One late-April morning in 2010, Chicago commuters driving to work along Lake Shore Drive saw a changed and startling landscape. Where that stretch of boulevard along Lake Michigan had been a normal leafy green just the day before, it was now dotted with 30-foot trees painted brilliant shades of orange and blue.
“I personally can't tell whether I love this or hate this, but I can't stop looking at it whenever I pass by,” the Chicago Tribune’s James Janega wrote.
Others were anything but ambivalent about the vividly painted trees—an initiative undertaken by the Chicago Park District to draw public attention to the city’s urban forest. A number of fast-growing mulberry and other non-native trees, slated for removal by the park agency’s natural resources division, were turned briefly into a colorful public art exhibit. It was a display that some residents and tourists described as garish and jarring—an unwelcome interference with the natural landscape. Many others, however, praised the whimsy and creativity of the park district’s melding of urban forestry awareness with public art.
“Is this art, fun, or just plain wrong?” one local blogger asked.
The man who dreamed up the painted-tree project is Adam Schwerner, Director of Natural Resources for the Chicago Park District. And that forest of orange and blue was not his first experiment in highlighting the natural landscape through coats of paint. It was, however, the first time Schwerner had directed his staff to paint trees that were still alive. He had, for example, once painted 100 dead, nursery-culled maple trees yellow and orange—and then “planted” them along Lake Shore Drive with a post hole digger. “People liked them. The site was changed,” he says. “People driving downtown through the northern portions of Chicago had…a different kind of experience.”
But it was, he says, the painting of living trees that “got people agitated and excited and entranced and enthralled and angry.”
Innovation, as the saying goes, is anything but business as usual. And whether it happens within a multi-national corporation or a municipal government, organizational innovation is just as likely to disturb and anger people as it is to engage and inspire. Chicago is just one example of a park agency that is trying out imaginative ideas with the goal of adding splashes of color to public land and freshening the public’s perception of parks. Just as Schwerner altered a familiar vista along his city’s main road, many other park innovators may try a fresh approach to master planning or arts programming or even to the creative process itself. In the field of parks and recreation, there’s often a high degree of reluctance to pursue cutting-edge innovation for fear of rocking institutional boats. But the following case studies demonstrate that it’s not only possible, but often rewarding, to go out on a limb with good ideas. As you will see, creative thinking among park leaders is as wide-ranging as the functions agencies perform.
Starting Conversations
Across the board, innovators start conversations. In the case of Chicago’s painted landscape, Schwerner stresses, the point was “simply to draw people’s attention to the trees. Chicago is a place filled with trees. And people become a little prone to disregard them, because they’re just here. Like the street is here….And I think that this project caused people to think about the trees. Caused people to think, well, why are those trees not as good as other trees?”
The way Schwerner sees it, the painting of those invasive-species trees “turned something that was a throwaway into something that was remarkable.” And, he adds, “because we did not call it anything—because we curated the colors…chose those colors in that location—it was also an art installation.” As for those residents who disliked the park district’s art installation or felt it was degrading to nature, Schwerner says he respects their point of view and does not argue.
“The important thing is, we started a conversation about something that was not a valuable resource…but that became one.”
Supporting an “Off-the-Map” Style
Schwerner’s fascination with art and urban landscape experiments may be unconventional for a park operations manager, but his “off-the-map” style is, he says, strongly supported by his boss, Chicago Park District General Superintendent/CEO Michael Kelly.
The supportive environment, Schwerner says, “has been very liberating for me. It’s given me permission to think more broadly.”
One recent project is the April installation of 18 large painted trees at the city’s brand-new 31st Street Harbor Building on the south lakefront. In creating the $130-million facility, the park agency realized some beautiful, mature trees would have to be cut down. So, Schwerner says, “we chose 18 trees. And we reserved those. The bark of those trees was removed and then they were painted and installed at the new Harbor Building….It was a way of being respectful of them, of reusing them.”
