Valuable Parks and Recreation insight

The Financial State of Public Parks & Recreation – A National View survey was distributed to hundreds of park and recreation professionals from across the United States in January 2022 with the survey closed on February 23rd.

Discover how 110% and SmartRec can help your organization create a financial sustainability strategy while considering both your community’s needs and fiscal reality.

Why is it that “social equity” is part of parks and recreation’s daily nomenclature yet is not part of any substantive collective action? Public statements about helping those who are disenfranchised and not afforded equal opportunity while giving less than our best must be scrutinized as good intention only goes so far.

What if we were to think about this moment in time as a door into which we could walk and transform public parks and recreation? What if we were to design and develop emerging park and recreation organizations that would endure volatility and uncertainty? What if we were to create organizations that focused on legacy rather than on the short-term? And what if we came together and galvanized around the common cause of public park and recreation prosperity?

The point of adopting a cost recovery philosophy is not to make a profit, rather, to be thoughtful and responsible with financial resources. Perhaps even more importantly, it’s about optimizing tax-payer dollars and the benefits a community realizes based upon your spending decisions.

The global pandemic has presented us with a historic milestone and what we do or choose not to at this very moment in time will be felt for years to come.

The outbreak of novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, has created a public health and economic challenge unlike any we will see again in our lifetimes. Overcoming this crisis will require raw and un-abiding leadership at every level, starting with what we can do as individuals to look past our own interests, care for others, and be responsible stewards of our systems and institutions.

Does this new reality presents a door of opportunity to begin to think differently?