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Discover more at the 2024 NRPA Annual Conference
At the 2024 NRPA Annual Conference, attendees can choose from more than 230 diverse educational offerings. In response to growing demand, several dynamic one-hour sessions will run twice, ensuring you won’t miss out on these valuable learning experiences. Since this list does not contain all sessions that will run twice, be sure to check out the full schedule of educational sessions at nrpa.org/Conference.
Toolkit for Hosting Accessible Events
Speaker: Lucas Tobin, San Francisco Recreation and Park Department
Do you want to ensure that events in your parks and facilities are accessible to the Deaf and disability communities? Has your agency experienced accessibility complaints? Do you want to help ensure that the attendees at your events reflect the diversity of your community? Do you want to make sure event organizers who use your parks and facilities make their events accessible to the Deaf and disability communities? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this session is for you! Whether hosting your own events or issuing permits for others, accessibility is not just the law, it’s the right thing to do!
People with disabilities are the largest minority in the United States, but the Deaf and disability communities are often excluded from enjoying events because planners lack experience with accessibility requirements and do not know where to find information and resources. This session will focus on access to events as an equity issue, helping attendees see the importance of planning for accessibility and providing them with the information and tools to do it. Join us for this fun, interactive session where you will learn about San Francisco Recreation and Park’s Event Accessibility Toolkit and how you can adopt it for your agency.
‘Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes’: In a Jimmy Buffet World, Boomer Programming
Speakers: Teresa Hilton, Rockville (Maryland) Recreation and Parks Department, and Nancy Pfeffer, Prince George’s County (Maryland) Parks and Recreation – Special Programs Division
In this presentation, you’ll find your lost shaker of salt, creating changes in attitudes on developing Margaritaville-style programs for the young-at-heart baby boomers. Boomers claim a patent on the idea of “youth” and think of themselves as the young generation. They retire early, have funds and want exciting activities to change their latitude. This session will help you develop a plan on how to curate a truly celebratory program inventory that reflects a “Bahama breeze” vibe that will have your participants feeling like it’s “five o’clock somewhere” — and your program is the place to be!
Kason’s Korner: A Boy’s Quest for Equal Access Playgrounds
Speakers: Brandon Lange, Nick Lagunas and Nick Farline of Kennewick (Washington) Parks and Recreation Department
This session is about a young boy’s call to action! Kason Creed is a 9-year-old boy with cerebral palsy who is wheelchair bound. He started a movement, called Kason’s Kause. Kason’s Kause is to provide equal access to playgrounds for children of all ages and abilities to play together. City of Kennewick, Washington, heard him and developed — in partnership with Kason and his family — “Kason’s Korner.” Learn about how Kennewick developed this fully accessible area in an existing playground and dedicated the area to Kason, naming it “Kason’s Korner.” This session is not about a new million-dollar playground, but about how to retrofit an existing playground to provide an area that brings together able-bodied individuals and children with disabilities. This was done at a cost, but not the cost of a brand-new playground. This session is about how to listen and how to motivate elected officials to listen and act. This is a call to action to get involved in creating more inclusive playgrounds in your community.
Everyone Wants to Ref, But No One Wants to Be a Ref
Speaker: Jillian Franklin, Fredericksburg (Virginia) Parks and Recreation Department
It is no secret there is a critical shortage of youth sports officials. Game cancellations and postponements have become part of the daily routine for sports administrators. Most want to blame the officials for games being canceled or postponed. However, is it solely the officials’ fault? We’ll discuss officials’ point of view with data from the Battlefield Basketball Officials Association 2023 end-of-season survey and what it means to be an official. We will discuss recruiting and retaining officials, empowering your staff to handle difficult situations on game days, and more importantly, where youth sports officials will be in the next three to five years.