September 2022 - Parks & Recreation - 26

HEALTH & WELLNESS
Program evaluation provides
managers, staff and the community
an opportunity to better understand
current programs and to identify
opportunities for improvement.
Measuring Health and
Wellness Program Impact
By Dianne Palladino, Austin Barrett and Allison Colman
I
n their unique role as Community Wellness Hubs (nrpa.org/Community
WellnessHubs), park and recreation agencies connect every community
member to essential programs, services and spaces that advance health
equity, improve health outcomes and enhance quality of life. As such,
health and wellness programming can be designed to target any combination
of the social determinants of health (tinyurl.com/5x4yfewa) - all of which
have a direct impact on people's health, well-being and quality of life.
Health and wellness programming
for parks and recreation can cover a
range of topics, including nutrition,
physical activity, mental health and
many others. As trusted gathering
places, park and recreation agencies
are uniquely able to reach a wide
audience through programming,
services, education and other health
promotion activities because of their
close community connection.
Measuring the impact of these
programs takes many forms and
can be challenging to design, especially
for those new to program
evaluation.
Program evaluation
provides managers, staff and the
community an opportunity to better
understand current programs,
to examine how well they are functioning
and to identify opportunities
for improvement. Evaluation
is an ongoing practice because of
multiple factors that interplay in a
health program. Thus, collecting
information and gaining perspec26
Parks & Recreation | SEP T EMBER 2 0 22 | PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
tive through evaluation is essential
to improving program processes
and outcomes from their development
through completion.
During July 2022, NRPA released
a framework to help park and
recreation professionals measure
and evaluate health and wellness
programs. Developed in partnership
with NORC at the University
of Chicago, a non-partisan research
institution, with funding from the
Walmart Foundation, NRPA's
Health Impact Evaluation Framework:
Measuring the Process and Outcomes
of Health and Wellness Programs
(nrpa.org/HealthImpactEvaluation
Framework), is a comprehensive
guide that connects agencies to existing
evaluation tools, data sources
and resources. The framework will
help agencies better evaluate the impacts
of park and recreation health
interventions and communicate
them more effectively to local elected
officials, members of the public
and philanthropic supporters.
PHOTO COURTESY OF APEX PARK AND
RECREATION DISTRICT

http://www.nrpa.org/CommunityWellnessHubs http://www.nrpa.org/CommunityWellnessHubs http://www.tinyurl.com/5x4yfewa http://www.nrpa.org/HealthImpactEvaluationFramework http://www.nrpa.org/HealthImpactEvaluationFramework

September 2022 - Parks & Recreation

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