Equity

All-Gender Restrooms Foster Inclusion

Learn about increasingly popular all-gender, multiuser restroom designs.

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Engaging With Black History and Culture Through Play

Learn how the Douglass Community Center playground in Loudoun County, Virginia, celebrates Black history and culture with a themed play experience.

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When the Civic Commons Is Shelter

Explore how park rangers in Memphis, Tennessee, help park users experiencing homelessness access vital social services and resources.

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Inclusion Includes All Staff: Getting Your Team on Board

Learn why every park and recreation staff member should have a role and responsibility in ensuring all belong.

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Fostering Trust and Engagement Across Diverse Cultures

Learn how park and recreation agencies can create inclusive, harmonious communities by building trust and engagement with diverse cultures.

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Cultivating Desirable Competencies in Park and Recreation Providers

Learn how park and recreation professionals benefit from developing diverse competencies.

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What I Wish I Had Known About Neurodiversity

By considering how people learn and experience the world through the lens of neurodiversity, we can enhance our role as professionals.

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Telling My Transgender Story

Explore Karen Kendra Holmes’ story and learn about her efforts to advocate for the transgender community before attending her session at the 2023 NRPA Annual Conference.

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Bridging Community Through Equity and Belonging

When a swim team requested access to 80 percent of the evening hours at the community’s only pool, Annapolis (Maryland) Recreation and Parks chose to center equity.

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Centering Equity in Marketing and Registration

Consider how Newburyport Youth Services pursues equitable marketing and registration practices and takes steps to reach and include all community members.

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Parks and Recreation’s Role in the Childhood Obesity Epidemic

Explore how partnerships between park and recreation professionals, pediatricians and families can combat childhood obesity, help children develop healthy habits and support equity.

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Increasing Art Access Through Parks and Recreation

Learn how to foster equity and well-being by integrating art education into parks and recreation.

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The Practice of Kinship

An introspective look at howthe five pillars of Islam can assist with the conservation, restoration, stewardship and community building in parks.

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Three Helpful Tips for Equitable Summer Programming

A look at three things summer programs can do to make their work more equitable.

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Reaching an Underserved Population Through Esports Programs

Esports can serve an important role in personal development and community, particularly for those who may not have the option of playing traditional team sports.

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Incorporating Equity Into Cost Recovery

Prince William County (Virginia) Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism has subscribed to an assertive cost-recovery model in which virtually all programming and indoor facility use require a fee.

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Making Tennis More Inclusive

In 2019, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) integrated its wheelchair operations into all of its business units, becoming the first national governing body in any sport to do so.

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The Mental and Therapeutic Benefits of Nature for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Our physical, mental and emotional health is surprisingly codependent on interactions with our natural environment.

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Historic Plantation Reimagined in Mecklenburg County

Latta Nature Preserve is a 1,460-acre passive recreation park that protects significant natural resources and provides water quality protection for Mountain Island Lake.

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Operationalizing Equity: Oakland's Town Camp

J. Nicholas Williams Sr. had two priorities as director of Oakland Parks, Recreation and Youth Development: neutralize disparities and laser focus on Oakland youth.

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Rethinking and More Broadly Defining Access to Green Spaces

Parks are treasured landscapes that have provided countless people with the opportunity to make a direct connection with nature.

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Putting Equity Into Action

To better support members in seeing difference as a strength, NRPA is working to create opportunities for professionals to learn and practice.

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Equity in Parks, Recreation and Aquatics

Changing the narrative by building equity and understanding within the field.

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Becoming an Equitable and Just Organization

While systemic racism impacts all corners of our society, we must not forget that people create systems.

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Building a Framework for Equity Into Park Systems

Understand the general framework that can facilitate the creation of a more equitable parks system.

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Getting Girls and Women Into the Game for a Lifetime of Success

Girls playing sports attain higher levels of education, are healthier mentally and physically, and even earn higher wages as adults, compared to non-athlete peers.

