April 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 43

Members of the NRPA Resilient Park
Access Grantee Cohort discuss creating
system change in a 2022 workshop.
community-centered efforts. Staff
also are allocating funding and
resources to planning and maintenance
of natural areas, which was
not a city focus in the past.
Relationships and Connections
By
strengthening
between
internal municipal
relationships
departments,
Detroit Parks and Recreation
and the Navajo Nation
Parks and Recreation were both
able to identify mutual goals and
effectively move efforts forward.
For Detroit Parks and Recreation,
these relationships were built between
their programs, planning
and maintenance teams. For Navajo
Nation Parks and Recreation,
partnerships were strengthened between
the parks and risk management
departments.
City
of Parks
and Youth
turally diverse community advisory
panel to lead and inform efforts
to create plans with parks and a
programmatic-focused master plan.
City of Toledo Department of
Parks and Youth Services is funding
community-based
organizaof
Toledo Department
Services
and City of Pittsburgh Parks
and Recreation Department are
both building larger networks of
community-based organizations
and local partners to effectively
advance efforts while building
capacity for community groups
and advance community-centered
workforce development.
Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation
helped build the capacity of
their community through supporting
community-based
organizations
by gaining and administering
larger funding opportunities to advance
their efforts.
Power Dynamics
City of Farmington Parks, Recreation
and Cultural Affairs Department
intentionally worked to
create a youth, Indigenous and cultions
across its community to create
and administer community-led
and -desired programming in parks
and recreation.
Mindset
Through City of Farmington
Parks, Recreation and Cultural
Affairs Department's efforts,
staff are pivoting how their community
thinks of broad inclusive
access to parks and working with
community members of all abilities,
including physical, cognitive
or intellectual.
This change could take years,
and maybe even decades, before
it is recognized. Our grantees are
still on this journey, and we look
forward to seeing the continuing
impacts in their communities.
Changes to practices, policies
and plans - as well as relationships
and power dynamics - are
each important to efforts to advance
long-term equitable systems
change within parks and recreation.
These are actionable items
any park and recreation professional
can start to explore and add
to their efforts to center equitable
environmental
resiliency. These
endeavors can have a substantial
impact on larger systems in which
they operate. NRPA is working to
help all parks advance these efforts
in ways that are replicable and
meaningful for their communities
and look forward to sharing more
resources and examples to advance
equitable environmental resiliency.
SEE ALSO: Centering Community
in Building Equitable and Resilient
Parks, Juliet Martinez, Tiffany
Taulton, Denisa Livingston and Rachelle
Crosby, Parks & Recreation,
August 2022, Vol. 57, Iss. 8, tinyurl.
com/tfedtze7; Overcoming Barriers to
Park Equity, Jai Cole, Parks & Recreation,
September 2023, Vol. 58, Iss.
9, tinyurl.com/2rm8ey55; Fostering
Trust and Engagement Across Diverse
Cultures, Julieta Altamirano-Crosby,
Ph.D., Parks & Recreation, January
2024, Vol. 58, Iss. 1, tinyurl.
com/593hfs2f.
Michele White, CAE, IOM, is Senior Program Manager of
Resiliency at NRPA (mwhite@nrpa.org).
PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G | APRIL 2 0 2 4 | Parks & Recreation
43
PHOTO COURTESY OF JUSTIN TAYLOR
http://tinyurl.com/tfedtze7 http://tinyurl.com/2rm8ey55 http://tinyurl.com/593hfs2f
April 2024 – Parks & Recreation

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