September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 44

E Q U I T Y A N D COV I D -1 9

Issues of Equity Before
COVID-19
Prior to COVID-19, the city of
Douglasville, Georgia, Parks and
Recreation Department identified
several concerns of inequity with
our programs, facilities and services. Being as intentional as possible, department staff took a hard
look at all operations within the department to determine what equity
issues were present and how to go
about addressing them. After conducting this internal equity audit,
several key concerns were identified. Within our seven parks, none
of our playgrounds were Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
compliant, which limited access to
play for our large population of individuals with disabilities. The city
of Douglasville is divided into five
wards, and the play spaces within
each of the wards were not of equal
quality. Playgrounds and other
amenities within our low-income
neighborhoods were either outdated or unsafe. Another concern was
walkability; during the assessment
we found that citizens in certain
wards did not have access to parks,
recreation centers, playgrounds or

any other recreational opportunities. In fact, residents from these
specific wards had to travel an average of 20 minutes to get to the closest city park. For some families, 20
minutes may not seem bad, but for
families that rely on public transportation or have only one vehicle,
this can be a major obstacle.

Challenges During
COVID-19
This global pandemic has presented
even more obstacles for us, especially as we attempt to ensure equity
within the Douglasville community. COVID-19 has made providing leisure services to our citizens
more challenging. In addition to the
pre-existing equity issues, our staff
has grappled with finding safe ways
to reopen facilities and play spaces.
COVID-19 forced us to close playgrounds, remove basketball hoops
and lock athletic fields, which limits
access to all Douglasville residents,
eliminating health and wellness programs during a time when they are
needed the most.
To stay connected with the community during the pandemic, we
offered several virtual programs
Playgrounds and
other amenities
within Douglasville's
low-income
communities were
outdated or unsafe.

that families could take advantage
of from home. Once registration
for these programs opened up, we
began receiving calls from families
asking, " How do we participate in
the virtual programs if we don't
have a computer? " This was when
we realized that virtual programming would not be the end all, be
all solution to offering programs
during this pandemic. These programs, which were intended to
help families during the pandemic,
created more challenges that needed to be addressed.
In the Douglasville area, communities of color are impacted more than
any other group. One of our primary
concerns for these communities this
summer has been lack of access to
healthy food. Like many communities, summer meal programs provide
families with nutritious meals and
snacks when school is not in session. With the closing of facilities,
distributing these meals has come to
a halt. According to the USDA, in
2019, 2.7 million children across the
country were provided meals each
day as part of the summer meal program. These meals were distributed at
schools, camps, parks, playgrounds,
housing projects, community centers,
churches and other public sites where
children gather during the summer.
Closing these facilities has limited
food access for millions of families
nationwide.

Addressing the Issues
In order to address these issues, we
developed a task force to take on the
inequity issues, both pre-existing
and those that have presented
since the onset of the COVID-19
pandemic. The first action was to
develop an equity plan. This plan
consisted of three sections: (1) Access to Play, (2) Racial Equity and
(3) a COVID-19 Response Plan.
42

Parks & Recreation

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September 2020 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September 2020 - Parks & Recreation

September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 1
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 2
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 3
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 4
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 5
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 6
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 7
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 8
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 9
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 10
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 11
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 12
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 13
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 14
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 15
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 16
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 17
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 18
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 19
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 20
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 21
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 22
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 23
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 24
September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 25
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September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 28
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September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 60
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/september-2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/august-2017
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/november-2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/september-2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/august-2015
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/february-2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/january-2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2014
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2014
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/january-2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/november-2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2013
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/november-2012
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2012
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/september-2012
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/august-2012
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/april-2012
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/march-2012
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/february-2012
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/january-2012
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2011
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/november-2011
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2011
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/september-2011
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/august-2011
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/july-2011
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/june-2011
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/may-2011
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/april-2011
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/march-2011
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/february-2011
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/january-2011
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2010
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/november-2010
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2010
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/september-2010
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/august-2010
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/july-2010
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/june-2010
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/may-2010
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/april-2010
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/march-2010
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/february-2010
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/january-2010
https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2009
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