April 2013 - Parks & Recreation - 49

M-NCPPC

grams and services for healthy eating,
physical activity, and tobacco cessation. And a new urban agriculture
plan, to be drafted and released for
public review this spring, will help define and prioritize community needs,
recommend service delivery goals,
and guide allocation of resources to
support urban agriculture within the
park system. The MPRB is also developing a Healthy Food Policy to
provide residents and park users, particularly youth, with increased access
to healthy food. The policy, which is
expected to be adopted in 2013, will
result in a healthier food environment
for youth and adult programming,
community meetings and events, concessions, and vending machines.
" The three-pillar messaging reflects
the park and recreation profession's commitment to how we serve the community
and improve the quality of life within our
community, " Miller says. " We are stewards of the public lands we manage, and
we are community servants obligated to
deliver programs and services that meet
the needs of our community. "
The concept of organizing an agency's programs and facilities under a
small number of themes is familiar territory for Ronnie Gathers, director of the
Prince George's County Department of
Parks and Recreation, part of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. Gathers had previously referred to his agency's efforts as
building on six cornerstones: health and
wellness, community building (social
equity), education, public safety, conservation, and economic development.
" When NRPA came out with the pillars last year, it was a great opportunity
to link what our message has been with
the national message and deliver that
message to our staff, " Gathers says.
The staff's embrace of the three pillars
was on display at a recent staff gathering
where 13 division chiefs wore T-shirts
that read either " conservation, " " health

In Prince George's County, Maryland, longterm plans call for 75 percent of programs
to have a health and wellness component.

and wellness, " or " social equity " while
they performed a stepping routine, recognizing the launch of a new stepping
program at six community centers.
Health and wellness permeates many
programs, and as part of its Formula
2040 planning process, the agency recently set a goal that 75 percent of all
programs will have a health and wellness
component. Gathers sees the potential in
the three-pillar messaging strategy.
" On each one of those pillars, you
can delve deeper into practically anything that we do, " he says. " And so it
has been very instrumental to us to
have the national association behind
it-that we can point to it as a national
standard. It makes it easier as a selling
point....What does it mean for us as a
profession? It takes us from programing for fun to more intentional programming-results-based programming. We're doing a program with a
purpose in mind, whether it's to affect
health, raise awareness around conservation and build our stewards for
the next generation, or provide social
equity and community building. "

enough in communities with stable
demographics. But when communities rapidly change, park and recreation agencies must change how
they do business in order to keep up.
Greg Petry, executive director of the
Waukegan Park District in Illinois,
explains how this Chicago suburb
went from five to 60 percent Hispanic in just 25 years. The park district
now includes a smaller population
of long-time white residents and a
far-from-homogeneous mix of various Latin American cultures.
" The challenge is, how do we meet
the needs of everyone in such a diverse environment? " Petry says. " One
of our philosophies that we've taken
on strategically is we said that there's
going to be something for everybody

SOCIAL EQUITY
Maintaining social equity across
programs and facilities is difficult

Kids try out the new playground at the
opening of Fulton Avenue Park in Los
Angeles.

W W W. N R PA . O R G | A P R I L 2 0 1 3 |

Parks & Recreation

April 2013 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of April 2013 - Parks & Recreation