October 2018 - Parks & Recreation - 23

are asked broad questions about
what they value in their neighborhood park and how it can enhance
livability in their community.
Paulsen believes this helps participants move beyond their individual perspective to view the park
as a community asset. Staff then
groups the findings around certain
themes, such as safety or activities
for all ages, and uses them to develop a vision statement for the site.
" No matter how diverse the participants, " Paulsen notes, " they tend
to gravitate toward similar themes,
which highlights how unifying a
community space can be. "
To encourage attendance and
participation in these meetings,
THPRD staff first builds partnerships with trusted sources in the
community, from nonprofits that
can act as a liaison to traditionally underrepresented populations,
to local schools. For example,
Keck describes how THPRD held
a meeting in conjunction with an
afterschool program when parents
would be picking up their children.
To make it even more convenient
for the families, THPRD provided
food and children's activities so the
parents could stay and participate
in the conversation.
THPRD also holds community
workshops where attendees, with
guidance from staff, can use toscale cutouts of park amenities to
craft their own design concepts for
the site around utilities, permitting and other constraints. Again,
THPRD looks for opportunities
to reduce barriers to participation,
from offering meetings on Saturday mornings instead of busy
weeknights, to addressing language
access. THPRD has offered Spanish language-only public meetings

to involve more diverse community members in park design and has
seen an increase in turnout. Keck
explains that the longer-term goal
is to hold meetings where more
community members participate
together and reflect the diversity of
the population, regardless of language differences, perhaps using
translation services.
Under this enhanced engagement process, a new park may
undergo up to 12 public meetings
throughout the design phase, from
the initial community conversations and workshops, to the board
meeting for design approval. This
new process takes about a year,
but THPRD views it as central to
the mission. Paulsen points out:
" We have been focusing our efforts

on constructing parks that are in
underserved areas " - both socioeconomically and to balance distribution of parks throughout service
boundaries. A side benefit is that
the time invested up front actually
speeds up the design process and
enhances community support for
the final design.
Fundación Mi Parque and
THPRD's approaches are proactive, creative ways to connect with
and better serve disadvantaged
populations. The progress at home
and abroad speaks to how the park
and recreation industry can empower and improve communities
in any geography.
Katherine Stokke is the Interim Operations Analysis Manager
for Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District (kstokke@thprd.org).

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October 2018 - Parks & Recreation

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