A group of pickleball players celebrate the game at the Incline Village Tennis Center in Incline Village, Nevada. Photo courtesy of the Incline Village Parks and Recreation Department.
AARP AND
National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA)
AUGUST 9, 2021 991
TABLE OF CONTENTS
About Us........................................................................................................... 3 Equity................................................................................................................. 5 Equity Action Plan.................................................................................... 5 Park Access................................................................................................. 5 Equity in Parks and Recreation: A Historical Perspective.............6 Advancing Community Health and Well Being.................................... 7 What Does a Community Wellness Hub Look Like?.................... 7 Health Equity as a Guiding Principle.................................................. 8 Healthy Aging in Parks and Recreation.............................................9 NRPA’s Economic Recovery/ Infrastructure Priorities Tool Kit.......................................................... 10 Mobilizing NRPA’s Advocacy Efforts to Support the Parks, Jobs, and Equity Act.......................................................... 10 NRPA’s 2020 Annual Report......................................................................12
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PHOTO COURTESY OF JEREMY WHITING
Residents enjoy lawn games and a BBQ at the Historic Longacre House in Farmington Hills, Michigan.
ABOUT US The National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) is the leading not-for-profit organization dedicated to building strong, healthy and resilient communities through the power of parks and recreation. NRPA advances this vision by investing in and championing the work of park and recreation professionals to be a catalyst for positive change in service of equity, climate-readiness and overall health and well-being. NRPA champions and supports the field of parks and recreation through: ● Professional development, ● Advocacy, ● Grants and programs, ● Research, ● Publications ...and more. NRPA’s network of more than 60,000 park and recreation professionals and advocates represents public spaces in urban communities, rural settings and everywhere in between. Every day, in communities across the country, the people of parks and recreation are providing essential services and confronting the most pressing issues of our time to advance mental and physical health, create climate-ready parks, support equity and inclusion, and so much more. We know we cannot solve these challenges alone. By partnering with like-minded organizations — including nonprofits, government agencies, academics and corporate leaders — we bring strength to our programs and mission.
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Parks and recreation are vital to our health and well-being, and create stronger communities that can protect and better recover from environmental, social and economic challenges.
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EQUITY Equity is at the center of everything NRPA does. Equity Action Plan Our Equity Action Plan provides a framework for how NRPA is strengthening our organizational culture and practices centered around equity and our core values of trust, continuous learning, diversity and inclusion.
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Park Access Parks and recreation are vital to our health and well-being, and create stronger communities that can protect and better recover from environmental, social and economic challenges. Every day, local park and recreation professionals and champions are working on innovative, long-term solutions to ensure that our communities have fair and just access to great parks, green spaces, recreation facilities and programs. They are helping to close critical gaps in the: ● Quantity of parks ● Proximity of parks ● Connection to parks This happens all while ensuring that these places are safe, inclusive, culturally relevant and welcoming for everyone. NRPA unites local leaders, advocating for policy change and advancing local solutions through research, tools and catalyzing grants. We champion system-level changes in policy, planning and funding to support place-based projects driven by local communities.
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Equity in Parks and Recreation: A Historical Perspective NRPA created the “Equity in Parks and Recreation” story map to explore: ● United States history ● The evolution of parks and recreation ● Urban planning ● A timeline of inequities in park access — from the past to present This story map is the first part of a two-part resource. Part two, to be published in 2022, will outline strategies needed to address inequities in park access.
PHOTO COURTESY OF ROBERT BIRGEL
A participant of the Homewood-Flossmoor (Illinois) Park District’s 2019 Park Pride Day shows off plants before placing them into a flower bed.
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ADVANCING COMMUNITY HEALTH AND WELL-BEING Parks and recreation are vital to community health and well-being. Access to these spaces, programs and services remains essential to community vitality and is a key factor in advancing health equity, improving individual and community-level health outcomes, and enhancing overall quality of life. As trusted community institutions, parks and recreation are well-suited to address these challenges by building upstream, systems-wide approaches that support the equitable distribution and integration of more holistic health and social services in parks and recreation. This can be achieved by expanding the role of parks and recreation to serve as stewards of community wellness hubs — trusted gathering places that connect every member of the community to essential program, services and spaces that advance health equity, improve health outcomes and enhance quality of life.
