January 2021 - Parks & Recreation - 8

P E R S P E C T I V E S A M E S S A G E F R O M N R P A' S L E A D E R S

Parks and Recreation: A Business of
Flexibility and Adaptation
This January 2021 issue is a great opportunity for us to take a collective breath and appreciate the remarkable ways that park and
recreation professionals faced the relentless
uncertainty of 2020, and that we are here at
the beginning of a new day and a new year.
During NRPA Virtual this past October, we
heard from leaders across the field talking
about trends, " next practices, " " trailblazing
technology, " continued engagement through
the pandemic, and ways to leverage P&R for
greater health, equity and climate resilience.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic accelerated the trends we were already seeing
- virtual programming, community outreach and meetings; the role P&R plays as
community wellness hubs; and the ability and necessity of
parks and recreation to be the ultimate adaptive community resource in times of trauma and disaster.
As an adaptive community resource, P&R will continue
to grow - both from health and climate-resilience perspectives. Taking the good work that nearly 60 percent of agencies have done to support community health during the
pandemic and building upon that to position P&R agencies
as community wellness hubs is a trend that will strengthen
P&R's role as essential community infrastructure, as well
as the trust and relationship between P&R professionals
and community members. Further, health equity will become one of the most important decision-making drivers
for planning, inter-agency and cross-sector partnerships,
allocation of resources, and community engagement.
Climate resilience will be an increasingly universal
focus in communities across the country as they grapple with climate change impacts. This, coupled with an
anticipated investment in community infrastructure and
workforce development, as part of an economic recovery
period, has the potential to cement the field as an essential solution provider and innovator. This will combine
with the park access imperative to generate increasingly
creative approaches to climate solutions and adaptive
usages of the urban and suburban landscapes. The flexibility that COVID-19 response has demanded, along
with the continued economic challenges, will serve to reinforce the viability of more pocket parks, parklets, shifts
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in streetscapes to support linear parks and trails in dense
urban areas, and conversion of underutilized real estate
like malls and big-box stores. These creative spaces and
the P&R partnerships that will produce them will solve
for things, such as Wi-Fi equity in communities, flood
prevention and control improvements, and facilities for
physically distanced education, to name a few.
Data and technology are increasingly available and more
economical for use by park and recreation professionals.
Uses include: GPS and telematics to support fleet management; drone, robotic and smart equipment to increase
efficiency; tracking cellphone data to show park usage; and
experimenting with integrated video feeds for everything
from security to community engagement programming.
All of this puts even greater pressure on how P&R should
understand and address privacy and security concerns.
Community trust and engagement are essential to our
work, so we must be careful how data and technology are
deployed in our management and operational practices.
And, community power building, co-creation and shared
ownership of public spaces and resources will be increasingly built into local governmental models. Building up the
skill and capacity for P&R professionals to create authentic
community engagement and a new paradigm for shared
ownership will be a trend in P&R training and development.
Many trends we discussed in the past accelerated in
2020 - including how we face increasing degrees of uncertainty, and our principle job is understanding how we
navigate that uncertainty. From innovating our community engagement, to continuing to diversify revenue sources,
to ensuring that our operations are as efficient and impactful as possible, and to infusing inclusion and equity into
all our planning and practices - we are in the business of
flexibility and adaptation - and this will be influencing
our operating models, planning and professional development for years to come. As we embark on a new year, I
am confident that P&R professionals, the most adaptable
problemsolvers out there, will be ready and willing to take
on any
y challenges
g that may
y come their way.

KRISTINE STR AT TON
President and CEO
January 2021 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2021 - Parks & Recreation
