June 2016 - Parks & Recreation - 70

NRPA Update

Member Spotlight: Amy Teegarden

teeped in nature from an early age, Director of Helena, Montana, Parks and
Recreation Amy Teegarden quickly developed a taste for adventure and the
outdoors. " I was born and raised in St. Joseph, Missouri, " she says. " Family
outings often consisted of day hikes at nearby wildlife refuges and conservation areas or fishing. After several backpacking trips in the Snowy Range and the
Wind River Mountains of Wyoming, and volunteering with trail building crews in
Colorado, I got hooked on the west! " The rest, as they say, is history. Teegarden got
her degree in parks and recreation administration at the University of Wyoming and
enjoyed a " colorful " stint with the United States Forest Service before settling down
in Helena, her home of the past 24 years. She's served as director for the past eight
years, and in that time has made major impacts on health policies at her agency. We
asked Teegarden to elaborate on her experience establishing a tobacco-free policy and
other wellness initiatives currently in the works.
Parks & Recreation magazine: What
inspired you to go tobacco-free in
Helena's parks and recreation spaces?
Amy Teegarden: Making the [professional] leap from federal to local
government was somewhat intimidating, but very exciting! As I was acclimating to my " new surroundings, "
I began questioning the department's
existing functions and what had been
done in the past. I realized quickly
that for our department to be competitive (for limited funding), we needed
to stay relevant and get involved with
the critical issues of our community.
It was important for us to be part of
the conversation and that conversation, more often than not, was centered on community health and the
role that parks and trails play in supporting physical activities.
In 2011, our department was awarded an ACHIEVE (Action Communities for Health, Innovation and EnVironmental ChangE) grant from a
partnership between NRPA and [the
U.S.] Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. The ACHIEVE experience helped me " connect the dots " and
increased my overall awareness and
understanding of the role of parks and
recreation beyond the traditional " fun

68 Parks & Recreation

and games department, " to that of realizing we can influence our community's health and economic well-being
by focusing on policies, systems and
the built environment. The goal of developing a tobacco-free policy for Helena's developed parks was first identified
as part of our ACHIEVE community
action plan. As a result of the community assessment and focus group discussions, the desire for a tobacco-free
parks policy gained momentum.
P&R: What other health-based initiatives are you working on?
Teeegarden: From a programming
standpoint, we are expanding our
ParkFit program to include free yoga
sessions and personal fitness classes in
the parks. We continue to work with
the health department on planning an
Active Living Wayfinding System to
increase participation in physical activity and improve access to nutritious
food programs and other healthy living
opportunities by providing uniform signage and supporting material. We are
currently constructing a garden park
with a variety of community partners.
The 6th Ward Garden Park is a re-purposed park in an underserved neighborhood and adjacent to the public

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transit station that will be managed as
an edible ecosystem. One of the park's
primary purposes is to grow food for
local edible forest and community gardeners and Helena Food Share. We
continue to manage RxTrails, working
with local physicians who " prescribe "
walking various park trails to their patients.
P&R: Why do you feel it is important
to make the connection between
parks, recreation and health?
Teegarden: Making this connection
is vital because it is important to direct resources to critical issues of our
community by delivering programs
and services that lead to improved
results and support.
Helena Parks and Recreation recognizes the importance of seeing ourselves as a department that provides
critical community connections by
eliminating barriers and strengthening the connections between parks
and people. These connections are
supported from a variety of efforts as
simple as the installation of new play
equipment and the development of
community gardens, to the expansion
of a trail system and even the passage
of tobacco-free parks policy.
- Samantha Bartram, Executive Editor of Parks & Recreation magazine

June 2016 - Parks & Recreation

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