For an enhanced digital experience, read this story in the ezine.

This month’s issue champions the idea of parks and recreation as critical infrastructure and of park and recreation professionals as essential to healthy and resilient communities. As the feature story, “Parks Are Essential Public Health Infrastructure,” on page 34, conveys, well-designed and placed parks protect our cities and towns. In fact, the first park ribbon cutting I attended as NRPA president was a perfect example of this. Kathryn Johnston Memorial Park, situated in the city of Atlanta, incorporated green stormwater infrastructure to reduce persistent flooding. On top of this, during the creation of the park, 7,000 tons of polluted soil were removed and replaced by healthy soil and park features important to the community.

Another way that parks and recreation serve as critical infrastructure is evident during and after disasters — events that depend on people at the ready who can provide emergency shelter, disaster recovery and critical services. These catastrophes — from the destructive tornados that hit Kentucky and surrounding areas in December, to the tragic fires in Superior and Louisville, Colorado, on New Year’s Eve — reveal just how essential park and recreation professionals are. In Colorado, for example, the park and recreation agencies around these communities jumped in to provide multi-jurisdictional support for sheltering those impacted, executing mass damage assessments, navigating FEMA processes, and even spearheading snow removal. Park and recreation professionals are community heroes, and their departments and the spaces they manage are increasingly vital in the face of climate change and the extreme events that come with it.

Another aspect of community life for which the park and recreation field is essential is youth programming and, in particular, youth sports. I have had the honor of serving alongside youth services and sport experts as part of the Return to Play Fund expert advisory council, created by ESPN and Beyond Sport. The Return to Play Fund is designed to help close the gap in youth of color sports participation in North America and build pathways for positive futures. It is no small thing to be invited to participate in such an effort, rather it reflects a truth that we understand deeply — local parks and recreation is essential to equitable youth sports. After all, what is community infrastructure if not the spaces, programs and people who together create positive health, social, economic and environmental benefits to communities? That’s parks and recreation.

The opportunity to serve on the expert advisory council provides a chance to share core aspects of NRPA’s Youth Sports Equity strategy, which is nested in our Equity in Practice program. Through a holistic approach of advocacy, education, research, field-based tools and infrastructure projects, we aim for systems-level change in communities across the country. Recognizing the political and budgetary pressures park and recreation agencies face, we are actively fundraising to offer programs, tools, training and grants that support park and recreation professionals as you work to ensure that all youth have the opportunity, motivation and access to play sports.

A fantastic example of this is the new mountain bike pump track in Bristol, Connecticut, highlighted in the feature article, “Blazing a Trail in Bristol, Connecticut,” on page 40. Thanks to funding from NRPA’s Youth Sports and Play Grant, this new bike pump track is bringing more inclusive and diverse sport opportunities to Bristol’s residents.

Parks and recreation as critical community infrastructure is a multi-faceted, complex and essential truth.

Kristine Stratton is NRPA's President and CEO.