Key findings from the NRPA 2021 Engagement with Parks Report

Key findings from the NRPA 2021 Engagement with Parks Report

September 24, 2021Team QuantumEducation3 Comments

(https://res.cloudinary.com/nrpadev/image/upload/v1631635911/docs/2021EngagementReport.pdf)

Since 2016, the National Recreation and Parks Association (NRPA) conducts annual surveys to collect information and gain insights on how people connect with parks and recreation. The key findings from the survey are a valuable resource to park and recreation professionals, policymakers and stakeholders. The report could be used to gain insights about how people’s use and perspectives on parks have been impacted for the past year with the pandemic crisis.

Covid-19 made people realize the critical function of parks and recreation, particularly in stressful times. The limited recreational opportunities and heightened anxiety changed how people engage with parks and recreation. But even if the industry is heavily affected by the lockdown and social distancing, parks professionals, public health officials, and associations worked together to reintroduce recreation services to the communities at the soonest possible time.

The survey is done by Wakefield Research and participated by 1,000 US adults ages 18 and older between May 28 and June 9, 2021.

Survey Results

Living near park and recreation infrastructure, amenities and programming is associated with a wide range of benefits. It increases the likelihood that one will take full advantage of such benefits.

  • More than 7 in 10 U.S. residents have at least one local park, playground, open space or recreation center within walking distance of their homes
  • Nearly 9 in 10 people agree that it is important to fund local park and recreation agencies to ensure every member of the community has equitable access to amenities, infrastructure and programming
  • Four in 5 U.S. adults seeks high-quality parks and recreation when choosing a place to live
  • More than 60 percent of the survey respondents indicate proximity to a park is “extremely” or “very” important
  • Eighty-seven percent of people agree that parks and recreation is an important service provided by their local government

Park and Recreation Usage

  • Seventy-nine percent of survey respondents visited a local park or recreation facility during the past year
  • People are more likely to have visited a park or recreation facility if they live a walkable distance from such an amenity and more parks and recreation options lead to even more engagement with those amenities
  • Seven in 10 people maintained or increased park, trail, and public space usage during the covid-19 pandemic

As difficult as these times have been, park and recreation professionals demonstrated resilience, flexibility and great innovation. They empowered their communities through innovative ways to learn, socialize and have fun while staying safely at home. Covid-19 barriers like personal safety and closed facilities are the frequently cited ones that kept people from enjoyment of parks and recreation opportunities.

How People Engage with Parks and Recreation

  • Visiting parks and trails remains a favorite park and recreation activity
  • Key reasons why people go to parks: nature, family and friends, relaxation and physical activity

Parks and Recreation is Essential

The NRPA’s Three Pillars: conservation, equity and health and wellness, guides agencies and park and recreation professionals in transforming communities.

  • Conservation: Creating a nation of resilient and climate-ready communities through parks and recreation
  • Equity: Striving for a future where everyone has fair and just access to quality parks and recreation
  • Health and Wellness: Advancing community health and well-being through parks and recreation

Nearly equal shares of respondents (69%-72%) rate the NRPA’s Three Pillars as either an “extremely” or “very” important for the local park and recreation agency to focus on. The public also agrees (87% of respondents) that parks and recreation is an important service provided by the local government. They value parks nearly the same level of importance as they do other major local government services.

  • Four in 5 adults agree it is important for park and recreation agencies to engage with their communities to identify needs and desires
  • Nearly 9 in 10 people agree that it is important to fund local park and recreation agencies sufficiently to ensure equitable access

A clear and significant realization from the 2021 NRPA Engagement with Parks report is that in any situation, people highly value the programs and services offered by park and recreation agencies deliver to their local communities every day and strongly support their mission.

NRPA 2021 Engagement with Parks Full Report

Climber woman

Climbing and Fear

June 21, 2021Team QuantumEducation, FitnessLeave a comment

Climbing is no different from any other activity to the extent that fear can be a considerable barrier or if appropriately used, a significant ledge upon which we can launch our favourite outdoor activity.

Fear can play a significant part in our everyday lives. Fear on the job, spouse or parent, or even driving can hold us back and prevent us from achieving our goals. Likewise, the fear of climbing and everything it brings with it can hold us back.