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Creating Awareness About Youth Sports Equity

NRPA developed goals and principles that guide how we collaborate with park and recreation professionals to ensure all youth have the opportunity, motivation and access to play sports.

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Fostering Inclusion Through Words

NRPA’s Equity Action Plan connects our commitment to centering equity and our strategic direction of Preparing Professionals for the Future with our value of continuous learning.

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Public Accessibility for Transgender Populations

Parks and recreation has a responsibility to ensure that all people are respected and have access to the amenities, services and environments afforded to dominant groups.

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Forging Pathways to Park and Green Space Equity

Prevention Institute's new study lays out three key dimensions of producing more equitable outcomes in the park and green space arena.

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Are We Building People — or Just Running Programs?

If we are to convince a wider audience of the great worth of our indispensable services — and, in turn, influence higher funding by decision-makers — we must deliver whole goods.

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Paws and Recreation: Creating Inclusion With Service Dogs

Service dogs are “task trained” dogs (of any breed) that enhance the ability of a person to participate in everyday opportunities.

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Giving a Voice to LGBTQ+ Older Adults of Color

LGBTQ+ people of color exist at the intersection of many simultaneous identities that are rarely captured in case studies, retention efforts, and program or policy reform.

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Bicultural Marketing and Closing the Gap

Equitable marketing is achievable and is proven only if an organization can close the gap in its community’s customer journey.

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Using Virtual Volunteering to Engage Diverse Communities

Park professionals and land managers from across the country are beginning to turn to virtual volunteer activities to connect diverse audiences to their public land sites.

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The Path Forward: Equity at the Center of City Park Investment

Parks will play an essential role in the economic recovery of our nation and in addressing inequities in our cities.

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Staging a New ACT

All our advocacy needs to be supported by education, documentation, data and sound reasoning.

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Making Community Youth Sports Fair and Accessible for Girls, Once and for All

Park and recreation professionals and agencies can play a major role in ensuring that girls have equitable access to sports opportunities.

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More Parks, Longer Lives

Recent data from the Los Angeles, California, region provides insights for park agencies across the country.

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Mixed-Method Evaluations Paint a Park Equity Portrait

While evaluation requires a basic understanding of the principles of study design, sampling and analysis, it is an art gained through practice employing a suite of complementary mixed methods.

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Painting the Way to an Equitable Built Environment Through Public Art

For the city of Perris, California, public art was one of the missing elements in developing equitable opportunities to support a built environment that boosts economic vitality and celebrates the diverse culture in the city.

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Creating Equitable Access to Physical Activity for Youth

Unfortunately, inequity is profoundly present in organized sports. Racial, economic and geographic disparities in access to sports and recreation had already created wide opportunity gaps and health inequities for many youth. This global health crisis is exacerbating those disparities.

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Nature Must Be Accessible to All

Now, more than ever, the benefits of breathing freely in nature must be accessible to all.

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Supporting the LGBTQ+ Community Through Parks and Recreation

Because June is LGTBQ+ Pride Month, it allows us the perfect opportunity to consider how we can better serve our LGBTQ+ family, friends and neighbors.

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Is COVID-19 Uncovering Park Inequities?

There are several communities that have historically lacked access to parks and continue to remain disconnected in a time when getting outdoors is one of the few permissible activities.

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Reinvigorating the Dialogue on Conservation and Social Equity

Quality communities and the ability to stay in them support the vision of social equity. This mindset recognizes that we are all part of a larger ecosystem whose components are intricately connected.

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Who Can Access the Greenway?

Researchers examine whether neighborhoods with different demographic and socioeconomic statuses have equal access to greenways.

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Addressing Social Equity Through Teen Programming

Teen programming that focuses on developing job skills and instilling organizational values is the foundation for creating a recruitment pipeline.

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Advocacy and the Changing Attitudes Toward Disability

A recent study abroad program focuses on people with disabilities and how those without disabilities now perceive them.

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Community Engagement Best Practices

These NRPA resources help agencies increase engagement, equity and inclusion.

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