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Revitalizing Houghton Park: A Community-Led Transformation

By Rukmini Kalamangalam | Posted on March 22, 2024

Before receiving a park improvement grant from The Bobcat Company, community members removed the trash they could on their own—routinely bringing vehicles into the park and leaving with mattresses, tires, and other liftable debris. However, with backing from the partnership between Bobcat and NRPA, community members have been able to rely on BNRLT and Bobcat of Buffalo to facilitate the removal of dangerous and heavy debris.

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The Growing Influence of Young Professionals in Parks and Recreation

By Colton Patak | Posted on March 20, 2024

It’s important for young professionals to share their insights and ideas because they bring fresh perspectives and innovative approaches to the industry and statistics show that the number of young professionals in parks and recreation is increasing, with a growing number of individuals under the age of 35 joining the field.

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Funding Available: Community Change Grants Program

By Kyle Simpson | Posted on March 18, 2024

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Community Change Grant Program was announced and opened for applications in late 2023. The program will award roughly $2 billion in project funding for projects that provide meaningful improvements to the environmental, climate, and resilience conditions affecting disadvantaged communities.

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NRPA Announces Million Coaches Challenge Grant to Champion Positive Youth Development

By Allison Colman and Teresa Morrissey | Posted on March 15, 2024

Through the Million Coaches Challenge, NRPA is partnering with leading national training providers to ensure park and recreation agencies have access to no-cost, high-quality training programs. These training opportunities focus on two key areas — social and emotional learning (SEL) and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) — to complement and enhance existing training and ensure all people interacting with youth have essential skills to promote relationship building, leadership and teamwork, cultural humility, conflict resolution, unconscious bias, building understanding, and more.

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Park and Recreation Stories: Your Story Starts Here

By Cara Myers | Posted on March 13, 2024

NRPA's new video-storytelling project, Park and Recreation Stories, aims to capture the memories and insights of park and recreation professionals, as well as commemorate significant events experienced by NRPA members, partners and advocates. The initiative promotes the voice of the people who have dedicated their lives to the field of parks and recreation for the purpose of creating strong, healthy and vibrant communities across this country.

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Creating Space for Belonging in Juneau, Alaska — Episode 152

By Christina High and Cort Jones | Posted on March 12, 2024

On this episode of Open Space Radio, we're chatting with are Amanda Lovejoy, a recreation coordinator at the Zach Gordon Youth Center for City and Borough of Juneau Parks & Recreation, and Lauren Anderson is the Treadwell Arena Manager for Juneau Parks & Recreation.

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Benefits of Summer Jobs With Parks and Recreation

By Alexandra Ziegler | Posted on March 8, 2024

Working for local parks and recreation during the summer offers a unique and rewarding experience. Employees get the chance to contribute to the well-being of their community by organizing and participating in various outdoor activities and events. Summer positions in the field can offer significant advantages, including skill development, monetary benefits and certifications.

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Recruiting Summer Talent at Parks and Recreation

By Alexandra Ziegler | Posted on March 7, 2024

With summer being the busiest time for parks and recreation, valuable programs can suffer without the addition of summer seasonal staff. From summer camps and sports leagues to outdoor events, parks and recreation is an essential avenue for fostering a vibrant and engaged community. In September 2023, the NRPA Research team sought to capture the experiences park and recreation agencies had in hiring their summer seasonal staff by conducting a survey completed by agency directors.

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Facilitating Inclusion in Parks and Recreation: Part 3 — Implementing Support to Facilitate Inclusion

By Jennifer Ward | Posted on March 6, 2024

In part three of this blog series, we will discuss some common supports for facilitating inclusion in parks and recreation.

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Federal Earmarks Process — How to Win Funding for Local Park Initiatives

By Kyle Simpson | Posted on March 5, 2024

Your NRPA Public Policy and Advocacy team is here to help you make sense of the new federal fiscal year appropriations process. Whether you submitted a request for funding last year or you’re reading about this opportunity for the first time, here’s all the information you’ll need to successfully submit a project request with your congressional representatives.

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Park and Recreation Professionals: Here’s how you can help prevent youth substance use in your communities

By Karen Voetsch | Posted on March 5, 2024

More than 750 community coalitions across the country receive funding up to $125,000 per year to strengthen collaboration among local partners and create an infrastructure that reduces youth substance use.

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