Just as preparation and training of your body are essential to be a safe and successful climber, so too must you prepare your mind. Strength and balance are good and helpful, but even more important is an accurate understanding of the challenges and dangers. Only then will you be able to deal with them. Like life itself, if we know and understand our fears, we can overcome them and go on to greater heights and challenges.

How do you deal with the fear? While the sport does involve equipment and support from fellow climbers, it still is just one person at a time in contact with the rock. And unless you can deal with and understand that, you are setting yourself up for great disappointment.

Understand that you must get into your subconscious fears that lie deep within us all with rock climbing. If you do that and work through the inner issues in your mind, you’re set to enjoy this wonderful, inspiring sport.

Business experts have shown that fear of failure can be a great motivator to achieve heights that many never imagined possible. Whether in rock climbing or business or relationships, understanding your fears can push you to greater and greater heights.

Now, go climb that rock!

Active Seniors

Manage Stress with Recreational Activities

June 14, 2021Team QuantumEducationLeave a comment

Regardless of how tough your fears, anxieties, and stresses may be, taking advantage of certain recreational activities can be a great source in managing your fears and stresses. There are many ways to take advantage of recreational sports and activities to help you relieve some of your anxieties.

The first step is to get your doctor’s permission to perform any activities. You do not want to overextend yourself. Explain to your doctor what kinds of activities you will perform and set up a schedule to not hurt yourself.

Performing recreation activities is an excellent source to meet people and make new friends. Making friends and socializing with other people is essential in dealing with your stresses and anxieties. Hanging out with people you like is a good way to stop focusing on your current fears and anxieties.

Recreational activities can improve your health which will also help you to manage your stresses. Use your energy on a recreational event such as walking instead of worrying about your problems. A slow walk will make you feel better, get you relaxed and decrease your stress levels.

Participating in a recreational activity can give you a new perspective in dealing with your fears and worries. When you are upset, you tend to focus on your worries and anxieties. Doing something that you like to do will give you a “time out” in your worrying. Once you are done performing your activity, you will look differently at your worrisome problem than if you didn’t do anything at all.

The more fun you have, the more relaxed you will be. Your fears and anxieties are real, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun doing something you like. Remember: Performing any recreational activity can go a long way in managing your stresses and anxieties, but it is not a substitute for the guidance of a professional.

Alberta's Open for Summer Plan

Key Points from the Town Hall with Alberta Health on Alberta’s Open for Summer Plan

June 9, 2021Team QuantumEducationLeave a comment

The Alberta Recreation and Parks Association, in collaboration with the Alberta Health representatives, hosted a Town Hall on June 3rd to answer questions and give clarifications about the public health measures of the province’s Open for Summer Plan. Concerning this, we made a roundup of key points discussed for those who missed the town hall. Or you can watch the full recording here.

Alberta’s Open for Summer Plan

The Open for Summer Plan is a 3-stage plan tied to vaccinations and a declining hospitalization rate.

  • Stage 1, the stage we are currently in, was triggered by having 50% of Albertans 12+ received at least one vaccine dose, and hospitalizations are below 800 and declining.
  • Stage 2 reopening is expected to start on June 10th (earliest possible), with 60% of Albertans 12+ having received at least one dose of vaccine and hospitalizations below 500 and declining. For details on restrictions for Stage 2 of the Open for Summer Plan and updates, refer to the COVID-19 info on Alberta’s website.
  • Stage 3, where all restrictions are lifted, will have 70% of Albertans 12+ having received at least one dose of vaccine. The earliest effectivity for this stage could be late June or early July.

The town hall mainly discussed clarifications and questions about Stage 2 of Alberta’s Open for Summer Plan. See highlights below.

  • No restrictions mean that an activity is permitted. No masking is required. But there are certain places or exceptions (for example, when not participating in sports) where masking and distancing should still be observed.
  • Masks and physical distancing are mandatory in indoor settings for coaches and trainers. But if a demonstration is needed, like in an aquatic environment, the mask could come off. Wear masks and do social distancing where possible.
  • Contact tracing will continue. The Alberta Health representatives assigned to contact tracing will find those identified as close contact, whether in the drop-in or registered program.
  • Daily health screenings are great to keep in practice in the long term to protect one another.
  • It helps to differentiate between the sporting activity and the social activity. For example, in an aquatic environment where the 1/3 capacity applies, the sports activity is not bound by restrictions. But a family should still maintain distance from other families.
  • No distinction between adult and youth in Stage 2

