Community Wellness Hubs
NRPA supports park and recreation professionals’ work to create Community Wellness Hubs in their communities. These trusted gathering places connect every member of the community to essential programs, services and spaces that advance health equity, improve health outcomes and enhance quality of life.
Youth Sports in Parks and Recreation
Through Youth Sports in Parks and Recreation, NRPA supports agencies in their efforts to increase access to affordable, fun, welcoming and high-quality youth sports opportunities that promote positive youth development, keep kids playing, and help them to grow and thrive on and off the field.
Park Access
NRPA is uniting local leaders, advocating for policy change and advancing local solutions through research, tools and catalytic grants. Through these areas of work, we seek to create systems-level changes in policy, planning and funding, and support place-based projects that are driven by communities. Join us as we work to ensure fair and just access to parks for communities across the United States.
Sustainability in Practice
Parks across the country are striving to meet the needs of their local communities while navigating unique and ever-changing environmental circumstances. NRPA is offering a 16-week immersive, cohort-style program for park professionals with a vested interest in equitable environmental resilience that are ready to take the next step or not sure where to begin.
Healthy Food Access and Nutrition Security
Local park and recreation agencies serve as Community Wellness Hubs. In this role, park and recreation agencies provide vital and community-driven programs and services that address the diverse health and wellness needs of all people, including promoting access to healthy food and nutrition security. NRPA supports park and recreation agencies and their community-based partners as they work to increase access to healthy food and nutrition solutions through resources, case studies, and ready-to-use toolkits.
Mentoring in Parks and Rec
Local park and recreation agencies provide ample opportunities for youth to build positive social connections. Through the Mentoring in Parks and Rec, NRPA supports agencies in their efforts to build effective and evidence-based mentorship programs that connect youth with caring and compassionate mentors while strengthening connections across community.
Healthy Aging in Parks
Through the Healthy Aging in Parks initiative, NRPA aims to combat social isolation and foster intergenerational connectedness by advancing the Healthy Aging Framework and activating park and recreation systems to center and advance health equity and promote positive outcomes across all seven dimensions of well-being — cultural, economic, emotional, environmental, intellectual, physical and social.
Parks for Pollinators
NRPA positions park agencies as national leaders in advancing pollinator health. By working with these agencies, NRPA engages communities in saving pollinator species nationwide and connects our members to our network of parks and to pollinator resources.
Parks for Inclusion
NRPA works to ensure that all people have access to the benefits of local parks and recreation. To achieve this, NRPA has made a formal commitment to the Partnership for Inclusive Health’s Commit to Inclusion initiative. We’re calling our three-year pledge Parks for Inclusion.
Wildlife Explorers
Wildlife Explorers is NRPA’s turn-key initiative that connects youth to nature by utilizing local park and recreation spaces to encourage nature discovery.
Climate Resilient Parks
Parks are key community stakeholders when it comes to addressing the effects of climate change. From protecting water resources via green infrastructure practices, to reducing urban heat island effect through city wide forest restoration - parks play a critical role in building climate resilient communities.
Heart Your Park
Heart Your Park Day of Service is NRPA’s corporate volunteering program that supports companies making a difference in parks and green spaces by providing hands on service projects in their local communities.
Workforce Development
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.