February 2022 - Parks & Recreation - 13

The Path to CAPRA Accreditation
Milwaukee Recreation becomes nation's first school district-run agency to
receive CAPRA accreditation
By Brian Foley
M
ilwaukee (Wisconsin) Recreation's affiliation with a public
school district allows for a unique agency framework within
the world of parks and recreation. As a department of
Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), our agency uses school
facilities to serve the entire community.
Chapter 509 of the Wisconsin
Laws of 1911 gave public school
systems in the state the ability to
organize and conduct recreation
programs for both children and
adults in their community. The law
recognized that recreation
is an
educational process and that both
recreation and education are strong
forces in total human development
and the formation of a city's culture.
Our access to 146 school facilities
allows us to direct resources into
programming rather than toward
brick-and-mortar infrastructure,
thereby providing our community
with the best possible value in recreation
programming. In addition
to the use of school facilities, we
also program and maintain 52 outdoor
recreation playfields throughout
the city of Milwaukee.
The process for the Commission
for Accreditation of Park and
Recreation Agencies (CAPRA)
involves a formal application, selfassessments,
a site visit by a team of
trained individuals (independent of
Milwaukee Recreation) that results
in a written report, and a hearing
with the commission to grant accreditation.
Making a commitment
to the CAPRA challenge should
not be done lightly, as it requires
the full dedication of your entire department.
However, recognizing the
process would provide Milwaukee
Recreation with the opportunity to
measure our operations against the
industry standard made the decision
to pursue CAPRA an obvious one.
Due
to
the
coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic, this year's
visitations were held virtually. After
a highly-scrutinized review of Milwaukee
Recreation's operations and
programming, CAPRA accreditation
was granted, as the department
demonstrated compliance with all
154 recognized standards.
Preparing for the final CAPRA
submission
was a multi-year
process led by a core team of 10
individuals. Additionally, two department
staff members became
CAPRA volunteers and participated
in several agency visits, which
proved extremely useful as we
moved through the process. Finally,
using PowerDMS software to organize
our evidence was invaluable.
After compiling and submitting
the required evidence and
completing
the review process,
Milwaukee Recreation became the
first school district-run agency, and
only the third agency in the state of
Wisconsin, to earn accreditation
through CAPRA. Several local
media organizations have covered
Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Recreation became
the first school district-run agency
to earn CAPRA accreditation.
the news with stories and sit-down
interviews, which can be found at
mkerec.net/CAPRA.
" We are extremely honored to
receive this prestigious accreditation, "
says Lynn Greb, senior director
of Milwaukee Recreation. " Our
entire team remained committed
to this effort from the beginning
and has worked extremely hard to
gather data, provide information
and implement new strategies that
ultimately allowed us to meet all
the CAPRA standards necessary
for accreditation. Thank you to the
CAPRA commission and NRPA for
this recognition, to our community
for its continued support, and to our
incredible staff that helped to make
this accreditation possible. "
The pursuit of accreditation provided
an opportunity for self-reflection
that will guide our operations and
services into the future. Work already
has begun to prepare for the reaccreditation
process in five years and while
the commitment is never-ending, it is
highly worthwhile.
Brian Foley is Supervisor of Marketing for Milwaukee
Recreation (foleybd@milwaukee.k12.wi.us).
PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G | FEBR U AR Y 2 0 22 | Parks & Recreation
13
PHOTO COURTESY OF MILWAUKEE RECREATION
http://www.mkerec.net/CAPRA
February 2022 - Parks & Recreation

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