March 2022 - Parks & Recreation - 8

PERSPECT I VES A MESSAGE FROM NRPA' S LEADERS
Parks and Recreation Embodies
Critical Infrastructure
This month's issue champions the
idea of parks and recreation as critical
infrastructure and of park and recreation
professionals
as
essential
to
healthy
and resilient communities. As
the feature story, " Parks Are Essential
Public Health Infrastructure, " on page
34, conveys, well-designed and placed
parks protect our cities and towns. In
fact, the first park ribbon cutting I attended
as NRPA president was a perfect
example of this. Kathryn Johnston
Memorial Park, situated in the city of
Atlanta, incorporated green stormwater
infrastructure to reduce persistent
flooding. On top of this, during the creation of the
park, 7,000 tons of polluted soil were removed and
replaced by healthy soil and park features important
to the community.
Another way that parks and recreation serve as
critical infrastructure is evident during and after disasters
- events that depend on people at the ready
who can provide emergency shelter, disaster recovery
and critical services. These catastrophes - from
the destructive tornados that hit Kentucky and surrounding
areas in December, to the tragic fires in
Superior and Louisville, Colorado, on New Year's
Eve - reveal just how essential park and recreation
professionals are. In Colorado, for example, the
park and recreation agencies around these communities
jumped in to provide multi-jurisdictional support
for sheltering those impacted, executing mass
damage assessments, navigating FEMA processes,
and even spearheading snow removal. Park and recreation
professionals are community heroes, and
their departments and the spaces they manage are
increasingly vital in the face of climate change and
the extreme events that come with it.
Another aspect of community life for which the
park and recreation field is essential is youth programming
and, in particular, youth sports. I have had the
honor of serving alongside youth services and sport
experts as part of the Return to Play Fund expert ad8
Parks & Recreation | MARCH 2 0 22 | PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
visory council, created by ESPN and Beyond Sport.
The Return to Play Fund is designed to help close the
gap in youth of color sports participation in North
America and build pathways for positive futures. It
is no small thing to be invited to participate in such
an effort, rather it reflects a truth that we understand
deeply - local parks and recreation is essential to
equitable youth sports. After all, what is community
infrastructure if not the spaces, programs and people
who together create positive health, social, economic
and environmental benefits to communities? That's
parks and recreation.
The opportunity to serve on the expert advisory
council provides a chance to share core aspects of
NRPA's Youth Sports Equity strategy, which is nested
in our Equity in Practice program. Through a
holistic approach of advocacy, education, research,
field-based tools and infrastructure projects, we aim
for systems-level change in communities across the
country. Recognizing the political and budgetary
pressures park and recreation agencies face, we are
actively fundraising to offer programs, tools, training
and grants that support park and recreation professionals
as you work to ensure that all youth have the
opportunity, motivation and access to play sports.
A fantastic example of this is the new mountain
bike pump track in Bristol, Connecticut, highlighted
in the feature article, " Blazing a Trail in Bristol,
Connecticut, " on page 40. Thanks to funding from
NRPA's Youth Sports and Play Grant, this new bike
pump track is bringing more inclusive and diverse
sport opportunities to Bristol's residents.
Parks and recreation as critical community infrastructure
is a multi-faceted, complex and essential
truth.
KRISTINE STRATTON
President and CEO
March 2022 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March 2022 - Parks & Recreation
