Stewarding and expanding healthier parks and natural spaces for current and future generations
Park and recreation professionals steward 11 million acres of public parks and green spaces across the United States. Within these spaces, they lead healthy, resilient and equitable community-driven solutions to build a better future for everyone. NRPA supports park and recreation professionals with training, educational resources, peer networks and trusted leadership to advance climate solutions.
Building Community Resiliency Through Parks and Recreation
NRPA supports park and recreation professionals to build community resiliency. Below are a few examples of how we have supported community resiliency.
It can be a challenge for rural park and recreation departments to offer workforce development programming compared to urban and suburban agencies. NRPA's new, 12-month-long community of practice is an opportunity for technical support and peer learning toward workforce development, with the goal of each participating agency providing workforce experiences for 100 rural youth.
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NRPA is equipping park and recreation professionals and their communities with tools, resources, and knowledge to advance equitable sustainability practices and plans. These resources will help advance climate actions to make communities more resilient with their parks and constituents leading the way.
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Pollinators are vital to wildlife and ecosystem health and park and recreation departments are important stewards of natural resources and protectors of biodiversity throughout the nation. Through Parks for Pollinators, park agencies engage communities in saving pollinator species by building awareness and ecologically balanced habitat and connected to NRPA’s network of parks to pollinator resources.
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Learn more about NRPA's other initiatives aimed at ensuring access for all, building resilient communities and improving health and well-being through parks and recreation.
Environmental Resilience Resources
Every day, in communities across the country, the people of parks and recreation are making their communities better places to live, work and play. We are building a nation-wide movement of support for their critical work and want you to join us.
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Land stewards and volunteers are an integral part of the maintenance, restoration and conservation of our open spaces. NRPA created the Engaging Diverse Land Stewards and Volunteers Supplemental Guide to provide park and recreation professionals with the tools to better understand and serve their communities. With a specific focus on addressing regional challenges faced by those in the Gulf Coast region, this resource offers tools and information to help park agencies leverage the power of their local land stewards and volunteers.
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NRPA’s Sustainability in Parks and Recreation report highlights how park and recreation professionals are working to make their agencies and their communities more sustainable through such actions as protecting natural habitat, embracing park infrastructure, managing stormwater effectively and lowering agency water usage.
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NRPA created the Parks and Pollinators: Taking Action and Advancing Sustainability resource to help park and recreation professionals leverage their current efforts with native habitat and create plans that more effectively advance their work with native habitat and sustainability efforts. This resource offers a guided self-assessment, process to create a team, curated resources, sample policies and practices, and ways to engage your community and building awareness. These tools can create momentum for your current sustainability and biodiversity efforts and create a core team to advance this work in the future.
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This framework offers tools and research-based information to measure the environmental, social, economic and health benefits of green infrastructure projects.
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This guide provides basic principles, inspiration and ideas that can help planners, designers and decision-makers equitably integrate green infrastructure into parks and park systems across the country.
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These resources provide park and recreation professionals with the tools and knowledge to advocate for green infrastructure in parks as a solution to improving climate-related health impacts.
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This national report analyzes sustainability practices currently implemented by park and recreation agencies and the ways agencies are contributing to sustainability in their communities.
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The Green Stormwater Infrastructure Certificate program provides park and recreation professionals the knowledge and tools to promote, oversee, advance and operate GSI in their park systems.
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Wildlife Explorers is NRPA’s turn-key program that connects youth to nature by utilizing local park and recreation spaces to encourage nature discovery.
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This national survey highlights green infrastructure projects at park systems, including issues surrounding funding, stakeholder engagement, and how to measure these investments’ long-term benefits.
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Sustainability in Parks and Recreation
