Innovation Guide - 2020 - 6

Innovation in Parks and Recreation:
The Winning 2020 NRPA Innovation
Award Projects and Programs

he NRPA Innovation Awards recognize and honor the latest
advancements in the field of parks and recreation. The 2020
NRPA Innovation Award winners, through their projects
and programs highlighted below, exemplify the best of the
inspiring work park and recreation professionals are doing to improve
and empower their communities through innovative practices in health
and wellness, equity, conservation and park design.

Innovation in Health -
City of Golden Valley,
Minnesota

IMAGE COURTESY OF CITY OF
GOLDEN VALLEY, MINNESOTA

HomeRECed: A Navigational
Guide to Everyday Recreation
In early 2020, the city of Golden Valley closed its facilities and
canceled programming due to
the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. While the park and recreation department's top priority
remained maintaining the health
and safety of its employees and the
Golden Valley community, staff
also recognized the importance
of providing the community with
leisure services during the closure
- not only to encourage physical
activity for people of all ages, but
also to provide positive morale for
residents during uncertain times.
On March 23, 2020, the Golden
Valley Parks and Recreation staff

Parks & Recreation

launched HomeRECed: A Navigational Guide to Everyday Recreation, which offered people an
opportunity to engage in simple
and fun activities from the comfort
of their own homes. Examples
included a DIY lava lamp craft
for kids, simple yoga poses, an athome photo booth, simple low-impact exercises, themed games and
much more. Daily activity videos
were posted on the city's social
media platforms, and an events list
was posted on the Golden Valley
website (tinyurl.com/y2tcqdpd).
Innovation
As the world faced an unprecedented health crisis, Golden Valley Parks and Recreation staff believed there was an opportunity to
showcase their talents and creativity through the implementation
of novel leisure services. " While
our profession has explored
virtual experiences for years,
HomeRECed was Golden Valley's first virtual program, " says
John W. Stutzman, recreation
supervisor for the city of Golden
On March 23, 2020, Golden Valley
Parks and Recreation launched
HomeRECed.

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Valley. " The ideas used removed
barriers and built a foundation for
future recreation services. "
While rapid decisions were
made by political leaders to combat the COVID-19 virus, Golden
Valley Parks and Recreation staff
provided their community recreation options in less than a week.
In doing so, staff believes the
speedy approach provided people a pause, if only briefly, from
the chaos surrounding them.
HomeRECed is Golden Valley's
first fully virtual program, which
removed barriers to help build a
foundation for the department's
future recreation services.
Community Engagement
and Partnerships
The engagement process started
with the use of a social media
hashtag, #GVHomeREC, which
allowed the public to submit reactions to the daily activities, photos/videos of participation and
future ideas. Staff also engaged
city council members, who promoted it through their social media platforms, announcements at
city council meetings and in the
local media. Park and recreation
department staff also partnered
with the local cable channel to
promote the HomeRECed program to the Golden Valley community and surrounding communities within the broadcast area.
Looking Ahead
Initial feedback through social

http://www.tinyurl.com/y2tcqdpd

Innovation Guide - 2020

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