Wilson said he wants youth sports programming to be able to offer opportunities for actual competition, academic support outside of school hours, and community-building for youth.

Obie Christmas, teen director at the Berkshire Partners Blue Hill Club, said the directory will keep families from traveling far into the city to find quality sports programming and training.

“All these kids have to outsource and go 30 minutes out to go to training with an indoor turf or a nice turf facility where it’s safe,” he said. “They have to go to their local — or not-so-local — gym to get a weightlifting session in.”

Christmas has been working at Blue Hill for seven years and leads sports training. He has been working with some of his students, who are now headed to college, since they were in elementary school.

“The goal right now is to reach out into the community and just get people to buy into the system and get people to understand that they don’t have to go all the way to Newton or wherever for good programming,” Christmas said.

Blue Hill offers a plethora of sports like basketball, football, swimming, tennis, and soccer with recently renovated and quality courts, and equipment and training space for students. Christmas said the city’s efforts help families and organizations like Boys & Girls Clubs get kids started in sports and keep them involved throughout their development.

“This means we can now compete when we put kids in our programming. We are helping young athletes get started and keep growing,” he said.

Cabey said Boston’s youth should have easy access to sports programming whether they want to play in college or play recreationally.

“It teaches you discipline you may not get at home or anywhere else,” he said. “It also opens up opportunities to get in a new environment and meet new people and network.”

Auzzy Byrdsell can be reached at austin.byrdsell@globe.com.

Drive-in movies are great. You also have to drive to them and pay to watch. What about free walk-in movies?

This summer, greater Boston hosts a couple dozen great features for free in parks, gardens, and woods. We’ve put together a sampling of a few favorites (and some stuff too bizarre not to mention), but be sure to poke around the websites below for full listings of blockbusters, B-movies, and classics.

“Up,” July 18, the Lot

Come and weep your way through “Up” outdoors and in public. The Lot is a community event space in Dorchester that’s just right for watching a Pixar movie with such an intense opening scene it will make you contemplate life, death, love, and existence during a nice, long cry. The Lot has drinks and snacks available for purchase so your stomach will be satiated even as your soul will be crushed by a kid’s movie whose first few minutes have the heft of a Ingmar Bergman heartbreaker. Best of luck to you. Bring tissues. Or just go to one of the Lot’s less sad free movie nights. lotonthedot.com/movie-nights

“Godzilla 2000,” July 31, Rose Kennedy Greenway

Who’s interested in seeing how the good people at the Coolidge Corner Theater can present this as a Science on Screen offering? Featuring a 60-million-year-old UFO, some Godzilla DNA splicing, and a good old fashioned atomic breath attack, “Godzilla 2000” isn’t exactly a nature documentary. No matter, seeing ’Zilla rampage for free is always a good deal. coolidge.org

“Barbie,” Aug. 8, Boston Landing

Still mad “Barbie” didn’t win Best Picture? Yeah, us too. Thankfully, Boston Landing gets it and skipped booking “Oppenheimer.” Recline on your pink blanket and watch Barbie dance, sing “Closer to Fine,”  think about dying, and save the world. Need more of blondes pondering existence and saving things? Boston Landing hosts a “Clueless” showing July 25. instagram.com/boston_landing/

“National Treasure,” Aug. 10, the Pru’s South Garden

Not enough movies feature somebody trying to steal The Declaration of Independence. It’s basically Hollywood’s biggest failing and nobody is talking about it. At least we have Nicolas Cage’s Benjamin Franklin Gates doing his best to pull off the world’s most ridiculous heist in “National Treasure” — think of the movie as an Indiana Jones flick with fewer whips and more Founding Fathers conspiracy theories. Not into people trying to steal The Declaration Of Independence? We can’t see why. But the Pru has you covered with another half dozen free movies. prudentialcenter.com

“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” Aug. 21, Peters Park

The Mayor’s Movie Nights will bring 11 different movies to 11 different parks in August. There are plenty for the kids —  “The Little Mermaid” (Aug. 6, Ringer Playground),  “Wonka” (Aug. 14, Hynes Playground) — but nothing on the mayor’s calendar can match the wisdom, wit, and wackiness of this John Hughes’ masterpiece. Follow Ferris and friends as they play hooky at a Cubs game, on a float at a parade, and in a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder. Remember, life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. boston.gov

“Friday the 13th” double-feature, Sept. 13, Rocky Woods, Medfield

OK, OK, maybe, just maybe, the Coolidge can pass “Godzilla 2000” off as a science film, but a pair of movies about a hockey-masked, immortal serial killer? Whatever. The idea of “Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter” and “Jason X” being co-presented by NASA on an actual Friday the 13th is too deliciously fun to pass up. Yes, NASA will show up via pre-movie presentation by the team at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Yes, “Jason X” is the one in space where Jason gets revived from a cryogenic stasis to — SPOILER — kill everyone. coolidge.org