Schwerner says his agency’s innovation-supporting culture has led not only to his own professional growth, but to a sense of pride and excitement throughout the department as well. “It’s saying yeah, we can be current, and we can do stuff that’s sort of edgy. We can support it, and we can be okay.” He adds that when he stops by to visit the 31st Street painted-tree installation, tourists, police officers, and bicyclists stop by wanting to know more about the project.
“When your sense of your city is that cool stuff is happening and being done by your government, it feels great.”
Nurturing Innovation
Innovative initiatives like Schwerner’s require an organizational culture that values and nurtures new ideas.
Paul Gilbert, executive director of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority (NVRPA), says this precept is more than just common sense—it is backed by libraries of leadership research. Gilbert, who teaches a course on organizational innovation within George Mason University’s Parks, Recreation, and Leisure Studies department, offers his students digests of research findings on leadership and innovation.
“In study after study,” he says, “when leadership shows that they are not interested in new ideas, innovation shuts down. Why should you? It’s not going to be rewarded….I think organizations can get stuck in the status quo without even knowing it.”
Conversely, when an organization actively encourages and rewards groundbreaking ideas, innovation tends to thrive and become the norm. Gilbert takes lessons from all this research: Under his leadership, NVRPA has formally identified innovation as one of the organization’s core values. And tangible incentives, such as annual employee recognition awards, are based upon demonstrations of innovative thinking. Gilbert says that when core values lead to new ways of thinking, fresh ways of doing business become more and more apparent. He offers NVRPA’s approach to revenue as an example:
“For quite awhile, we thought that to generate any new revenue we had to build a new facility. That was the only choice. What we realized is that that’s just one out of a number of avenues. You can actually do a whole lot in thinking about the customer and their experience and adding more onto it.”
Park leaders like Chicago’s Adam Schwerner and Michael Kelly and Northern Virginia’s Paul Gilbert pursue innovation as an avenue to heightened public engagement and maximized resources. The case studies that follow document how agencies of all sizes and demographics are seeing similar rewards to challenging “business as usual.” And, in the process, they are changing and enriching the public’s experience of parks.
CASE STUDIES:
Bipolar Power
Arizona State University – School of Community Resources & DevelopmentFaculty Associate: Vern Biaett CFEE
Innovation: The “Love Bipolar” Creative Brainstorming Method
Summary: A simple, but highly effective, creativity technique can enhance basic brainstorming to generate a wealth of ideas.
In my Special Event Programming course, students are introduced to a number of methods in order to release their creative abilities. These include such standard brainstorming principles as “The Six Colored Hats, “The Power of Three,” and the “Blue Ocean” strategy. Last year, a new technique came to me while I was listening to Katy Perry’s hit single “Hot and Cold.” The refrain includes the lines, "You're hot and you're cold, you're yes and you're no, you're in and you're out, you're up and you're down. You're wrong and you're right, you're black and you're white, we fight we break up, we kiss we make up...Love bipolar.”
The principle of my song-inspired, “Love Bipolar” technique is simple: Take an idea or something you do currently and then try and brainstorm the opposite. When I've done this as an in-class exercise, students have generated many, many opposites—just like in the song. Here’s a recent example from class:
Question: “How could you change the basic carnival-style food trailers often used at community events?”
Responses: Ideas flowed as if a dam had burst and included everything from having no food; to sack lunches for trading; to food trucks; to caterers; to using local school cafeteria cooks; to having only chocolate; to, well, the list went on and on.
Although the concept of opposites sounds undemanding, I have found that it generates a greater number of ideas than standard brainstorming. The group becomes more engaged, participates more actively, and has more fun.
Tip: Begin the brainstorming session by playing an easy-to-find YouTube video of the song that has printed words instead of the music video. Talk about opposites for a few minutes and then be prepared for an avalanche of ideas.
Challenge: The only challenge I’ve had to overcome is making sure to introduce the other creative methods first so that they are not completely overwhelmed by the Love Bipolar brainstorming approach.
