EYE ON THE PROFESSION
A CLOSER LOOK AT THE TRENDS AND ISSUES IN THE PARK AND RECREATION PROFESSION

It's Time To Change
Our Thinking

Yes, the benefits you offer residents are endless, but do they know it?

Question: Would Coca Cola introduce a new product simply by putting it on the supermarket shelves and hoping that customers would find it, buy it and become loyalto it?
Answer: Of course not.

Question: Do car manufacturers advertise each year's new lineup by saying, "It's a new year, we have new cars, thought you'd like to know"?
Answer: Of course not.

Question: Do many park and recreation agencies create programs and activities, advertise the details of when, where and how much, and expect the public to choose these offerings over others in the marketplace?
Answer: Of course not....Wait a minute! Too often, that's exactly what we do.

Coca Cola and General Motors advertise the reasons why we should buy their products: the benefits of Coke over Pepsi, the advantages of Ford over Chevrolet. Coca Cola and General Motors are, after all, in business, competing every day for every consumer dollar.

Well, parks and recreation is a business, too. And we compete every day for every leisure dollar the public has to spend.

Times drastically have changed since the days when park and recreation agencies were equated with schools and churches as public institutions that provide services and suffer no competition. Today the competition for leisure time and disposable income is fiece, and customers expect to be told exactly why they should choose us over our competitors.

In order to meet this marketing challenge, we, as park and recreation professionals, must change the way we look at our profession, our work, our worth. We've known all along how valuable the benefits of parks and recreation are, but we've only talked about it among ourselves. The message isn't new, but we must reach a new audience if we are to survive in the critical years ahead.

"The benefits are endless"™ is a good slogan, and it's also a provable fact about parks and recreation. But it's not enough for us to know this. Its time (actually way past time) for us to tell the rest of the word why the benefits are endless.

We've known all along how valuable the benefits of parks and recreation are, but we've only talked about it among ourselves.

Benefits to the Environment

America's love of and concern for the environment is evident. At the same time, park and recreation agencies continue to see their budgets slashed. It's time to point out the connection between our accomplishments and the environmental well-being of our state.

• Air quality is improved by trees, shrubs and turf. Leaves filter the air we breather by removing dust and other foreign particles. (International Society of Arboriculture or ISA)

• Radiant energy from the sun is absorbed or deflected by leaves on deciduous trees in the summer and filtered by branches on deciduous trees in winter. (ISA)

• Greenways (human and animal accessible corridors that connect larger natural areas) provide a solution not only to the problem of limited recreation in urban areas but are also a means of protecting the environment for future use and enjoyment. (Northern Delaware Greenway Council, Inc. or NDGC)

• Connecting isolated natural areas as a greenway helps to preserve the biological diversity of plant and animal species. (NDGC)

• Greenways offer the opportunity to improve water quality by buffering streams and trapping pollutants. (NDGC)

Making the public aware of the environmental benefits such as these means first conducting an asset inventory of our facilities and programs. Next, outline their relevant benefits. Then communicate this information to the community, legislators and anyone else with influence. For example, golf courses are

10 / Illinois Parks and Recreation

IT'S TIME TO CHANGE OUR THINKING

common at many of our agencies, yet they are often overlooked as sources of environmental benefits, such as:

• More than 70 percent of most golf courses are rough and nonplay areas which include natural grasses, trees and shrubs. These areas, combined with the open areas of fairways and greens, become attractive wildlife habitats. (United States Golf Association or USGA)

•These same areas protect topsoil from water and wind erosion, absorb and filter rain, and capture and cleanse runoff in urban areas. (USGA)

•Golf courses improve air quality through their trees and shrubs. (USGA)

The Audubon Society of New York State and the United States Golf Association offer a cooperative sanctuary program for golf courses. The program promotes ecologically sound land management and the conservation of natural resources. How many of our agencies are involved in this program? And how many of our customers know about their involvement? (See related story in the May/ June 1997 Illinois Parks & Recreation magazine, page 29.)

Our efforts to promote clean air and clean water provide valuable benefits to our residents. Make sure they know that we are core protectors and stewards of a quality environment.

Personal (Individual) Benefits

For each individual, parks and recreation provide a bounty of opportunities, including an outlet/venue to:

Personal Benefits •balance the scales of work and play •learn new skills and become a more well-rounded person •strengthen self-confidence and improve self-esteem • experience a sense of adventure • appreciate the natural world •maintain or obtain good physical health • develop new friendships • explore new horizons • develop creative outlets • strengthen problem-solving and decision-making skills • regain the sense of fun we all had as children Do our customers know that all these benefits await them in our programs and facilities? It's time we told them.

Benefits to the Community

A strong and vital park and recreation agency substantially contributes to the health of its community, providing:

Community Benefits •opportunities for families to connect in shared activities •the basis for ethnic and cultural understanding •a sense of community pride •support for youth of all ages •lifelines for the elderly •reduced alienation and delinquency • outlets for conflict resolution •social bonding • the basis for understanding and tolerance Often the park and recreation agency is the reason why new homeowners choose one community over another. These community benefits do make a difference.

Economic Benefits

The economic benefits of parks and recreation are less widely publicized, but certainly are no less important, and they include:

Economic Benefits •investing in the future of our communities and our planet through sound environmental planning and practices •stimulating our local economies through job opportunities • reducing healthcare costs through the emphasis on physical well-being • generating revenue through spending within our communities •reducing vandalism and crime through the provision of healthy recreation alternatives •enhancing property values • inviting tourism

The outlook for our future is very clear: our customers hold our future in their hands. Helping them to understand the many ways they benefit from what we do will ensure the healthy life of our profession. It's an easy sell, but we must be committed and well-prepared to make it. We must demonstrate by our actions that the benefits we provide are essential: to our customers, to our communities, to our environment.

We must share the statistics; publicize the successes we experience; partner with groups from the private sector for wider exposure; ask for and use citizen input; and quickly and positively respond to the needs of our customers. In other words, we must remember that parks and recreation is a business and, to survive, a business must make its customer benefits very clear.

May/June 1998/11