What Does a Community Wellness Hub Look Like? Community wellness hubs build off existing strengths, assets and foundations of parks and recreation, including providing access to physical activity, healthy foods, green spaces, social connections and cultural Resiliency & enrichment opportunities while Disaster Relief integrating more comprehensive and holistic health and social services that support well-being. This may include creating linkages to Green Space, accessible healthcare and chronic Outdoor Connection & disease management programs, Environmental connecting people to social Education services like job training and supplemental benefit programs, integrating mental and behavioral health services, and connecting Social Services & Community people to other needed community Resources resources.
Healthy Food Access & Nutrition Education Physical Activity
Community Wellness Hub
Social Connections & Relationships
Education & Cultural Enrichment Healthcare & Behavioral Health Services
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PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CITY OF ATLANTA DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION
A City of Atlanta Department of Parks and Recreation staff member leads community members in an aquatic fitness class.
While community wellness hubs work toward the same overarching goal of ensuring all people can thrive where they live, learn, work and play, there is not a one size fits all approach. Each hub should be people-centered and unique to the community it serves — this includes ensuring the community has a voice at the table, making sure that programs and services are accessible, inclusive, and culturally relevant, and ensuring that resources are distributed and prioritized based on need.
Health Equity as a Guiding Principle • Park and recreation professionals are dedicated to protecting and promoting health and well-being for all people, with equity at the core. • We recognize that unjust and unfair practices and policies have created added barriers for Black, Indigenous, people of color and low-income communities, to access the physical and social conditions that lead to optimal health outcomes. • NRPA believes that health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This requires removing these obstacles and barriers to health — as poverty, discrimination, and addressing lack of access to healthy food, safe environments, including parks and recreation, healthcare, good jobs with fair pay, and quality education and housing.
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HEALTHY AGING IN PARKS & RECREATION
9 IN 10 PARK AND RECREATION AGENCIES DEDIC ATE FACILITIES, ACTIV IT IE S A ND PROGRA MMING TO OL D E R A D ULTS
MOST C O M M O N PARK AN D REC REATION OFFE RI N G S TO OLDER ADULTS :
91%
70%
EXERCISE CLASSES
67%
FIELD TRIPS, TOURS, VACATIONS
58%
ARTS & CRAFTS CLASSES
58%
EVENTS & FESTIVALS FOR OLDER ADULTS
OPPORTUNITIES TO VOLUNTEER IN RECREATION CENTERS
63%
76%
O F AG ENC I E S
OF AGE N CIE S
identified Area Agencies on Aging as their most common partner in efforts to deliver services to older adults
offer one or more evidence-based programs to older adults
71%
44%
O F AG ENC I E S
OF AGE N CIE S
err e characterize themselves as the leader servic rvices rrvice vices i ess or one of the leaders providing ser services aadults dults lts and programming for older ad
target adults as young as 50 years old for their older adults offerings 1
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NRPA’s Economic Recovery/Infrastructure Priorities Tool Kit Earlier this year, NRPA wrote a letter to the White House to ask President Biden to support and advocate for these crucial community services in any future infrastructure and COVID-19 recovery legislation: • Invest in Local Communities: Fund a historic one-time $500 million local park investment for the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership (ORLP) program with priority for underserved communities. • Support Conservation Jobs: Fund the Civilian Conservation Corps to provide forward-looking job opportunities that improve outdoor spaces around the country. We ask that this initiative prioritizes geographic and workforce diversity by ensuring that state, county and local parks have increased access to Civilian Conservation Corps program funding. • Invest in Water, Wastewater and Green Infrastructure: Fund the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) programs at $100 billion over five years, split evenly between the two SRFs, with at least 20 percent of CWSRF funding set aside for investing in green infrastructure projects essential for climate resilient communities. • Invest in Smart Public Health: Fund CDC’s Prevention and Public Health Fund at an additional $2.5 billion. The fund supports community-based programming at the local, state and federal levels to tackle chronic and infectious diseases, as well as increases access to immunizations and other preventative care services. This upstream solution has long-term benefits, including decreasing future national public healthcare costs. • Support Child Nutrition: Fund an additional $30 billion for the Child Nutrition Programs within USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service to address the substantial rise in food insecurity, particularly among children.