Pick a Pair of Pumpkins
Community Services Department, City of Tualatin, Oregon
City of Manhattan Beach Parks and Recreation Department, California
Tualatin Community Services Director: Paul Hennon
Tualatin Parks and Recreation Manager: Carl Switzer
Manhattan Beach Parks and Recreation Manager: Idris Jassim Al-Oboudi
Innovation: Creative community events with pumpkin racing at the City of Tualatin’s West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta and the Manhattan Beach Pumpkin Race Festival
Summary: Pumpkins are not known for their speed, aerodynamics, or sea-worthiness, but that didn’t stop two parks and recreation agencies from hosting fun and creative special events around pumpkin racing.
While we often talk about developing a culture of nurturing creative ideas within an agency, sometimes innovation means being open to outside ideas, especially from the community being served. Even if sometimes those ideas seem a little wacky.
In 2004, the City of Tualatin decided to allow a giant vegetable growing club to race massive pumpkins in the city’s three-acre lake at the Tualatin Commons. As one might imagine there were many reasons to initially look at such an activity critically.
“A major key to innovation, though, is to approach all new opportunities with a ‘yes – with conditions’ mindset as opposed to starting from a place of ‘can’t,’” says Parks and Recreation Manager Carl Switzer.
Switzer says the regatta requires a great deal of interdepartmental communication and coordination, which instills cooperation, teamwork, respect, and empowerment in fellow employees. But this is routine for city staff: Staff always work together with seven organizational expectations—teamwork, being “One City” (no departmental siloing), being problem solvers, showing respect to each other, being empowered to perform and/or make decisions, being customer service experts, and being non-bureaucratic. Employees who exemplify one or more of these are rewarded in a variety of ways, including an inter-staff recognition program, quarterly special employee recognition, and a Staff Person of the Year award program.
“Employees have a fun time creating this great community event. They get to know each other better--that leads to stronger working relationships, and that translates into positive morale, job satisfaction, and higher productivity and capacity to deliver excellent service on an everyday basis,” Switzer says. “Over the last eight years the award-winning West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta has become Tualatin’s single largest one day special event.”
In Manhattan Beach, the World Famous Pumpkin Race was created by a few residents in 1990. Karl Rogers, Michael Aaker, and John Holliday invented the pumpkin race car design and developed the pumpkin race format for guests attending Rogers’ birthday party. Guest loved it so much they demanded it happen again the following year. Now, this innovative event has occurred for the last 20 years.
“This event is a unique side-by-side single elimination race featuring handcrafted, decorated pumpkin race cars in a funky, hilarious, suspenseful, and dramatic display of American ingenuity,” says Idris Al-Oboudi, recreation services manager. In 2007, the World Famous Pumpkin Race was awarded the NRPA Special Event of the Year and the CPRS Award of Distinction. Over 8,500 area residents attended the Pumpkin Race in 2008 at its new location at the Manhattan Beach Pier.
Tips: Approach all new opportunities with a “yes – with conditions” mindset and don’t be afraid of trying something ridiculous – Carl Switzer
A fun-spirited festival and ingenuity creates lasting memories year after year - Idris Al-Oboudi
Challenges: In Tualatin, being asked to permit people to race 1,000 pound pumpkin boats on a man-made lake in the center of town certainly was neither a routine proposal nor a decision that was made without careful consideration of the health and safety of the participants, real and potential impacts to the facility, and maintenance concerns. Pragmatic assessment identified that with certain precautions, risk could be minimized to an acceptable level. The City of Tualatin saw the potential of the event and was willing to consider the unusual concept beyond initial reservations.
In Manhattan Beach, the event did not originate with the city, so it was brought into the budget as a special event and during tough economic times was cut. The festival agency managed to continue the event by gathering sponsors and large donors. In 2012, the pumpkin race was placed back into the city budget in order to create a lasting partnership.
Going forward: Switzer says that a truly great community must have more than nice neighborhoods and a healthy economy – a truly great community needs to have a collective prideful identity and a unique special event can help foster local pride-of-place and send a signal to residents and the world that your town cares about quality of life.
