Parks and Recreation as Community

from Colorado Byline - Summer 2020

Engaging and Entertaining the Public During COVID Times

By Heidi Mallon, Community Engagement Supervisor, Thornton Parks, Recreation & Community Programs

Community comes in all forms. We are drawn together in groups dictated by our shared biology, professional work and personal interests. The need for human interaction is so strong, even a globally-blistering occurrence like the COVID-19 virus can’t shake us from the truth that we need other people.

The field of parks and recreation is one of those categorical interests which represents an opportunity for us to be social. In this sense, it is essential to our well-being. In the book “Tribe”, author Sebastian Junger chronicles how individuals within a society are intuitively drawn to the benefits of a shared community ethos. Even as we evolved into a society reliant on the industrial revolution and the modern conveniences of developed areas, people still seek out opportunities to be outside and active. The need to connect to the outdoors and engage in recreational activities has become a priority rather than a passing interest, especially when so many of our modern conveniences are indoors and keep us sedentary. We often take being out in nature and engaging in play for granted, until their possibility and our access to them are limited or removed.

Parks and recreation is a long-standing tradition in our way life, particularly in Colorado. What is admirable about the parks and rec community in these pandemic times is the mobilization to provide essential support. Besides helping our community stay engaged and healthy, we work to help those affected by the pandemic. The challenges we faced previously have merely been reconfigured as opportunities to do more, by serving our communities more efficiently and innovating in ways not previously considered. We need to create and engage our community through access and education. In Thornton, 93% of residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park or green space. In addition to making recreation geographically accessible, we need to ensure that it is accessible to people with different physical abilities and those that are economically disadvantaged. Thornton Parks, Recreation and Community Programs has an Adaptive and Inclusive Recreation Program (AIR), which allows people of all abilities to participate. Even as these programs are developed and adaptations made, it is essential to be enthusiastically proactive about sharing the message. We cannot assume that people know we are here, what we provide, or how to access these rich experiences.

Community

A well-established community will always face challenges. The question is whether that community will rise to those challenges and how. Will the community of parks and recreation be open to thinking differently? Will systems that worked well enough before crumble under the weight of a drastic cultural shift? We are fortunate to work in a field that taps into our need to be social and recreate. We are lucky to live in a place like Colorado, where parks and recreation are embraced as indispensable. As a necessary way of life in established communities, we need to leverage our resilience to do two things. First, to remind people of the value that parks and recreation brings to individuals and the greater good. And second, to continue to invite new people to enjoy our parks and revel with us in recreation. In Thornton, it is a central mission for the parks and recreation community to be everybody’s community.