Capacity Limit

  • Look at the setting. If there is a fire code, use it as a capacity parameter.
  • Spectators in indoor sports are tied to the fire code capacity with masking and social distancing.
  • For multiple games in a large field, there should be distancing between parties.
  • Indoor – look at the fire code capacity
  • Outdoor – look at seating capacity (with a large group of spectators)
  • Outdoor with no seating capacity – up to 150 people for public outdoor gatherings applies

Masking and Distancing

  • For indoor group fitness classes, 3-metre distancing is required. No mask except for the trainer.
  • Indoor – wear masks if moving through spaces, recommendation of 2-metre distancing.
  • Indoor participating in fitness activity or fitness class – 3-metre distancing
  • Outdoors – masks are not required, recommendation of 2-metre distancing.

Monitoring of the primary indicators is continuous to ensure that a proper trend is in place. A formal announcement, updates, guidance documents and order associated with Stage 2 will be out to the public at the soonest possible time. For the case of the 0-11 group, the best way to protect them and to ensure that we don’t go a step backward is to get vaccinated or immunized.

In stage 3, where restrictions are lifted, public health measures will serve as recommendations and best practices. This stage doesn’t mean the COVID is all gone but that we have a high level of community protection. Indoor social distancing, sanitation and staying home when sick are still highly recommended to keep in practice for everyone’s safety.

Recreation Fishing

Make Recreation a Priority and Reap the Endless Benefits!

June 8, 2021Team QuantumEducationLeave a comment

If you still think you don’t have the time to regularly engage in recreational activities or believe that these are just all nice-to-have, then you are missing all the following amazing benefits.

Happier Life

Research showed that sport and recreation participation is positively associated with happiness. Practiced in clinical, residential and community settings, the profession of therapeutic recreation uses treatment, education, and recreation services to help people with illnesses, disabilities and other conditions to develop and use their leisure to enhance their health, independence and well-being.

Outdoor adventure activities for people with limited physical ability give participants feelings of success and improved feelings of confidence. There is no greater opportunity for people to experience self-actualization and spiritual renewal, creative expression, discovery and stimulation than leisure offers.

Stronger Family Bonds

Family bonds are improved by the sharing of leisure time. Families that recreate together tend to be closer, more cohesive and improve their chances of staying together. This is true with both parent-child relationships and married couples. Families are the cornerstone in promoting well-being and healthy development in children.

Look Better and Feel Stronger

Sports participants had significantly lower body mass index values, lower blood pressures, and lower resting pulse rates. Physical activity helps you manage a healthy weight, making you fit, less prone to injury and less likely to experience depression.

Build Self-esteem

When young people feel good about themselves, they operate more effectively and productively in our communities, families and schools. Adventure programs teach the importance of trust, appropriate risk-taking, supportive social interaction and personal challenge while creating valuable lifelong memories.

Leaders are trained, developed, and nurtured through leisure organizations such as teen clubs, camps and programs.

Relieve Stress and Anxiety

People who engage in leisure activities have lower stress levels. Positive and enjoyable recreation experiences can decrease stress and psychological tensions. These activities provide people with the opportunity to expel energy and emotion not being released in other aspects of their lives. Psychologists found that activities such as a walk in the woods boosted the immune system that lasted two or three days. Each additional mile walked or run by a sedentary person would give him or her an extra 21 minutes of life.

Meet Friends – Create Memories!

A child develops social skills, problem solving and creativity through early play experiences. The best opportunities are those that are planned and supervised. Physical activity is intellectually stimulating and enhances the learning process and the development of cognitive skills.

Lower Health Care Costs

Physically active older people typically benefit from lower blood pressure, increased muscle strength, joint flexibility, and lower total cholesterol levels than less active people. Leisure activities can create new social relationships for Seniors after the loss of a loved one.

Offer Place for Social Interaction

The social need for recreation has been identified as a means for community involvement and an expression of citizenship. A sense of community and social contact is fostered to combat urban social problems like loneliness and isolation.