From Flash Mobs to Crowdsourcing
City of Mesa, Arizona, Parks, Recreation, and Commercial Facilities Department
Director: Marc Heirshberg, CPRE
Innovation: “iMesa” online crowdsourcing initiative
Summary: iMesa is a grassroots citizen investment and improvement effort to develop transformational community projects in Mesa using crowdsourcing to bring new ideas and concerns from the public to an online forum.
iMesa works around the idea of “iMagine, iNvest, iMprove to Build a Better Mesa.” iMesa gives residents the opportunity to contribute by posting new ideas, commenting on those created by others, and voting on the issues that matter to them. In January 2011, ideas were collected by the iMesa Steering Committee, appointed by the mayor and city council, and categorized into six “villages” based on the unique characteristics of neighborhoods throughout Mesa. A series of iMesa village meetings were held to take the top ideas submitted online to the community for discussion. Promotion of the meetings included an iMesa “flash mob” at a busy shopping mall that aired on YouTube and the city government channel.
“A key part of the iMesa strategy is to use technology—crowdsourcing—to engage residents like never before,” says Director Marc Heirshberg. “The innovation through this program not only allows the public to have a say in their community, but it also allows for their ideas to be taken into consideration by elected officials and city staff, empowering residents to truly make a difference.”
The steering committee compiled the ideas, comments, and votes and presented a series of proposals to the Mesa City Council. Popular ideas have included a community garden; saving Buckhorn Baths, which tops the list of Ten Most Endangered Roadside Places in America, according to a national preservation organization; renovating and enhancing existing parks; and expanding the city’s regional pool system. The ideas are expected to be part of a parks and recreation bond package of $65 million going to Mesa voters later this year in the form of a secondary property tax that, if approved, will cost less than $24 a year to the average homeowner.
Tip: Heirshberg strongly recommends an iMesa-type program for other cities, as long there is willingness to invest the technology, time, and effort to creatively show the residents they can make a difference.
Challenge: Heirshberg says there was little debate or controversy. The key is explaining the program in an easy-to-understand manner at numerous community events and demonstrating that their ideas can truly make a difference.
Going Forward: The innovation of iMesa shows residents that they have a say in their community and that their ideas have been seriously considered by elected officials and city staff, proving they can iMagine, iNvest, and iMprove their community.
A Texas-size Facebook Faceoff
Parks, Arts and Recreation Department (PARD), Grand Prairie, Texas
Director: Rick Herold
Innovation: Facebook challenge to increase social media presence
Summary: The “Facebook Faceoff” was a friendly challenge by Grand Prairie PARD to Arlington, Texas, PARD to see which could gain the most Facebook fans over a three-month period. The risk? Grand Prairie, a city of 180,000, challenging a city approximately twice its size (Arlington: 360,000).
Nothing inspires innovation like a little competition. So Grand Prairie PARD sought to kick-start its social media presence with a plucky challenge to its larger neighbor, Arlington, Texas. The Grand Prairie vs. Arlington "Facebook Faceoff" was a challenge that the staff made with the City of Arlington PARD to see which department could get the most number of fans in a three-month period. The friendly intercity rivalry served as an opportunity to hone the agency’s social media marketing efforts.
“Grand Prairie PARD views marketing and public relations as key ingredients to a successful department,” says Kelly Eddlemon. “It is so highly valued that a specific PARD Marketing Division was created seven years ago and currently houses two full-time employees….The marketing division continually seeks to create new and exciting ways to reach customers.”
Once the contest started, both cities began promotions to gain fans. The word was spread via posters, department and city websites, e-mail clubs, etc. Citizens of each city showed their pride by becoming engaged in the contest and helped the drive for their home city to win over the neighboring town. In the end, Grand Prairie gained more fans, but both cities came out as winners.
Since the introduction of Facebook to the marketing mix, the department’s fan base has grown to nearly 3,500 highly engaged fans, and Facebook fan numbers continue to grow at a steady pace. The posts range from fun and wacky things like "Horticulturist Susan says…" to event information/updates and special "members-only" discounts and special give-a-ways to create a sense of value to customers.
Tip: A friendly competition is always fun, even if it’s not perfectly matched. Try coming up with something unique that will appeal to and engage the contestants.
Challenge: The only challenge was to get the word out to as many people as possible and provide incentive/value for people to fan our department, Eddlemon says.
