Perspectives

Seeing the Forest and the Trees

Explore how park and recreation professionals can create solutions by seeing both the forest and the trees.

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Creating a Healthy Future for All

Explore how NRPA and park and recreation professionals are mobilizing the power of parks and recreation.

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Building the Case

Explore how NRPA is using research and evaluation to move the needle on funding and advocacy.

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Pursuing Holistic Well-Being for All

Explore how park and recreation professionals can help advance each of the seven dimensions of well-being for every community member.

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Creating a Culture of Belonging

Discover how park and recreation professionals are cultivating a sense of belonging among community members.

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Healthy Professionals, Healthy Communities

Discover how park and recreation professionals can promote well-being among their workforce and communities.

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A Season of Transformation

Discover how park and recreation professionals can explore trends and navigate challenges this spring.

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Parks and Recreation Powers Resilience and Sustainability

Explore how parks and recreation can contribute to a sustainable, resilient future.

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Supporting Ourselves While We Support Communities

Learn how park and recreation professionals can prioritize wellness and self-care while serving their communities.

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Centering Equity in Parks and Recreation

Discover how park and recreation agencies are advancing equity in their communities.

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Opportunities for Learning in the New Year

Discover how you can expand your knowledge of trends and issues impacting the park and recreation field.

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Building an Equitable Future Together

Learn how the new chair of the NRPA Board of Directors plans to lead the park and recreation field toward an equitable future for all.

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Turning Information Into Action

Explore how research provides the information and data needed to understand and respond to community needs and preferences.

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Looking Toward the Future of Parks and Recreation

Discover how parks and recreation drives impactful, transformative and equitable solutions to help communities thrive today and in the future.

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Helping Communities Grow Together

Discover how we can integrate practices, policies and programs to serve all community members fairly.

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Centering Equity in Communities Large and Small

Explore how equitable access to parks and recreation fosters health and wellness in communities of all sizes.

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Where Community Grows

Discover how parks and recreation helps communities grow as we celebrate Park and Recreation Month in July.

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Parks and Recreation Closes the Health Divide

Discover how park and recreation spaces and programs provide solutions to public health issues and foster health and wellness for all.

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Safety First

By promoting safety-conscious behavior and building self-defense knowledge, park and recreation professionals steward safe spaces for all.

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Saving Nature Through Community Connection

A sense of connection with nature, often sparked by local parks, motivates community members to protect wildlife and natural spaces.

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Innovation Within Us

Recognize the importance of innovation within each of us and within the field of parks and recreation.

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Leadership Through Service

The best way for us to make an impact on the world is to be fully invested in whatever we are pursuing and put in the work.

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Our Why

By investing in NRPA and our mission, we are building the momentum of a flywheel — a virtuous circle.

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Celebrating Parks and Recreation as Leaders in Health and More

We know that to advocate for our field, it is important to tell our park and recreation stories.

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Recognizing Our Vital Role in Advancing Community Health and Well-Being

On September 28, NRPA made a commitment to reduce hunger and improve health and well-being across the nation at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health.

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Placing Equity at the Center of Our Work

The only wrong way to approach equity work is to avoid beginning your journey of learning and trying.

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Feeling Worthy and Important

What better way to make people feel important than investing in the places, spaces and programs that deliver on park and recreation benefits?

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From Small Town to Big City: Serving All

NRPA Chair Carolyn F. McKnight-Fredd encourages us to consider how the spaces and activities parks and recreation offer allow us to "see each other in our full humanity."

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I Rise Up for Parks and Recreation

I Rise Up for Parks and Recreation | Perspectives | Parks & Recreation Magazine | NRPA

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Taking a Holistic Health Approach

In what ways is your agency cultivating health and well-being in your community?

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Parks and Recreation: Protecting Public Health

As part of the public health system, parks and recreation have an inherent role of safety and protection that plays out in numerous ways.

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Making a Collective Impact

This Earth Day, take time to consider how your agency can innovate to address current and impending climate impacts.

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Parks and Recreation Embodies Critical Infrastructure

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

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Leading the Field, Leading the Future

The field of parks and recreation is full of remarkable people who step up every day.

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2022 Trends Address Today's Challenges

When we combine increasing accessibility with evolving products like electronic bikes, we find challenges that need to be managed.

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Bringing Placemaking to Life Through the NRPA Annual Conference

This year presented many challenges on top of a very difficult 2020, but also it provided cause for celebration.

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Measuring the Value of Parks

Quantifying the value of our parks with research and data helps amplify our story of the importance of parks.

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Access and Equity

Access to recreation begins with proximity of our residents to a park or open space.

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Why Equity and Inclusion Matter

As you dive into the September issue and explore the history of parks and recreation, I challenge you to reflect on why equity and inclusion matter.

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Advocating for Your Budget

There has never been a better time to promote our parks as essential to our communities.

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Our Park and Recreation Story

Our park and recreation stories are embedded in why professionals joined this field and stuck with it.

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Parks and Recreation: A Critical Link to Health

Health and wellness include prioritizing the importance of nutrition through healthy eating and offering access to food.

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Making the Case for Parks and Recreation

I invite all our park and recreation colleagues to think about your two to three most important goals each year.

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Conservation, All of Our Duty

NRPA’s organizational mission calls for us to serve as catalysts of positive change for equity, climate-readiness and overall well-being.

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Park Design and Planning Should Fully Engage Our Communities

As we look to make the most of our limited resources in the coming years, let us make sure that we are staying true to universal design and ethical planning principles.

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True Park Leadership Is About Public Service

Park professionals across the country are looked upon as leaders in our respective states, cities, towns and neighborhoods.

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Parks and Recreation: A Business of Flexibility and Adaptation

Many trends we discussed in the past accelerated in 2020 — including how we face increasing degrees of uncertainty, and our principle job is understanding how we navigate that uncertainty.

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My Perspective on Special Events

Parks play an incredible role in hosting special events, producing special events and, most importantly, generating revenue for local municipalities.

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Striving to Learn More and Be Better

Through research and evaluation, NRPA wants to demonstrate how the park and recreation field is an essential solution provider for our most pressing health, environmental and social issues.

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Embracing Future Opportunities

NRPA Board Chair Jack Kardys reflects on his time as chair of the board and discusses the future opportunities he sees for NRPA and the field of parks and recreation.

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