Mobilizing NRPA’s Advocacy Efforts to Support the Parks, Jobs, and Equity Act The Parks, Jobs, and Equity Act is an innovative bipartisan legislation that would dramatically improve equitable access to quality parks and green spaces for all. Presently, one in three Americans, including 28 million kids, lack access to nature near their homes, and the problem is heavily concentrated in communities of color. To address this challenge, this legislation would create a new, onetime $500 million federal grant program to help state and local governments support job creation, economic revitalization, and park development for urban communities. The program is designed to build and upgrade new parks and green spaces to increase access to the outdoors in underserved communities. Specifically, the Parks, Jobs, and Equity Act would: • Invest $500 million in urban parks, including 50 percent dedicated funding for low-income communities and 2 percent for Tribal communities. • Create more than 8,000 new jobs, while saving 100,000 at-risk seasonal jobs. • Generate $1.37 billion in economic activity at the local level. • Fund more than 1,000 new or upgraded local parks throughout the country.
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PHOTO COURTESY OF FAIRFAX COUNTY PARK AUTHORITY
During the opening of a multi-use shelter at Hidden Pond Nature Center in Springfield, Virginia, a Fairfax County Park Authority volunteer shows local children a turtle from the center.
The Parks, Jobs, and Equity Act will provide a much-needed investment in urban parks across the country and will be a welcome relief as park and recreation professionals and the agencies they represent continue to recover from the severe impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. NRPA strongly believes that urban parks contribute to equitable economic development, providing quality jobs and workforce development opportunities in local communities. In addition, these parks can support vital climate resiliency practices that benefit urban areas on a holistic level. This legislation was first introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in March 2021 by Representatives Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-CA), Michael Turner (R-OH) and Joe Neguse (D-CO). The legislation was also introduced in the U.S. Senate in June 2021 by U.S. Senators John Hickenlooper (D-CO) and Alex Padilla (D-CA). NRPA is part of a wide-ranging coalition that has pushed for such a historic investment in urban parks. As part of this effort, NRPA has launched a targeted advocacy campaign calling on our members to urge their representatives to cosponsor this legislation and call for its passage. This legislation could potentially be incorporated into the infrastructure package currently being assembled by the U.S. Congress.
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NRPA’S 2020 ANNUAL REPORT The past year could be divided into two parts — before the pandemic and living through the pandemic. During the peak of pandemic-related shutdowns in spring 2020, nearly 90 percent of park and recreation agencies had parks or trails open to the public, according to NRPA’s Park Snapshot surveys. ● These cherished outdoor spaces became one of the few places where people could go to walk, exercise or experience green space. ● Where facilities or programs did have to close, many park and recreation professionals were reassigned to emergency pandemic response duties, such as distributing food, providing childcare services for essential workers, establishing overflow testing sites and spearheading other activities to support their communities in crisis. As a result, parks and recreation has become an even more fundamental part of our daily lives and essential to how communities come together and heal. To learn more about our work this past year, read our 2020 Annual Report, WE ARE Parks and Recreation.
STRONG CONFIDENT SELFLESS PASSIONATE DRIVEN ESSENTIAL CLICK HERE
BEREA COLLEGE
NRPA 2020 ANNUAL REPORT
In Berea, Kentucky, volunteers from community organizations such as Berea Kids Eat, Berea Community School and the local park and recreation department work together to distribute food to those in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ON THE COVER:
About the National Recreation and Park Association The National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) is the leading not-for-profit organization dedicated to building strong, vibrant and resilient communities through the power of parks and recreation. With more than 60,000 members, NRPA advances this mission by investing in and championing the work of park and recreation professionals and advocates — the catalysts for positive change in service of equity, climate-readiness, and overall health and well-being. For more information, visit nrpa.org. For digital access to NRPA’s flagship publication, Parks & Recreation, visit parksandrecreation.org.
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NRPA member Aaron Watson, Executive Director of the Mercer County Park Commission (New Jersey) holds an owl as part of their engagement programming.
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