Nonprofit organizations and charities

A Summary of an Agenda for Equitable Recovery

May 6, 2021Team QuantumEducationLeave a comment

(https://www.imaginecanada.ca/sites/default/files/An-Agenda-for-Equitable-Recovery.pdf)

Nonprofits are the heart of every single Canadian community. They play a significant part in the economy, accounting for at least 8.5% of the country’s GDP and employing over 2.4 million people. Nonprofits are community-based organizations that provide critical services in different areas of community development, making it safer, stronger and healthier.

Community organizations are essential to the pandemic recovery to the impact of major issues such as poverty, homelessness, job losses and old-age care. A 2020 survey conducted by Imagine Canada showed the issues where the nonprofits sector is struggling.

  • Community need is outstripping capacity. There is an increase in demand for programs and services, but there is also a major decline in donations by 68%. This loss directly impacts communities in terms of critical programs and services provided by nonprofits and charities for Canadians.
  • The diversity of the sector is under threat. Larger organizations must modify to meet demands while smaller organizations are forced to temporarily cease operations to adapt to the challenges of revenue losses and changing environment.
  • Long-term organizational sustainability is at risk. Strong immediate challenges like technology innovations are making charities less focused on revenue generation and fundraising, which directly impacts long-term organizational sustainability.
  • Workers are being pulled in multiple directions. Also, workers are expanding their area of focus to meet immediate demands in areas of IT, communications and program development.

Communities across Canada rely on community-driven programs and services that drive resources, innovation and contribute to our collective wellbeing. While incredibly able to withstand the difficult circumstances, the sector needs a strategic and stronger relationship with the government to steward the country through an equitable recovery.

Efficient and more accessible funding is needed for the sustainability of organizations. Hence, the following report makes the following recommendations.

  • The federal government establish a grant program to help sector organizations make investments in infrastructure to meet increased demand and facilitate new ways of delivering services;
  • Current emergency relief measures be improved so that more of the sector can benefit;
  • A modernized funding regime – including improvements to grants & contributions and access to federal loan programs – be explored to make efficient use of both public and organizational resources.

Being natural partners in governance, a stronger relationship with the government will help in the effectiveness of Canada’s charitable organizations. A place in the federal government can significantly help coordinate sector-related policies.

It was noted in the 2019 Senate report that the sector’s potential is being limited by outdated rules and lack of coordinated support within the federal government. Recommendation:

  • The federal government work with the sector to reform the existing rules on qualified donees and direction and control so that public and charitable funds continue to be protected, but in a way that allows organizations to respond more effectively to future crises.

The sector needs better data to make better decisions, especially in delivering and showing measurable results in the communities it serves. To know what works best and allocate resources more efficiently,

  • Statistics Canada be mandated to collect ongoing disaggregated data on the nonprofit sector, the work it does, and the populations it works with, to be able to monitor sector and community health coming out of the recovery;
  • Government work with the sector to improve data capacity in the areas of technical infrastructure, skills development, governance and process, similar to investments that are made into areas of the private sector
Winter-Friendly Cities

Takeaways: Winter-Friendly Cities: Addressing Social Isolation in Winter

February 9, 2021Team QuantumEducationLeave a comment

Winter is a wonderful and challenging time of the year. The Wintermission project led by 8 80 Cities was set out to address social isolation, increase physical activity levels, and get cities and citizens to embrace wintertime.

A webinar was held to share the experiences and learnings from the program. We were inspired to hear about the success stories of the three participating cities: Buffalo, NY, Eau Claire, WI and Leadville, CO.

Here are some of the notable highlights from the event.

1. An inclusive engagement process is important.

It is a critical determinant of the overall success of each of the cities’ pilot projects. Bringing everyone in a room and ensuring that a wide range of voices and experiences are heard will have its challenges, but the cities managed it well by setting expectations and acting as conveners.

The community responded positively to each of the cities’ engagement strategies, the workshops, surveys, pop-up engagements and focus groups. From the results, they determined the public interests, ideas, existing barriers and challenges. Different experiences and relationships with winter also helped identify which are the most vulnerable groups to social isolation.

Based on insights from the stakeholders, the three cities were guided by their vision statement.

2. The pilot projects are inspiring.

It will serve as an inspiration to the other winter cities to do the same. It took collaboration, planning and persistence to make the pilot projects happen, responding to the main issues and opportunities raised during the engagement process. They came up with priorities in different areas. Still, they had an intersecting focus on better snow management, gear lending or sharing, winter accessibility and comfort, winter guidebooks and more inclusive winter events and activities.

