An Altruistic Vision
Smarts and courage lead the way
By Michael A. Mulvaney and Jamie Sabbach
Nearly 10 years later, many public park and recreation agencies are still feeling the effects of the Great Recession. While other sectors have experienced significant growth during the years following the recession, many public park and recreation agencies were not as fortunate, and recovery for these agencies has been, and continues to be, slow. Issues such as agency restructuring, “right” sizing, “down” sizing, “cross” sizing, deferred maintenance backlogs, green initiatives, enterprise vs. public good service provision, and improved efficiency efforts intensify and continue to influence agency planning and operations.
Illustration: © Can Stock Photo / robuart
In an effort to assist park and recreation leaders to innovatively manage these conditions, a four-day Altruism Institute was held in Boulder, Colo., where some of the most distinguished public park and recreation professionals from across the U.S. were invited to discuss trends and issues facing the field while identifying ways to be socially, fiscally, and environmentally responsible through smart and courageous leadership, planning, and decision-making. The immersive institute was organized around two predominant themes—being smarter and being courageous in addressing the opportunities and challenges facing the field. This article provides a summary of those discussions and outcomes.
Being Smarter
Experts—within and outside the industry—facilitated discussions with industry professionals on the value of being informed and responsible leaders. Among other topics, contemporary research and best practices were discussed, and professionals were charged with reflecting on how they could use this information to become more efficient and effective service providers. Key findings that emerged from these discussions include:
• Current research by Pitas, Barrett, Mowen, & Roth (2018) suggests public park and recreation facilities, parks, and programs continue to be widely utilized assets while providing an increasing number of positive outcomes for residents and their communities.
• Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s state and local government finances survey indicate funding for park and recreation services has declined more significantly since 2008 than any other public service.
• From 2000 to 2014, a total of 42,212 new jobs were added in public parks and recreation. However, closer inspection of this increase indicates 45,382 part-time jobs were added during this time while 3,170 full-time jobs were actually eliminated (45,382 – 3,170 = 42,212 new jobs).
• Over 95 percent of local officials use and value their community’s parks and recreation services. These officials view that the primary roles of parks and recreation agencies are to “enhance quality of life” and “prevent youth crime.” Officials believe the most important funding needs for park and recreation agencies should be “maintaining existing services, trails, and programming,” while “hiring new staff” is viewed as the least important.
• Local officials rank parks and recreation as the least critical public service in their communities.
Being Courageous
Professionals were also challenged to not only be a change agent, but also have the courage to lead these innovative ideas and strategies within their agencies and communities. The following strategies for courageous leadership were identified:
• Leading change can be difficult. Professionals cited “fear” and concerns about “not being liked” as the most common roadblocks for leading change within their communities. One strategy discussed was accurate problem identification. Professionals need to distinguish the root, or cause, of the problem from its symptoms.
• There is a need for effective leadership. There is no substitute for effective leadership when it comes to planning and implementation. Leadership is more than a set of technical skillsets; rather, leadership must also be adaptive. Adaptive leadership can help agencies pursue virtuous ends in desirable ways so significant public value is created and the common good is advanced.
• Courage and innovation are essential. Professionals regularly noted the need to be courageous in addressing the public’s overall distrust for government in the current political climate. Parks and recreation is not immune to this skepticism and must be resilient and creative in changing this perception.
Tips From Smart And Courageous Leaders
Throughout the four-day experience, professionals networked, reflected, and discussed how they could be smarter professionals who, when needed, will lead with courageous actions. Through these discussions, professionals identified five prominent strategies:
1. Connect early, connect often, and connect some more. Connecting with stakeholders, agency partners, and residents to address key issues and opportunities facing communities has become an increasingly important strategy for public park and recreation administrators.
2. Learn the importance of advocacy. Many leaders recognize the importance of advocating for services in their communities, but do not feel highly competent in this area. Agencies must recognize that the mere availability of services does not guarantee their value to residents. Infusing advocacy and education goals into agency planning documents can improve accountability and keep the agency focused. Working closely with the media can also help educate communities on the interconnectivity of parks and recreation with other city services and societal issues, such as crime reduction, improved health, and education.
3. Recognize the volatile nature of funding and the myth of the “essential” service. Despite their value, parks and recreation services are, oftentimes, at, or near, the bottom of the community’s prioritized funding lists.
Rising infrastructure costs suggest a volatile fiscal future with potentially significant implications. While park and recreation agencies continue to tout their services as “essential,” this perspective does not appear to be currently shared by elected officials and decision-makers. These agencies will likely have to re-think conventional fiscal and operational practices as the traditional way of operating might not be sustainable. Agencies and their professionals must find new ways to ensure ongoing financial health, and thereby be positioned to deliver high-quality programs and services for their community.
4. Look to successful partnerships. One of the fastest-growing partnerships in the field has been between public park and recreation agencies and private-sector organizations. These partnerships have ranged from privatization of certain services or contracts and outsourcing to grants, leases, and asset sales. Many of these partnerships have also provided park and recreation agencies with opportunities to leverage private-sector financing. Martin (2018) offers a few points to consider when pursuing these partnerships:
• While the number of partnerships is increasing, the skills needed to procure the partnerships are still in short supply within local governments.
• A big misconception about these relationships is that the private partner is providing free money for the partnered project/service.
• Many stakeholders, including residents and local officials, do not fully understand public-private partnerships. Agencies should consider stakeholder education programs prior to pursuing partnerships. Transparency throughout the process is also important.
• Reliance on state legislation is important as it can remove uncertainty about the legal authority for local governments to partner with private-sector organizations.
• In general, private-sector organizations tend to prefer larger projects or partnerships. Smaller park and recreation agencies or those smaller services/projects requiring a partnership should consider bundling services/projects and/or consider other partners, such as private foundations.
• The entity (i.e., public or private) that can best manage the risk associated with the partnership agreement and service should assume that risk.
5. Adopt a cooperative flexibility approach. Communities have a finite set of resources. Public park and recreation agencies often find themselves competing for these resources and, oftentimes, try to get as much as possible in case they lose resources to others (now or in the future). Given today’s landscape, this competition-based approach may not be the most desirable or have long-term sustainability. Some agencies are adopting cooperative approaches guided by the following principles: long-term visions, trust and open communication, collective decision-making, clearly established rules, and fair treatment of all participants.
The landscape of public parks and recreation is changing at a rapid pace. The leaders who gathered at the Altruism Institute identified practical insights to assist park and recreation professionals to lead their agencies and communities through ever-changing conditions that are increasingly complex and taxing on limited resources. Themed around “being smart” and “being courageous,” professionals challenged themselves to think about their values and how they can use these skills for the betterment of their communities.
Works Cited
Martin, L. L. (2018). Public-private partnerships (P3s): What local government managers need to know. Washington D.C.: International City/County Management Association.
Pitas, N., Barrett, A., Mowen, A., & Roth, K. (2018). The Great Recession’s profound impact on parks and recreation. Parks and Recreation, February.
Michael A. Mulvaney is an Associate Professor and Recreation and Park Administration Program Director for the School of Kinesiology and Recreation at Illinois State University in Normal, Ill. Reach him at (309) 438-1855, or mamulva@ilstu.edu.
Jamie Sabbach is president and CEO of 110% in Salida, Colo. Reach her at (720) 304-2167, or jsabbach@110percent.net.