Programming Ideas For The Community, By The Community
Residents are playing a larger role in shaping local activities
By Jefferey Spivey
When it comes to programming, most communities allow their parks department to set the tone, choosing a level of engagement based on what’s available. But, increasingly, residents aren’t waiting to see what’s on the calendar—they’re stepping in to develop the programs themselves.
City of Toledo Parks and Youth Services
Community Organizations Take The Lead In Toledo
In Toledo, Ohio, Parks and Youth Services programming suffered for years due to budget cuts. But when the department received funding via the American Rescue Plan in 2021, there was a tremendous opportunity to reverse the trend, and local parks leaders knew they couldn’t act alone.
“When we got this money, we knew immediately that we needed to reach out to the community,” says Karen Ranney Wolkins, Commissioner of Parks, Recreation, and Community Enrichment.
Outreach was initially informal. Ranney Wolkins knew her team was most interested in how different programs could reach more children if given additional funds. However, the department eventually formalized its process and solicited grant applications. In summer 2022, $2 million was earmarked for programming, and about 100 programs were funded across 70 organizations. For the fall, another $500,000 was distributed to 40 organizations.
Successful grantees included recognizable names—the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, the YMCA, the Boy Scouts of America, and the Girl Scouts—as well as community-focused startups and nonprofits. And their programming covered everything from recreation to mentoring.
One of the most unique programs taught young women how to use power tools, while simultaneously instilling confidence and empowerment.
“There were skills that a lot of young women may never think, ‘This is I something I’ll need or I’ll use,’” says Joe Fausnaugh, Director of Parks and Youth Services. By the end of the program, each participant successfully built her own chair.
Uniqueness aside, the underlying message was what resonated with Fausnaugh. “If you don’t have a chair at the table, build your own and use your voice,” he says.
In addition to bringing more programming to Toledo, the American Rescue Plan funding also helped ensure programs were affordable and accessible. Any program applicants who sought to charge the public were scrutinized.
“When we see that in an application, that there’s anything more than something nominal, we ask a lot of questions,” Ranney Wolkins says. “Really, we are focusing on programs that offer free services to the youth of our area.”
The ultimate aim is for the funded programs to impact the community, which the department gauges through a number of means, including participation numbers and repeat visits, data collection, site visits, monthly reporting, and participant surveys. Zooming out, however, one of the biggest success measures for the entire initiative is reach.
Fausnaugh says, “We really try to capture the breadth of their programming. So, are we hitting every ZIP code in the city of Toledo? We really try to make sure, when we’re distributing this funding, that we’re truly reaching as many demographics in areas of the city as we can.”
After two funding cycles in 2021 and 2022, Fausnaugh says that Parks and Youth Services plans to keep utilizing American Rescue Plan money to bring in additional programming. However, he expects to see different outcomes as the initiative matures. There may be community partners who have built enough capacity to sustain themselves without further funding, community partners who are successful but still need financial backing, and programming that serves a need but lacks a strong provider. Once identified, programs that fall in the last bucket will be explored in-house.
Toledo’s approach to revitalizing its programming has delivered some immediate successes and will likely continue to benefit residents over time. Still, there are other ways to seek residents’ input that can inspire innovation in communities.
Residents Inspire Bold, New Ideas
In Grand Rapids, Mich., the Department of Parks and Recreation completed a thorough community survey as part of its 2017 master plan. A common theme among respondents was a desire for different programming.
“There was a significant trend away from more of the organized sports that we had traditionally been providing and requests and trends more toward just being outside,” says Director David Marquardt. The feedback led to the creation of free kayak and paddle nights in Riverside Park throughout the summer and an annual eighth-grade paddling event hosted in conjunction with the local school district.
The survey results also inspired the Thrive Outside Gear Library. Situated in the Roosevelt Park neighborhood and serving visitors from across the city, the Gear Library is unique in that residents can check out a wide array of outdoor equipment, similar to how they can check out books from a public library. Available gear includes winter jackets and boots, sleds, snowshoes, hiking boots, tents, camping gear, bikes, and outdoor yard games, among many other options. Inventory in the Gear Library was either purchased outright by the department or provided by outdoor retailers at low or no cost.
