July 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 10

PERSPECT I VES A MESSAGE FROM NRPA' S LEADERS
Where Community Grows
It's Park and Recreation
Month! I couldn't be more
excited
about
this
year's
theme: " Where Community
Grows. " From the cover
story in this issue of Parks &
Recreation magazine to the
countless social media posts
we will see throughout the
course of July, this is truly
one of the most wonderful
times of the year. It's the
time for us to showcase the essential role that
parks and recreation plays in communities and the
fact that parks and recreation helps communities
grow in myriad ways.
Many of you have downloaded the Park and
(nrpa.org/July) and
Recreation Month toolkit
customized it for your communities. Many of
you also have used the opportunity to secure
formal proclamations recognizing Park and
Recreation Month and the vital importance
of this
field.
If you have achieved proclamations,
we would love to hear from you. Please
share them with us at prmagazine@nrpa.org.
And, please tag us in your Park and Recreation
Month social media posts, using @NRPA on Instagram,
@NRPA_news on Twitter, and @National
Recreation and Park Association on Facebook
and LinkedIn. The more we use our voices to lift
up our importance, and the more we use our platforms
to tell our stories, the more support we can
expect from our communities.
The theme of Where Community Grows also is
about our community - our park and recreation
profession. Through our commitment to excellence,
learning and growing, we ensure this field
continues to deliver the community benefits that
we are all so proud of - benefits like health and
wellness, climate resilience and social connection.
In fact, we are one of the few fields that is designed
to address the recent report from the U.S. Surgeon
General on the epidemic of loneliness and isolation
(tinyurl.com/yckvmfmn). Parks and recreation is
10 Parks & Recreation | JULY 2 0 2 3
| PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
all about making a connection and strengthening
the fabric of our community. NRPA is all about
strengthening the fabric of our profession.
There is a piece in this issue, " The CAPRA
Connection, " that discusses how one particular
NRPA program can be a game changer in both
helping our community grow and helping to
strengthen the fabric of a team. That program is
CAPRA, and there are agencies from Arizona,
Georgia, Illinois, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Texas
that speak to how their agencies are better for
having gone through the CAPRA accreditation
process. This feedback on the program comes up
again and again - it depends on a team working
together, each playing their part to support the
overall goal. It supports learning, growth and improvement
- and, yes, the team, department or
agency is stronger for having tackled it.
I had the opportunity to participate in the
mParks conference in Lansing, Michigan, where
Jeanette Aiello from Canton Township led a panel
of the accredited agencies in Michigan, titled
" CAPRA in Action. " Each of the panelists -
Lisa Christensen from Independence Township,
and Greg Morris and Tracie Ringle from City of
Novi - talked about the challenges and benefits
of CAPRA. While each of them stressed the hard
work required, they were unequivocal in recognizing
what the program did to help their departments
learn and grow and help them strengthen
their reputations within their communities.
Whether it's CAPRA, the Park and Recreation
Month toolkit, NRPA Connect (connect.nrpa.
org), or any of the countless other resources we
offer, we are committed to helping you grow so
that you can ensure parks and recreation is Where
YOUR Community Grows.
KRISTINE STRATTON
President and CEO

http://www.nrpa.org/July https://www.instagram.com/nrpa/?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/nrpa/?hl=en https://twitter.com/NRPA_news?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor https://www.facebook.com/NationalRecreationandParkAssociation/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/national-recreation-and-park-association/mycompany/ https://www.connect.nrpa.org https://www.connect.nrpa.org http://tinyurl.com/yckvmfmn

July 2023 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of July 2023 - Parks & Recreation