Going forward: Because of the large and highly engaged fan base on our Facebook page (now pages), Facebook and other social media sites are now one of the major ways that Grand Prairie PARD communicates with citizens and guests. By continually engaging and providing a value to these fans, Facebook has become an integral part of their marketing mix. Eddlemon says, “If you’re not using some form of social media, you’re really missing out.”
Beet Juice Beats Snow and Ice
Chester County, Pennsylvania, Department of Parks and Recreation
Director: John Mikowychok
Innovation: Beet juice used for trail and road treatment during winter ice and snow
Summary: “Not only is this good environmentally, with no negative consequences, but it protects infrastructure and saves labor.”
The Chester County, Pennsylvania, Department of Facilities Management treats a heap of roads, sidewalks, and travel surfaces for ice and snow during harsh winter months. Last year, the department pioneered the use of beet-juice extract, a vegetable byproduct, mixed with a brine solution, to treat parking lots, walkways, and trails.
“We heard about the beet juice product from one of our suppliers,” says John Mikowychok, director of the department of parks and recreation. “It was reported to be very effective, and had no known negative environmental consequences.”
Originally used by the county to treat newly constructed concrete sidewalks at a public high school, the beet juice seemed ideal for two regional trails, the Struble Trail and the Chester Valley Trail—environmentally sensitive areas with high water quality that are heavily used by the public, even in winter, for commuting and recreation.
The beet juice (which is not red, but looks like slightly muddy brown water) comes from agricultural byproducts of sugar beets. The beets are processed for their sugars, which are used for food sweeteners and for their pulp, which is used for animal feed. The remainder is beet juice, a liquid that is left over. It has proven to be ideal for treating ice and snow when mixed with a brine solution. Potassium acetate in the beet juice lowers the freezing point of water in the brine solution approximately 25 percent, preventing ice from bonding to asphalt and concrete, thereby making plowing and ice-removal more efficient and economical as well as saving labor costs.
The beet juice proposal, made at a county planning session, received no pushback whatsoever, but did raise eyebrows.
“Everyone looked at me, like, ‘Wow, what an interesting idea,’ not, ‘What, are you nuts?’” Mikowychok says.
He went on to note that after gaining approval and beginning implementation, there was public support for use of less toxic alternatives than salt. “I can’t think of anything more green than reducing the use of a fairly toxic substance by replacing it with application of the leftovers of an agricultural product that has no negative environmental impacts,” Mikowychok says.
Tip: Don’t be afraid to try totally new approaches when you are looking to improve performance and save costs.
Challenge: The effort to be as environmentally responsible as possible during the construction and operation of a new 12-mile regional trail led the agency to look at new ways to protect high-quality watersheds and pristine streams. Given the public interest in hiking and biking, especially commuter biking, into the heart of the Chester County economic development corridor, which is home to bio-medical, technology, and pharmaceutical companies, the agency is meeting the challenge of trying to maintain environmental quality while accommodating greater public use.
Going forward: The organizational culture of Chester County and its Department of Parks and Recreation fosters a spirit of innovation in seeking solutions to complex problems and challenges.
Serving Parks while Serving Time
Vigo County Parks and Recreation Department, Terre Haute, Indiana
Assistant Superintendent: Kara Kish
Summary: The Vigo County Parks and Recreation Department has implemented a partnership with the local federal prison to utilize inmates, who possess a great range of skills and trades, on a daily basis to assist our full-time staff accounting for more than 15,000 hours of additional service to the citizens of Vigo County annually.
The Vigo County Parks and Recreation Department has been utilizing the prison community service project for years; however, only last year we increased from a seasonal implementation to a year-round, permanent fixture of our department. The inmates are transported from the prison to our park sites daily by our full-time staff, where they assist our staff in daily maintenance operations as well as special projects. The inmates come to us with trades and skills and have been an invaluable asset to our department. At any given time, we have six to 15 inmates in our park system. Our only expense to bring these individuals to work alongside our staff is to supply them with lunch on a daily basis; last year we spent less than $10,000 on over 15,000 hours of service. Recent projects include the installation of playgrounds, development of trails systems, landscaping, campground preparation, and an ever-growing list of park system accomplishments.