Results of the Gear Library are trifold, Marquardt notes. The department can meet public demand for more outdoor-oriented programming, make a variety of activities accessible to those without means, and provide a gateway for first-timers to test out new activities without making a significant financial investment.
Initiatives like the Gear Library will continue indefinitely because, in other ways, residents have ensured that supports are in place.
“Voters in 2019 overwhelmingly supported a dedicated source of funding for our department that has historically been only for capital improvements in our park system,” Marquardt says. There is now consistent funding for recreational programming, making it possible to introduce and continue initiatives that communities want and need.
The same demand for more outdoor programming exists elsewhere, too. In Fayetteville, Ark., the parks and recreation department has heeded public feedback to expand its mountain biking, kayaking, archery, and fishing offerings.
Fayetteville Parks and Rec
“We recognize that, in our area where [outdoor recreation] is so accessible, that there are still some hoops that people have to jump through to try and participate in it,” says Mark May, Recreation Programs Manager. Serving this need has also led to the creation of programming that’s affordable and short in duration.
Some of the activity expansion—an increased fishing programming—might coincide with the development of Underwood Park, a new park for which the department is actively seeking the community’s ideas. A September public-input session and subsequent online survey produced a slew of possibilities, which will be include three distinct concepts and then be reintroduced to the public for more feedback. The park site sits on an old golf course, and many residents’ ideas were inspired by maintaining the natural state of the space, such as walking and jogging paths, multi-use green spaces, and off-leash dog parks. May adds that there is also significant interest in adding a pier and hosting a fishing derby.
Park Planning Superintendent Ted Jack says planning is just getting underway, and $2.5 million has been dedicated to the park’s development and construction. Yet the community’s thoughts and interests have served as a spark for what could become a dynamic new area for the city. Similarly, in Richmond, Va., common themes in community feedback led to change.
The Richmond Compost Initiative—a citywide, community drop-off program—came about after numerous inquiries about ways to collect and process food scraps. Residents were interested in diverting waste from landfills but didn’t necessarily want to do the composting themselves. Community Garden Coordinator Kate Rivara had already been assessing ways to improve the composting process at the city’s community garden sites. When the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service announced its compost pilot program in 2020, she saw an opening to tackle residents’ concerns.
Though the Richmond Compost Initiative wasn’t funded in 2020, Rivara’s second application was successful, garnering a $90,000 grant to launch the program. To date, there are 20 drop-off stations in select community gardens and libraries across the city. The Public Works department picks up the carts weekly and leaves clean carts in their place. Then a compost contractor works with the parks department’s Workforce Development Team to process the compost. The program officially kicked off in July 2022 and is funded through September 2023.
Now that the initiative is up and running, there is still an opportunity for the community to remain involved. A proposed Master Composter program will train and connect compost champions to teach others about the drop-offs.
“Adopting this program is a primary responsibility of the community,” Rivara said.
Getting to this point does require deep engagement in ways that lead to relevant data collection.
Meaningful Data Collection Matters
As important as the act of reaching out to the community is how that outreach happens.
“We need to go where the community is,” Ranney Wolkins says. She and Fausnaugh venture out to churches, schools, community centers, coalition meetings, barbershops, and other established events or places to ensure a robust response.
In Grand Rapids, Marquardt says his efforts extend to the parks he oversees. In addition to surveys and trend analysis, he hosts events where residents can walk the parks with him and share their ideas or opinions face-to-face.
Jack notes the Fayetteville parks department has followed a similar model, engaging residents through surveys and special pop-up meetings or events. He stressed making the extra effort to meet residents where they are.
“We [have] really got to listen carefully and put some more effort into going into places where we’re not,” he says.
Because, ultimately, community input serves as the most crucial measure of whether programming is hitting or missing the mark.
“We can ride in on our white horses and say that we think that we know what the community wants, and that’s just plain old not true,” Ranney Wolkins says. “If we can’t have that dialogue and those open lines of communication with our community, I don’t think we’re going to be successful in making parks sacred spaces. I’m convinced [community input]’s the single most important thing.”
Jefferey Spivey is a writer based in Urbandale, Iowa. Reach him at jeffereyspivey@gmail.com.