If you haven’t already planned out which sessions you would like to attend at NRPA’s Annual Conference, the NRPA education team highlighted the following four sessions as “can’t miss” events.
Session 115
Applying PRORAGIS™
Tuesday, October 8, 1–3:15 p.m.
Room: 340AB
CEUs 0.2
Presenters: Greg Manns, Morgan Healy, NRPA Staff
This workshop is designed for PRORAGIS™ users and potential users to ask questions and get guidance on inputting data and getting valuable information they can use. You will have the opportunity to share concerns and work through submitting your agency’s data while an expert speaker is in the room providing constant support. Upon completion of the workshop, you will be extremely familiar with the valuable features of PRORAGIS™. You will leave with confidence that you are able to submit your agency’s completed data with ease. Note: You are encouraged to bring a laptop if you wish to work directly with your data during the workshop.
Session 143
Leisure Research Symposium Kick-off — George Butler Lecture: Forging Common Ground Between Research, Policy and Practice
Tuesday, October 8, 4:30–5:45 p.m.
Room: 350DEF
CEUs: 0.1
Presenter: Dr. Vivian Tseng
Evidence-based policy. Evidence-based practice. Data-driven decisionmaking. Translational research. Knowledge transfer. This dizzying array of terms reflects a growing demand for researchers to produce more rigorous and usable work and for policymakers and practitioners to take it up. In this session, the presenter shares lessons learned from the William T. Grant Foundation’s work to bridge research with policy and practice. In doing so, she also offers a few cautionary notes about how policymakers and researchers are currently pursuing evidence-based practice. She discusses the need to (1) create conditions for the productive integration of evidence in decisionmaking, (2) pave two-way streets for learning between research and practice, and (3) build relationships and trust between the research, policy and practice communities.
Session 212
Parks Build Community for 2013: Lessons Learned Transforming an Urban Park
Wednesday, October 9, 8–9:15 a.m.
Room: 361ABC
CEUs: 0.1
Presenters: Garth Welch, Lisa Johnson, Merrie Talley, Tom Norquist
NRPA’s Parks Build Community initiative is an innovative partnership involving member agencies and NRPA’s community of vendors and manufacturers. NRPA, working in cooperation with local host partners, has completed transformative urban park renovations in underserved communities in Washington, D.C.; Atlanta, Georgia; and Los Angeles, California. The latest Parks Build Community project with the Houston Parks and Recreation Department involves renovations and new additions to Shady Lane Park in north Houston. This session will bring together key participants in the project to tell the story of how this highly used park in a predominately Hispanic and African-American community is being reinvigorated with a state-of-the-art innovative new playground, natural playscape features and an overlook to Bretshire Basin, part of Houston’s extraordinary Bayou Greenways restoration project. Learn how you can apply the lessons learned from this project to help you mobilize support and attract donations to your parks as they help build communities.
Session 355
Creating an Agency that is Trusted, Valued and Loved
Thursday, October 10, 2:15–3:30 p.m.
Room: 381ABC
CEUs: 0.1
Presenter: Tom O’Rourke
The difference between recent bond referendums that passed and those that didn’t usually comes down to the votes going to agencies that the public trusts. Even if you are not in the market for a bond referendum, you will learn how to become that agency that the community values.