These pilot projects brought collective ideas into action and engaging life into winter. It will also be part of the Winter City Strategy, which will shape future projects, programs and policies.

3. We are adaptive and capable of coming up with innovative alternatives.

In difficult times, we can be surprisingly adaptive. Covid19 happened, and the social distancing made it even more challenging for the winter cities. Nevertheless, it didn’t stop them from pushing community engagements and continued to focus on the goal.

They went to homes and distributed weatherization kits to community members. The “winter fun in a bag” that promotes family bonding activities and the volunteer programs that aim to help the most vulnerable group to social isolation were significant. The Wintermission social media plan was also a timely strategy to influence and spread positive information about winter.

It requires consistent effort and participation from all the residents, community organizations and stakeholders to reach the goal. The Wintermission and the three cities’ accomplishments will encourage others to develop their own unique winter city strategy for increasing social and physical activity in winter.

Future-Reader

QR Takeaways: Five Key Strategies for Being a Future-Ready Recreation Leader

January 29, 2021Team QuantumEducationLeave a comment

The Canadian Parks and Recreation Association (CPRA), a national organization dedicated to realizing the full potential of parks and recreation as a major contributor to building healthy and active communities, hosted a webinar last September 10, 2020. The speaker, Brenda Herchmer, an expert in community development, talked about the Five Key Strategies for Being a Future-Ready Recreation Leader. Here are Quantum Recreation takeaways:

The webinar covered strategies for strengthening the impact of recreation, what it means to be a future-focused recreation leader, inspiring ideas, promising practices and tools to put the national recreation strategy in play. (https://links.quantumrecreation.com/101020)

In a fast-changing world, we would need future-focused community leaders who: create strategies for more complex issues; develop new leadership models, work more cross-sectoral; enable more citizen engagement; and make the best use of our collective resources.

These are the five key strategies for being a future-ready recreation leader.

1. Maximize Leadership Growth

Future-focused leadership has three (3) essential components: strategic foresight, systems-thinking and community-led development. A future-ready leader is not entirely content with the present and always aiming for the better. It is a person who exerts effort to develop better alternatives, observe and understand community as a system and apply strategic foresight. A future-ready leader is a community-builder who can provide responsive, meaningful programs, products, services, initiatives and make a change.

A changing world is driven by fast-paced information flows and technological factors that cause increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. This will demand new skills, knowledge and attitudes. Successful leaders are those who already mastered the basics of change, anticipate it early on and manage it in whatever situation.

The work we do in recreation is very well aligned with futurism. Recreation is an opportunity to make a difference because it can influence what the future will be.

2. Never Forget Your “Why”

We frequently focus on what and how but if we are going to be innovative and inclusive, we first have to begin with why. The “why” is our recreation benefits, contributing to the individual, community and environmental wellbeing.

There are various key marketing messages recreation can use to promote its benefits. Use these benefits to position and market recreation as part of the solution to broader community issues, i.e., illiteracy, crime, mental health, illness. This is what keeping the leaky faucet from dripping means.

3. Utilize Strategic Foresight

There is a need to shift the emphasis in the following areas: leadership, outcomes, power, collaboration, involvement, timing and focus. There are a whole lot of factors that are impacting recreation, and it is important to identify several different plausible future scenarios. Pay attention to what people are already attracted to, recreation trends and weak signals or edge cases that are starting to emerge, potentially impacting the future. Being positioned at the grassroots is advantageous because it will enable us to pay more attention to these weak signals.

4. Prioritize Citizen Engagement

Two strategies are typically being used in recreation, direct service delivery and community development. Direct service delivery is based on the needs model, and community development involves the community’s capacities and assets.

A recreation leader’s job is to call the meeting and build the connection by community building and designing a process that will allow all voices to be heard. Think big, but you can start with small ways to engage your community.

5. Be Driven by Vision and Values

Remember recreation’s vision and values. Make sound decisions and take actions that are in line with these values and key priorities.

Aside from these 5 key strategies, you may also note the simple actions you can do as a future-ready leader. You can observe trends in your daily life, read, cultivate curiosity, promote a learning culture, and so on. In complicated times like Covid19, look out for clues and think of actions you can take. Act in a spirit of hope, be “context-alert,” be a learner/teacher and always practice compassion.