Our department staff, the parks and recreation board, and the public have embraced the value and incomparable benefit of the prison community service project. Due to the increased number of man hours devoted to the maintenance, improvement, and development the citizens of Vigo County reap the rewards of a stellar and ever-evolving park system. Our staff recognizes that even at the increased benefit of having the inmates at our side, they are still incarcerated, a fact which must never be forgotten. Staff must maintain supervision over contiguous property and be aware of their actions at all times. The reward of this risk is the overall betterment of our parks system for Vigo County citizens.
Tip: Utilizing inmates in a park setting can initially be discouraging as you may face resistance from board members, park staff and/or the public; it is important to reinforce the mindset that inmates are hand-selected by the prison officials and have proven themselves fit to serve the public in a community setting.
Challenge: The greatest challenge to success is strict guidelines required by the FCC Terre Haute Community Service Project that our staff must uphold at all times to ensure the safety of the public. Our staff is trained annually and the prison makes frequent, random visits to ensure compliance. Our staff appreciates the purpose of these guidelines and enforces them at all times with the ultimate goal of protecting the public.
Going forward: The Vigo County Parks and Recreation Department has forever been altered by the implementation of the FCC Terre Haute Community Service Project; the influx of time, talent, and skills has dramatically improved the overall quality of the essential service we provide to the citizens of Vigo County, an outstanding parks system.
Marketing 101 Meets Treasure Island
Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority, Virginia (NVRPA)
Executive Director: Paul Gilbert
Innovation: Waterpark Theming
Summary: We created a unique market for pools/waterparks by engaging the imagination of children.
NVRPA identified innovation as one of the key values of the organization and created an awards category for innovation in our annual employee achievement awards. The annual awards give us the opportunity to recognize innovators and risk-takers in front of all the other employees.
As part of our effort to lead in the drive toward innovation, both the executive director and the current director of operations went in 2009 to a four-day professional development course taught at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, covering latest theories and approaches to innovation in the business world.
Early and sustained success with innovations related to campgrounds and waterparks have led to a stronger focus on innovation in a wider range of fields including food services, picnic shelter services, seasonal events, and marketing.
Faced with our worst-performing pool that was losing money and in need of renovations— and lacking the capital we would normally spend on a major pool renovation—we needed a different approach. We had to break from our previous mindset that a waterpark needed to appeal to every age group. Instead, we realized that our core market was children ages 4 to 10. If we appealed to this group, they would influence the decision for the whole family and would bring along their parents and older or younger siblings.
This realization drove our innovation. We recognized that this was the age of imagination, so we changed our focus from new expensive waterpark features to less expensive elements that engaged the imaginations of our core customers.
Prior to the renovation, this pool generated $80,000-90,000 a year in gross revenue and lost money on the operations every year. Since the renovation in 2008, revenues have grown each year. In 2011, revenues hit $432,000.
Tip: Think about your primary customer and how you can better serve them.
Challenge: There is a mindset with public park and recreation that everything we do needs to appeal to everyone. We had to challenge our own thinking about this. Most innovation comes from understanding your market and appealing to a market segment. The private sector does this well, and it is more of a challenge for the public sector.
Going Forward: Successes such as our waterpark theming innovations have resulted in NVRPA’s rekindled entrepreneurial spirit. We want to continue this kind of creative approach to our market.
Virtual Fitness, Real Activity
City of Hialeah Department of Parks and Recreation, Florida
Director: Manuel R. Ferrera
Innovation: Virtual Fitness Area (VFA) to attract children to recreation programs
Summary: Virtual Fitness Areas powered by Xbox 360 with Kinect system attracts kids to the parks—using technology which many blame for the obesity crisis that our nation is facing today.
The old adage “If you can’t beat them, join them” found a practical application with Hialeah’s Virtual Fitness Areas. This pilot program uses Xbox Kinect video games to lure kids out to the parks where they can then try the real sports the games are based upon.
