6 minute read
From In-Person to Online
LIVE Stream Teams
CONNECTING WITH COMMUNITIES VIRTUALLY
Fitness and athletics programming came to a standstill when COVID-19 hit in March. Fortunately, many communities have adapted to staying connected with residents through online streaming and industry partners have developed ways to help programs go high-tech. On the following pages, you’ll learn how Colorado Springs Therapeutic Recreation Program thought outside-the-box to create a new online program series for members and explore ways to stream your fitness classes to online and eventually as hybrid classes (online and inperson). Plus, discover ways to create a unique revenue stream by broadcasting your athletic tournaments and games to famillies, hear about two successful Colorado eSports leagues, and see how group history talks have gone virtual.
From In-Person to Online
By Sarah Braun, CTRS, Program Coordinator, City of Colorado Springs Parks, Recreation & Cultural Services
When COVID-19 hit the state of Colorado in March, the springtime programs offered by the City of Colorado Springs Therapeutic Recreation Program (TRP) were cancelled; it left individuals with disabilities and their families without daily services that were very much a part of their regular schedules.
The music for drumming and dancing classes fell silent, the balls for boccia were left on the court, and the waters of local pools remained still and calm, waiting for someone to ripple their smooth surfaces. Most people look back on the earlier closures and found themselves enjoying old or new hobbies, catching up on to-do lists, or learning to navigate the cyber world in which we found ourselves. For individuals with disabilities, the closure of the state meant a drastic change in their quality of life and access to resources, community and companionship. The mission of the City of Colorado Springs TRP is to provide opportunities for youth and adults with disabilities to acquire skills that enable them to participate in leisure experiences of their choice and enhance their abilities to function within a community setting. The TRP staff also provides advocacy and support for individuals with disabilities to participate in general recreation activities, as well as specialized therapeutic activities that include opportunities in outdoor adventure, arts & crafts, social enrichment, community integration/ leisure education, and sports, fitness & aquatics. Following City of Colorado Springs and El Paso County Health guidance, the TRP staff began teleworking and soon discovered that although inperson programs were not an option, an opportunity to think outside-the-box and create an entirely new program series was upon them. Since the closure of operations also resulted in budget cuts and constraints, TRP staff relied on resources that were readily available at their
fingertips and could be easily accessed by a population that already exists on limited income. The result was a virtual series of programs for individuals with disabilities, and in most cases their families, focusing on connecting a population that had been isolated during the shutdown with resources that could be accessed time and again. Since a Facebook page and YouTube channel already existed in the TRP’s repertoire of social media offerings, staff created a calendar of daily engagement posts and videos to share on both platforms, in an attempt to mimic their
typical program activities through the months of April and May. Videos ranged from seated exercises to exercises using materials found in your home, drumming, dance choreography, adaptive boxing, holiday themed arts & crafts projects and even basic cooking. Staff found that the benefit to offering prerecorded programs allowed participants to watch the videos time and time again, and that they did not have to be online at a particular time. TRP social media presence soared during this time. Content viewed from the TRP Facebook page increased from about 100 people prior to the COVID shutdown to over 1,000 in April, and maintained well over 500 views from people through early June. Individual page followers and page likes increased by 85% each, demonstrating that if you post it, people will watch it!
Despite the popularity of the daily videos, TRP realized there was still something missing. Finding unique ways to prop devices to record videos did have its challenges, but nothing compared to the awkward feeling of talking to an empty room or laughing at your own jokes! So TRP staff took the plunge and utilized the free of charge option on the web based platform, Zoom, and started weekly Friday afternoon dance parties. The intention was to provide face to face engagement
for participants, and to foster social opportunities while also partaking in a time to cut loose, laugh and dance. The weekly dance parties included dress up themes (crazy hair, wedding guest attire, Hawaiian luau, sports teams, tie dye, mustache mayhem, and more!), and staff discovered that time at the beginning and end of each dance was needed for everyone to say their hellos and goodbyes, which sometimes included addressing all 30 people on the call individually! Riding high on the success of the daily social media videos and weekly dance parties, TRP staff moved to the next phase of virtual programming, and developed a series focusing on skill development and social engagement through a multi date series for a nominal fee. All other videos and dance parties had been free of charge, and as the demand for more in-person engagement grew, TRP staff met the call with a more sustainable model. In June, Virtual Time Recreating (VTR) with the TRP was released, and participants were able to register for a three date program series focusing on social games of Pictionary, name that tune, and other interactive group games. Based on overwhelmingly positive participant feedback, two additional VTR series were added in July, focusing on the creative arts
of drumming and dancing choreography, and on body and mind fitness. Both series concluded with rave reviews, leading TRP staff to think about inclusion in a different way, and offer VTR opportunities in 4 of its 5 program core areas alongside in-person opportunities for fall of 2020. The addition of VTR activities as part of regular and future programming is not by coincidence. TRP staff view it as an opportunity to move from reacting to challenging and unpredictable situations that shutdown services to a proactive and positive step forward to showing the importance of therapeutic recreation as an essential part in maintaining quality of life. With technology and software applications being developed daily, VTR with the TRP will definitely have a long lasting place among the programs for people with disabilities in the Pikes Peak Region. For more information about the City of Colorado Springs Therapeutic Recreation Program, please visit our website at www.coloradosprings.gov/tr. Check us out on Facebook (Therapeutic Recreation Program of Colorado Springs) and YouTube (Colorado Springs Therapeutic Recreation Program), especially for a COVID-themed remake of a Golden Girls hit which has more than 1,400 views!
