As the county’s population increases and becomes more racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse, gaps are increasing between users and the recreational facilities and services that Parks & Recreation offers. To meet changing community needs and interests, the agency developed a new vision for its parks and recreation system:
A dynamic, community-centered system that provides opportunities for our ever-changing community to engage with inclusive and welcoming parks and recreation sites and programming.
To help realize this vision, provided equity-centered consulting and training to a staff team to gather input and ideas to help shape budgeting, planning, and community engagement efforts over the next decade. Designed and planned the county-wide engagement, and led the implementation using pandemic-guided live-virtual and online engagement. To further elevate the voices of people traditionally underserved, the county also contracted with trusted BIPOC community members and organizations to organize and host specialized live-virtual engagements.
To keep the focus on the implementing the vision rather than on specific projects, the questions began with this statement: Imagine it’s five years from now and Parks and Recreation is making great progress on this vision. Thinking about yourself, family, and friends in Ramsey County parks, facilities, and programs…..
Prepared the compilation of 10,500 contributions from 2,086 participants, organized and wrote the analysis, and prepared the in-depth Themes Brief. The Brief identified learnings that deepen understanding of the results and how they may be used to shape future parks and recreation planning and decision making. Learnings were organized into two categories with key guidance gleaned from stakeholder contributions:
- What participants expect from successful vision implementation, such as welcoming and multicultural spaces and activities used by everyone; access and affordability; more, better, and different recreational and learning opportunities; and “the great outdoors”
- How they expect it to be achieved, such as partnerships, collaboration, and volunteers; inclusive activism, engagement, and change; strong planning, standards, and expectations; and thoughtful, informed decisions
