October 2022 - Parks & Recreation - 16

WE ARE PARKS AND RECREATION
Does Your Staff Resemble
the Community You Serve?
By Tracey Crawford, Seve Ghose and Roslyn Johnson
E
The American
Academy of Park and
Recreation Administrators'
Justice, Equity,
Diversity and Inclusion
Committee has been
tackling the question
of how to diversify the
park and recreation
workforce during the
" Great Resignation. "
We know what the real problem is:
How do we diversify our workforce
during the " Great Resignation? "
The American Academy of Park
and
Recreation
Administrators'
(AAPRA) Justice, Equity, Diversity
and Inclusion (JEDI) Committee
has been trying to tackle this very
conundrum. Some of us were aware
that there are 105 Historically Black
Colleges and Universities (HBCUs),
but very few of us knew that similarly
there are 330 Hispanic Association
of Colleges and Universities
(HACUs), 411 Hispanic-Serving
Institutions (HSIs) and 32 Tribal
Colleges and Universities (TCUs) as
well. This is the answer! How do we
tap into the plethora of diversity that
these institutions represent? Parks
and recreation is a profession that
offers jobs ranging from aquatics to
zookeeper and everything
in between.
Has your organization marketed
itself to this untapped diverse
population? One of the goals of the
JEDI Committee is to market our
profession to the HBCUs, HACUs
and TCUs across the country.
Implementing Methods for
Cultivating Diverse Staff
16 Parks & Recreation | O CTOBER 2 0 22 | PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
veryone is talking about how we need diverse workforces to solve
challenging problems and bring diverse perspectives to the table.
Diversity has been shown to boost creativity, and agencies that
embrace diversity are 1.7 times more innovative. Research shows
that diverse teams are 87 percent better at making decisions than nondiverse
teams (tinyurl.com/2p3p3cct). It has been proven that residents and
visitors feel more connected to and are more apt to participate in programs
and services that use marketing and advertising that depict culturally and
ethnically diverse people. Roughly 64 percent of the candidates research an
agency online before applying for an opening. One in three will not apply
for an agency that lacks diversity. Where does your organization stand?
The JEDI Committee is in the beginning
stages of communication
with contacts at the White House
Initiative on Advancing Educational
Equity, Excellence and Economic
Opportunity through HBCUs,
HACUs, and the TCUs.
There is much more to come on
this front, but don't wait for us!
An exciting model already exists.
Incoming JEDI Committee Chair
Seve Ghose, community services
director in Fort Collins, Colorado,
has created an internship program
model specifically for students who
attend one of these colleges and
universities. In offering the internship,
the goal was not only to add
much-needed diversity to the staffing
structure, but mainly to create
future employment opportunities
for a marginalized community, with
clear focus on succession planning.
To make the program enticing
and noteworthy, a market salary of
$20 per hour was made available
for the duration of the internship
- typically 12 weeks. Subsidized
housing also was made available,
as the agency owns several properties
in the city. In Fort Collins, this
program is currently going through
the scrutiny of the biennial budget
process, while it was successfully
implemented in Thornton, Colorado.
In addition, the intern was required
to take on at least one large
or two smaller projects that the
agency was struggling with.
To top it off, the intern was treated
as any other employee - they
were offered the perks of the job
and participated in all the summer
events and programs. With
the
advent of many universities eliminating
parks and recreation and
tourism administration programs,
creating a seamless inflow of
http://www.tinyurl.com/2p3p3cct
October 2022 - Parks & Recreation

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