October 2013 - Parks & Recreation - 58

Don't Miss These Education Sessions

f you haven't already planned out which sessions you would like to attend
at NRPA's Congress in Houston this month, the NRPA education team
highlighted the following four sessions as " can't miss " events.

Session 115
Applying PRORAGIS™
Tuesday, October 8, 1-3:15 p.m.
Room: 340AB
CEUs 0.2
Presenters: Greg Manns, Morgan Healy,
NRPA Staff
This workshop is designed for PRORAGIS™ users and potential users to
ask questions and get guidance on inputting data and getting valuable information they can use. You will have
the opportunity to share concerns and
work through submitting your agency's data while an expert speaker is in
the room providing constant support.
Upon completion of the workshop,
you will be extremely familiar with
the valuable features of PRORAGIS™. You will leave with confidence
that you are able to submit your agency's completed data with ease. Note:
You are encouraged to bring a laptop
if you wish to work directly with your
data during the workshop.
Session 143
Leisure Research Symposium
Kick-off - George Butler Lecture:
Forging Common Ground Between
Research, Policy and Practice
Tuesday, October 8, 4:30-5:45 p.m.
Room: 350DEF
CEUs: 0.1
Presenter: Dr. Vivian Tseng
Evidence-based policy. Evidence-based
practice. Data-driven decisionmaking. Translational research. Knowledge transfer. This dizzying array of

Parks & Recreation

terms reflects a growing demand for
researchers to produce more rigorous
and usable work and for policymakers
and practitioners to take it up. In this
session, the presenter shares lessons
learned from the William T. Grant
Foundation's work to bridge research
with policy and practice. In doing
so, she also offers a few cautionary
notes about how policymakers and
researchers are currently pursuing evidence-based practice. She discusses
the need to (1) create conditions for
the productive integration of evidence
in decisionmaking, (2) pave two-way
streets for learning between research
and practice, and (3) build relationships and trust between the research,
policy and practice communities.
Session 212
Parks Build Community for 2013:
Lessons Learned Transforming an
Urban Park
Wednesday, October 9, 8-9:15 a.m.
Room: 361ABC
CEUs: 0.1
Presenters: Garth Welch, Lisa Johnson,
Merrie Talley, Tom Norquist
NRPA's Parks Build Community
initiative is an innovative partnership involving member agencies and
NRPA's community of vendors and
manufacturers. NRPA, working in
cooperation with local host partners, has completed transformative
urban park renovations in underserved communities in Washington,
D.C.; Atlanta, Georgia; and Los

| O C T O B E R 2 0 1 3 | W W W. N R PA . O R G

Angeles, California. The latest Parks
Build Community project with the
Houston Parks and Recreation Department involves renovations and
new additions to Shady Lane Park
in north Houston. This session will
bring together key participants in the
project to tell the story of how this
highly used park in a predominately Hispanic and African-American
community is being reinvigorated
with a state-of-the-art innovative
new playground, natural playscape
features and an overlook to Bretshire
Basin, part of Houston's extraordinary Bayou Greenways restoration
project. Learn how you can apply
the lessons learned from this project
to help you mobilize support and attract donations to your parks as they
help build communities.
Session 355
Creating an Agency
that is Trusted, Valued
and Loved
Thursday, October 10, 2:15-3:30 p.m.
Room: 381ABC
CEUs: 0.1
Presenter: Tom O'Rourke
The difference between recent bond
referendums that passed and those
that didn't usually comes down to the
votes going to agencies that the public trusts. Even if you are not in the
market for a bond referendum, you
will learn how to become that agency
that the community values. (This session will be presented via webstream
as part of Congress Live! It will also
be available after Congress at www.
prolibraries.com/nrpa/events/con
gress2013.)

October 2013 - Parks & Recreation

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