December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 34

CAPRA Celebrates
30 Years
Three decades of helping agencies improve their operational best practices
By Jennifer Schleining
B
ased on historical NRPA records, it all started with a vision a few
agencies had in the 1980s for the park and recreation field to get
organized and abide by a specific set of standards. To achieve this,
agencies should be evaluated on those standards for accreditation.
Plans for the accreditation program
began to solidify during a
1989 meeting of professionals at
Michigan State University, where
the first draft of the CAPRA National
Accreditation Standards was
created. This was followed by a
meeting with the American Academy
for Park and Recreation Administration
and NRPA, where a report
was presented outlining objectives,
a schedule and a chapter outline for
the standards. A proposal on how to
organize and administer the national
accreditation program also was
shared, leading to the establishment
of the Commission for Accreditation
of Park and Recreation Agencies
(CAPRA) in 1993.
The CAPRA program officially
launched in 1994 with its first set
of bylaws and a total of six pilot
agencies beta testing the original
153 standards and the process. The
participating
agencies
included:
Asheville Parks and Recreation,
North Carolina; East Baton Rouge
Recreation and Park Commission,
Louisiana;
Monmouth
County
Park System, New Jersey; Plano
Parks and Recreation Department,
Texas; Roseville Parks and Recreation,
Minnesota; and Scottsdale
Parks and Recreation, Arizona.
34 Parks & Recreation | DECEMBER 2 0 2 4 | PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
All agencies took detailed notes of
their experience during the year in
hopes that future agencies would
be successful.
The CAPRA program has grown
and advanced during the past 30
years, hitting
several milestones
along the way: the military-specific
standards were created in 1998;
the first edition of the Management
of Park and Recreation Agencies was
published in 1999; the program
grew to 50 accredited agencies in
2005; the CAPRA operating code
replaced the original
bylaws in
2009; and CAPRA grew to 100 accredited
agencies in 2011.
CAPRA Now
In its 30th year, CAPRA grew once
again at the 2024 NRPA Annual
Conference in
Atlanta,
exceedPHOTO
COURTESY OF CAUGHT IN THE MOMENT PHOTOGRAPHY

December 2024 – Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of December 2024 – Parks & Recreation

December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - Intro
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - Cover1
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - Cover2
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 1
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 2
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 3
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 4
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 5
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 6
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 7
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 8
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 9
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 10
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 11
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 12
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 13
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 14
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 15
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 16
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 17
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 18
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 19
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 20
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 21
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 22
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 23
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 24
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 25
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 26
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 27
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 28
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 29
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 30
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 31
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 32
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 33
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 34
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 35
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 36
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 37
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 38
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 39
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 40
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 41
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 42
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 43
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 44
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 45
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 46
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 47
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 48
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 49
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 50
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 51
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 52
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 53
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 54
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 55
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 56
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - Cover3
December 2024 – Parks & Recreation - Cover4
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/november-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/september-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/august-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/july-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/june-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/may-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/april-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/march-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/february-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/january-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/november-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/september-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/august-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/july-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/june-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/may-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/april-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/march-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/february-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/january-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/november-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/september-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/august-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/july-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/june-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/may-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/april-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/march-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/february-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/january-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/november-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/september-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/august-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/july-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/june-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/may-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/april-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/march-2021
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com