Today’s parks and recreation are not your momma’s playground program! They are multifaceted physical and socioeconomic systems that daily deliver the foundational needs and essential human services of our modern existence. It’s not just fun and games anymore!

So much of what constitutes the appeal and livability of our communities is our direct connection to our public spaces and our natural and cultural assets. Their facilities and features build a strong and resilient infrastructure. Their recreational opportunities bolster our wellness and life satisfaction. Together, our park and recreation systems contribute expansively to a healthy economy, environment and society in at least 50 tangible ways — linked below to corroborating research and authenticating documentation.

1. Facilitate physical activity and healthy lifestyles
2. Advance social equity and access
3. Preserve and sustain environmental quality
4. Connect people to nature for human health benefits
5. Facilitate positive youth and family development
6. Reduce carbon footprints and pollution
7. Nurture physical, mental, emotional therapy
8. Promote healthy food production and choices
9. Create popular public spaces through green infrastructure
10. Preserve wildlife habitat and connective corridors
11. Administer preventative treatment for drug abuse, and criminal and risky behaviors
12. Reduce stormwater management costs
13. Fortify tourism and economic development
14. Improve physical, cognitive, social and emotion functioning of people with special needs
15. Foster creative play
16. Mitigate urban blight and brownfields
17. Stimulate business viability and diversity
18. Reduce heat island effects and energy costs
19. Buffer extremes of flood and drought
20. Foster community engagement
21. Develop athletic skills and healthy competition
22. Preserve and enhance biodiversity
23. Facilitate and promote public-private partnerships
24. Strengthen motor and cognitive skills in young children
25. Build experiential learning, team cooperation and leadership
26. Rejuvenate mental clarity and alleviate stress and attention deficit disorders
27. Safeguard park visitors and recreation participants
28. Foster risk resilience and independent mobility skills in children
29. Enhance property values
30. Facilitate meaningful leisure experiences contributing to quality of life
31. Provide teen mentoring, workforce preparation, and vocational training
32. Boost student performance and educational attainment
33. Administer child nutrition and food distribution programs
34. Create multimodal transportation alternatives and reduce traffic congestion
35. Reduce healthcare costs
36. Rejuvenate employee productivity and stimulate creativity
37. Provide forums for public art, entertainment and expression
38. Expedite medical recovery and boost immune systems
39. Foster diversity and cross-cultural cooperation
40. Reduce crime and increase community safety
41. Enable access to economic and socio-cultural goods
42. Improve air quality
43. Promote and regenerate community resilience, cohesion, and vibrancy
44. Generate $140 billion in economic activity and support 1 million jobs
45. Preserve and interpret historical and cultural resources
46. Reduce taxes
47. Stimulate recreation-related equipment and supplies sales
48. Mitigate youth crime and deviant juvenile behaviors
49. Establish a sense of place and belonging
50. Serve as civic repositories of social capital and community wellbeing

Park and recreation systems are the attractive masterpieces of our most vibrant cities and communities. It’s there that we connect nature and neighborhoods for our individual, social, environmental and economic wellbeing. Investment in these diverse community assets always produces a high return — with profitable benefits for all. 

Tim Herd, CPRE, is the CEO of the Pennsylvania Recreation and Park Society.