“My colleague Ken Soler [aquatics supervisor] and I were brainstorming on several new ideas to engage the youth in the community,” says Willie Sanchez. “Basically, we were developing ideas to get the youth back involved in the parks. Video games kept popping up in our heads but we as believers in traditional sports and excise were reluctant to incorporate such games into our parks.”
But then Soler and Sanchez saw an Xbox Kinect video game system at a friend’s house. The system uses an electronic eye to capture the whole body motions of players, leading to a more active playing style that closely matches actual sports movements. The pair quickly saw the potential of this system to positively engage the youth in their community.
Fortunately, Hialeah’s agency culture encourages this type of innovation. Many of the staff grew up in the community and are products of Hialeah’s parks and recreation system, leading to a strong bond and belief in the system.
“We have been blessed with a director [Manuel R. Ferrera] who believes in us and allows us to be creative,” Sanchez says. “In these tough financial times, this sense of trust in your team or staff is essential for the success of any organization.”
Once the vision was set in place, colleagues began to add to the concept, and now it is reality. The department received a $10,000 mini-grant from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida Foundation as part of the foundation’s "Hialeah Healthy Families" initiative to help combat childhood obesity.
Tip: To develop an idea like Virtual Fitness Areas, first establish total support from within your organization and then be aggressive in your efforts to challenge your community to embrace technology as a way to get kids exercising once again.
Challenge: One of their biggest challenges was trying to convince the management team to put TVs and video games in recreational buildings.
“Their thought process was that video games were our enemy, which we agreed to,” Sanchez says. “But we explained that these units were based on sports and dance and required movement by the users. From there, we convinced them that we could attract the kids back to the parks, and once they were there, it would be up to our staff get them hooked back on traditional exercise and sports.”
Going forward: The new Virtual Fitness Areas (VFA) has allowed Hialeah to transform outdated recreation centers into a modern playground for the youth of today who live connected to a new world of technology that we could have never imagined 20 to 30 years ago, Sanchez says.
The Youngest Master Planners
Everett Parks and Recreation, Everett, Washington
Director: Paul Kaftanski
Innovation: Children—armed with cameras—help with park master planning
Summary: A group of local children were given an opportunity to provide suggestions to help create a new park master plan, by asking them to photograph their favorite park amenities.
Garrison Keillor once said, “Nothing you do for a child is ever wasted.” In the City of Everett, Washington, we put that sentiment to the test in its master planning process. We provided a group of local English- and non-English-speaking children the opportunity to influence the park planning process by giving them cameras to take pictures of their favorite park amenities. We then incorporated many of their favorites into the final design. Their master planning input, communicated through the lens of a camera, provided insights into the recreational desires of our young park patrons.
One might consider involving children in master planning a risky venture. However, our departmental culture is infused with DNA that welcomes calculated risk-taking (based upon sound data), promotes experimentation within the context of best business and industry practices, and encourages innovation. These values and practices stem from our business principles—and are embedded within our department’s strategic plan. Other examples of departmental innovation include customer GIS mapping, contract instructor incentives, and differentiated and peak seasonal pricing.
We facilitated a field trip to four area parks and playgrounds, with children from one of our summer parks day camps. Approximately 50 children, ages 8 to 12, were each given cameras to take photos of their favorite park amenities at each of the parks. Staff then sorted the photos by activities, site features, and patterns, collectively identifying the children’s park preferences. The results provided us with great insight into the children’s preferences. For example, park amenities that involve group interaction and cooperation and amenities relating to or being engaged in nature were major themes in the children’s pictures. And many of these were incorporated into the final plan.
Tip: Broaden community involvement by including groups not typically consulted when developing park plans.
Challenges: It was at times difficult to understand and interpret the children’s ideas and thoughts through their photographs. It was after thoughtful, careful sifting of myriad pictures that we were able to identify several central themes.
Going Forward: We have found that this new approach to public outreach in park planning has helped us to gain a better understanding of recreation needs of our children—and has encouraged us to continue to reach out to those members of the public not typically involved in park-planning. One outcome has been the adoption of a set of guidelines providing the framework on how to best include the community in a variety of park planning projects in the future.